TUCSON, Ariz. – We’re still about two-and-a-half weeks away from the New England Revolution’s regular-season opener against the Colorado Rapids, but the preseason action will heat up on Wednesday night when the Revs kick off their Desert Diamond Cup schedule against the Houston Dynamo.

Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. ET from North Stadium at Kino Sports Complex and Revolution fans will have the chance to watch their club for the first time in 2017 as the action will be streamed live on both revolutionsoccer.net and YouTube.

Fans will likely see two separate groups play 45 minutes each against the Dynamo, as Revolution head coach Jay Heaps indicated on Tuesday that New England will use the weekend games to continue increasing their fitness and get into the rhythm of a regular-season schedule.

“The Wednesday games we’re looking at more as a 45-minute type of scenario for each team, but then the Saturdays are going to be more of those 70-, 80-, and 90-minute stretches where we’re trying to be exactly on a one-game-per-week type of schedule,” Heaps said.

This will be the sixth straight year the Revs have finished up their preseason prep in the Desert Diamond Cup – each year of Heaps’ tenure as head coach – and they’ll follow up Wednesday’s opener with games against the Rapids (Feb. 18) and Sporting Kansas City (Feb. 22), before closing out their preseason schedule against a yet-to-be-determined opponent next weekend (Feb. 25).

“It’s good competition, first and foremost,” Heaps said when asked what has brought the Revs back to Tucson each year. “It does prepare our guys. We’re all in the same boat here with other MLS teams – they’re in the same kind of structure we are in the sense of starting to put together live-action games, what you want to look like on week one and how you build that.”