New England Revolution looking to extinguish the Chicago Fire
By Tommy Butler
After defeating the Rochester Rhinos in the U.S. Open Cup the New England Revolution will get back to MLS action against the Chicago Fire.
The New England Revolution have been on fire (pun not intended, but acknowledged) in their last two games, beating both Toronto FC and Rochester 3-0.
Now, after 15 days between MLS opponents, the Revs will try to continue their play and extinguish the red-hot Chicago Fire.
New England Revolution
Beating Toronto FC back on June 3rd marked a huge step up for the Revs. Still sitting in the seventh spot in the East isn’t ideal however.
Taking three more points against one of the best teams in the league would keep their momentum high. They’ll need it too, seeing as they’ll turn right around and play Toronto again next week. I’ll talk more about that game when the time comes.
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Despite having over two weeks before the Fire come to town, both teams will be on short rest after their Cup matches. Most starters didn’t play for long if at all, so it shouldn’t be much of a worry.
Starting off with some uplifting news for Revs fans, the match will be in Gillette Stadium, where the team has gone unbeaten thus far. Even better, the Fire have only won one road game this season.
A win on Saturday would not only be another boost to the club’s morale, but it will keep them in the playoff mix.
Juan Agudelo is going to be the player to watch in this one. Agudelo has the third-best minutes per goal ratio at home this season. With five home goals this season, he averages one every 73.8 minutes. He also leads the team with seven total.
Projected Starters:
Cody Cropper (GK) – Andrew Farrell, Benjamin Angoua, Antonio Delamea, Chris Tierney – Scott Caldwell, Gershon Koffie – Kelyn Rowe, Lee Nguyen, Diego Fagundez – Kei Kamara.
Chicago Fire
The Fire haven’t suffered a loss since April 29th when they lost to the New York Red Bulls 2-1. It was the second loss in a row, having lost to Toronto FC 3-1 the precious week.
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Since then, nearly everything has gone the Fire’s way, going 5-2-0. Now Chicago is sitting just one point behind Toronto FC with 28 points. Not only is that enough for second in the Eastern Conference, but in the MLS as a whole as well.
As I said above, the Fire have struggled on the road this season. For a team in second place though, struggling for them is still determined by drawing as opposed to losing.
They have only won one road game this MLS season but only lost two and have drawn three times. With their standings right now, even one point would be fine.
Projected Starters
Matt Lampson (GK) – Matt Polster, Johan Kappelhof, Joao Meira, Brandon Vincent – Bastian Schweinsteiger, Dax McCarty – Luis Solignac, Michael de Leeuw, David Accam – Nemanja Nikolic
Prediction
In the all-time series Chicago has the edge with 23 wins to the Rev’s 21 wins. They’ve ended in a stalemate 11 times. With New England at home they lead with 16 wins to 9 with three draws.
Despite the better standing, I need to go with my gut and say that the Revs will win 3-2 at home.
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Both team’s season stats are similar, with the Revs leading most offensive categories. They’ve also proved they can take on good teams at home.