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The New England Revolution are tied with the Houston Dynamo for the fifth place in the Eastern Conference, but the MLS squad can’t look too far ahead as they will continue to fight for a secure playoff spot in the East. They will face off against a struggling Toronto FC club on Sunday night, but this coming Saturday, the Revs will take on arguably the best team in the MLS, Sporting Kansas City. Essentially, these two matches will be important for the Revolution because the more games they win, the more momentum they can carry forward into the most difficult stretches at season’s end in October. The Revs can’t overlook Toronto FC because every game counts when you are trying to capture and hold onto the last remaining playoff spot.
Revolution manager Jay Heaps stressed this one-game-at-a-time approach to the media. “We are not in a playoff position here,” Heaps declared. “I don’t look at that right now. I look at what we have ahead of us, what we need to do. We have benchmarks of where we think we need to be at the end of the year that will get us into the playoffs. Right now, if you follow that table, you’re in big trouble, because that line is a never-moving target.”
What most Revs fans probably want to see in this Toronto FC game is the fantastic combination of attack by Dimitry Imbongo and Saer Sene. The two Frenchmen dominated the second half against D.C. United last Saturday, but they haven’t asserted their command over an extend period of time. If these strikers can move the ball smartly and produce chances off of the dribble, then the Revolution should be able to take care of Toronto. However, every player on the Revolution will have to contribute to consistently utilizing an effective offensive attack.
The only Revs player who has demonstrated the ability to put the ball in the back of the net is the 18-year-old phenom Diego Fagundez. Fagundez has scored seven goals in 18 appearances for the Revolution, but he needs another scorer on the pitch alongside him. With Juan Agudelo‘s departure to the Premier League being possible, Imbongo and Sene may have to join forces with the young Uruguayan to thrust their defensively-stellar team into the playoffs.
