By sitting back and defending in last weekend's scoreless draw in the opening leg at Giants Stadium, the New England Revolution set the tone for the Eastern Conference Semifinal Series with the New York Red Bulls.
"They laid out the series," Red Bulls boss Bruce Arena said. "They were going to get that tie in New York. You defend on the road and you attack at home. I thought the defending part worked out. Now if the attacking part works out, that remains to be seen."
That doesn't mean there's going to be a complete role reversal in the pivotal second leg Saturday night, with the winner playing host to the Chicago Fire in the Eastern Conference Championship next Thursday night.
"I don't think we're going there for a tie or anything," Claudio Reyna said. "The game is there to be won, we just have to be cautious though and get the goal when it's there, when it's available for us."
Of particular importance for the Red Bulls is staunch defending early on, when the Revs will likely come out looking for the all-important first goal early.
"I think the first 15-20 minutes it's going to be very important that we're up and running," Reyna said. "(Being) away from home, they're going to be trying to get the early goal to put the pressure on us."
Reyna returned to the starting lineup in the first leg after missing the final three games of the regular season with turf toe and did a good job controlling the midfield before being replaced by Clint Mathis four minutes from full time.
"I thought he played very well," Arena said of the Red Bulls captain. "He played a very good game for 70 minutes and then he just ran out of gas."
And although they weren't tested much, the back four of Dave van den Bergh, Jeff Parke, Seth Stammler and Hunter Freeman, were solid.
Arena might have to tweak his lineup, though, because of a left calf strain van den Bergh suffered in the second half of the opening leg. Van den Bergh didn't train until Thursday and Arena indicated he'd likely be a game-time decision.
"If this is the regular season, you might just say give him another week," Arena said.
If van den Bergh is unavailable, Chris Leitch could get the start on the left, or Arena could make two changes and slide Stammler there and start Mendes in the middle.
Arena said he hasn't ruled out Ronald Waterreus, who suffered another ankle injury during training last week and was unavailable for the opening leg.
"I didn't give the starting lineup to the team," Arena told reporters after training Thursday. "I don't imagine I'm giving one to you."
Arena would be hard pressed to keep Jon Conway out of the lineup after playing well down the stretch (two goals against in three games) for the Red Bulls.
And Conway has the lone penalty kick save of the season, stopping Eddie Johnson in the regular-season home finale. That could loom large if a winner isn't determined after 120 minutes.
The Red Bulls head to Foxborough confident despite history not being on their side. Only once has New York advanced past the opening round -- in 2000 -- and they haven't won at Gillette Stadium since June 29, 2002, a span of 13 consecutive games.
And: the Revs have won both of the previous first-round meetings with the Red Bulls and are undefeated in the postseason since Gillette Stadium opened, going 6-0-3 there since 2002.
"I don't think it matters," Dema Kovalenko said. "Away or home, when you play these type of games you just put everything aside and you just play. It's between the 11 guys on the field."
The formula for a good result is fairly simple for the Red Bulls -- weather the early storm, avoid giving away set pieces in their third, and get better service to forwards Juan Pablo Angel, Jozy Altidore and perhaps Francis Doe than they did in the opener.
"We are in a good position," Reyna said. "Both teams need to score so it's a matter of us being patient as well and not being caught in these silly counters and set pieces are something we really need to be careful on because that's where we've given up some goals this year."
Dylan Butler is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
