The eyes of the world might be on Germany, but for the New England Revolution, the focus is solely on getting their season back on track in Chicago on Sunday. Less than 24 hours before the USA kicks off its World Cup campaign against the Czech Republic, the Revs will aim to win their first game in a month.
New England will face a Chicago Fire side that will be playing its first-ever game in its brand new Bridgeview stadium which, it was announced on Friday, will be known as Toyota Park. Although the match is not the official home opener for Chicago, with only season ticket holders and local residents able to attend, the Revolution players are under no illusions that the home side will not have an extra spring in its step come game time.
"Those guys have a couple of months on the road so they will be just excited to be home and so we will have to match their intensity from the opening whistle," said New England midfielder Steve Ralston. "We have come out of the gates slowly in the last few games and we need to get out and set a tone to exploit them in areas of the field."
Revolution coach Steve Nicol agrees with his veteran wide man and believes that, on the basis of past experiences this season, playing in an opponent's opening home game is something that his side is more than capable of dealing with.
"We opened at L.A. and did well there. We opened at New York and did well there and should have won that game. We will just go and try and get on with it and, hopefully, all the hype will put them off more than it does us," said Nicol.
The Revolution continues to be blighted by injuries, a list which was added to last week in Washington, D.C. when Pat Noonan was forced off the field after just a quarter of an hour. The forward rejoins the likes of Daniel Hernandez, Marshall Leonard, James Riley, Leandro de Oliveira and Willie Sims on the sidelines.
However, perhaps taking the view that if you don't laugh, you might as well cry, Nicol is putting a positive spin on matters, noting that preparation for the game can be easier because everybody knows who is playing and where.
"The longer time you have, the more settled you can become. The way we are at the moment with injuries means that everybody knows, pretty much, who is playing," he said. "We don't have the luxury of being able to make choices. That means that everybody can work during the week and think about what they have to do at the weekend, as opposed to them finding out on a Friday and having to figure things out."
Nicol has one or two minor decisions to make ahead of Sunday's game. As he did last week, Jeff Larentowicz is likely to replace Noonan. However, whether he takes a similar role in central midfield is in question. The Brown product is capable of doing a job in the center but Nicol may favor pushing him to the right side of defense and allowing the more creative influence of Andy Dorman and Jose Cancela to patrol the middle of the park alongside Shalrie Joseph.
Much will depend on the formation that Nicol chooses to utilize. With just Taylor Twellman available from his pool of established strikers, Nicol might choose to revert to the 3-4-3 alignment that he opted for at the start of the season. One of the features of the Revolution's play this season has been the side's inability to turn possession into consistent pressure on the opposing goal. Tony Lochhead, a defender by trade, struggles in the offensive end and playing two men off Twellman would add more bodies to each attack.
"Maybe we should be keeping the ball and waiting for an opportunity to present itself," said Ralston. "We have to do better job of keeping the ball. If we can move it from side to side a bit more then we can open up gaps instead of being too direct with it."
This week, the Revolution have focused in training on short, sharp passing drills designed to increase sharpness on the ball. Nicol believes that the emphasis on moving the ball quickly has been there all season but is keen to see the plan executed better on game days.
"I don't think we have gone away from it; we just haven't passed the ball as well as we can. In the last couple of games we have given too many easy balls away, shall we say," he said. "It's tough to pass the ball under pressure but I think we have turned the ball over when that pressure has not been there. If we can turn that around then we will be fine."
Andrew Hush is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
