Guest columnist Drew Epperley is the founder and editor of WVHooligan.com. His blog covers everything MLS and U.S. Soccer. You can follow him on Twitter @WVHooligan.
Four games into the 2012 season and it has been a tale of two different teams for Jay Heaps and the New England Revolution (2-2-0, 6 points).
In the first two games of the season against the San Jose Earthquakes and Sporting Kansas City, the Revolution took a beating, giving up four goals while scoring zero.
But in the two games that followed, things began to turn around for Heaps and his young squad as they beat the Portland Timbers in their home opener and then shocked the league last weekend with a convincing 3-1 win on the road against the LA Galaxy.
Newcomers making their mark
Going into the 2012 season, the Revolution didn’t just get a new coach in Heaps but also went through a fairly large rebuilding project. Between draft picks, transfers and signings, the Revolution have a new look about them.
Heaps made big changes all over but mostly in his attacking portion of his lineup. He went out and drafted Kelyn Rowe from UCLA to play on the right wing. Rowe has already shown his Rookie of the Year credentials with one goal on the season.
On the opposite wing will be McKinney, Texas native Lee Nguyen. The 25-year came to New England after being picked up in a waiver draft earlier this year. Nguyen had originally been with the Vancouver Whitecaps this season.
Up front, Heaps will go with another new face, striker Saer Sene. The Frenchman came to New England on a free transfer from Bayern Munich in Germany. So far the 25-year old has bagged two goals and is looking like one of the better signings of the offseason in MLS.
Heaps could be hoping to break out another new signing up top with Sene in the form of Colombian Jose Moreno. The big target forward joined the club after some loan issues either this off season.
Improvement in defense
Defense was a sore spot in 2011 for the New England Revolution. The defensive group gave up a 58 goals, the second-most in MLS.
Heaps made a couple changes that are finally paying off to his defense. The biggest was landing Shalrie Joseph a true center midfield partner. Heaps snagged former D.C. United midfielder Clyde Simms in the Re-Entry Draft and the duo are finally hitting their stride with one another.
Behind them will still be a fairly young group but one that is certainly improving. The full back pairing of Chris Tierney and German international Flo Lechner have given Heaps two versatile defenders.
In the center of the defense will be a pair of sophomore starters. A. J. Soares and Stephen McCarthy both were drafted last season by the Revolution and each are coming into their own as big time starters in the defense for Heaps.
McCarthy was originally drafted as a center midfielder but his move into the defense under Heaps has become a decent one so far.
Behind the team in goal will be another MLS legend, Matt Reis. The 37-year old keeper has been a mainstay for the Revolution for nine seasons now. Earlier this month he recorded his 1,000th career save.
Bad luck against Revs
New England has had a long history of success against Dallas, holding a 23-11-3 advantage in the all-time regular season series.
But with that record the recent run against Dallas isn’t nearly as good, as Dallas has won two out of the last five meetings going 2-1-2. New England hasn’t won at FC Dallas Stadium since April 24, 2008.
Dallas will need to be smart at home in this one and eliminate the easy chances that Sene and company have been getting as of late.
The big thing will be to eliminate the service into Sene, who has been a handful in the last two games. The Frenchman loves to score with his head so keeping the set piece chances down will be a big point of discussion for Schellas Hyndman.
New England is a dangerous team at the moment, one that is hungry for wins to prove themselves in a wide-open Eastern Conference. Playing the possession game and spreading out the Revolution in the attack will go a long way in getting points out of this game.