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MLS New England Revolution

Revs to play second consecutive home game when they host Real Salt Lake Saturday

September 29, 2008 - Major League Soccer (MLS)
New England Revolution News Release


FOXBOROUGH, Mass. - The New England Revolution will train in Foxborough four times this week before hosting Western Conference foe Real Salt Lake at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 4, at Gillette Stadium.

NEW ENGLAND VS. REAL SALT LAKE SERIES INFORMATION

Saturday night's match is the second and final meeting between New England and Real Salt Lake this season, and the only one at Gillette Stadium ... RSL earned a come-from-behind, 2-1 victory over the Revs on June 21 in the final game between the teams at Rice-Eccles Stadium.

New England and Real Salt Lake have met just seven times in the overall series - all during the MLS regular season - with the Revs holding a 3-2-2 advantage.

The teams have split three meetings at Gillette Stadium, 1-1-1, with the Revolution winning in 2005, RSL winning in 2006 and the teams drawing in 2007 ... the Revs are 2-1-1 in four trips to Salt Lake City.

New England is 1-2-2 against RSL since winning the first two games of the all-time series.

The Revs haven't beaten Real Salt Lake at Gillette Stadium since Aug. 10, 2005, when they earned a 4-1 victory in the first-ever meeting between the two teams.

New England has scored four of its nine goals against RSL after the 75th minute ... Salt Lake has never scored a goal against the Revs after the 75th minute.

The Revs won the 2007 season series, 1-0-1 ... the teams battled to a scoreless draw in New England on June 2 despite New England out-shooting RSL, 23-8, as Salt Lake's Nick Rimando made 13 saves in the shutout ... Jeff Larentowicz's 82nd-minute free kick earned the Revolution a 2-1 win at Rice-Eccles Stadium on July 28.

PLAYER NOTES VS. REAL SALT LAKE

Taylor Twellman and Khano Smith have each scored two goals against Real Salt Lake to lead the Revs ... Twellman has also added one assist in five appearances, while Smith has notched his pair of tallies in four appearances (one start).

Real Salt Lake is one of just two teams that Khano Smith has scored multiple goals against in his career (he also has two career goals against FC Dallas) ... both of Smith's goals against RSL came in his rookie year of 2005, and both goals were scored after the 75th minute after coming on as a late substitute.

Jeff Larentowicz has one goal and one assist against RSL, both of which came in a 2-1 win at Rice-Eccles Stadium on July 28, 2007 ... Larentowicz scored the game-winner on a free kick in the 82nd minute.

Defenders Jay Heaps and Chris Albright lead New England with two assists each against RSL ... both of Albright's assists came during his time with the Los Angeles Galaxy.

Matt Reis, Jay Heaps and Michael Parkhurst have all played every minute of every game against RSL (seven games, 630 minutes).

Matt Reis is 3-2-2 in his career against Real Salt Lake, posting a 1.00 goals against average and three shutouts.

LAST MEETING

Real Salt Lake 2, New England 1

June 21, 2008 - Rice-Eccles Stadium (Salt Lake City, Utah)

Tino Nunez's first career goal in the 60th minute capped a come-from-behind, 2-1 victory for Real Salt Lake in its final game against New England at Rice-Eccles Stadium ... Adam Cristman gave the Revs an eighth-minute lead, latching onto Matt Reis' 75-yard pass and directing a header past RSL goalkeeper Nick Rimando, but New England defender Jay Heaps scored an own goal just three minutes later to tie the score ... Nunez completed the hosts' comeback in the 60th minute, corralling Javier Morales' deflected shot and finishing past Reis from close range.

NEWS & NOTES

REVS CAN CLINCH PLAYOFF BERTH ON SATURDAY NIGHT ... WITH HELP

With a win over Real Salt Lake on Saturday night at Gillette Stadium and favorable results in a pair of other matches, the Revolution can become just the second team to clinch a berth in the 2008 MLS Cup Playoffs ... in addition to a win against RSL this weekend, the Revs need a D.C. United LOSS or DRAW in its match against Chivas USA AND a New York LOSS to Toronto to guarantee a playoff spot ... if New York draws with Toronto, the Revs would not clinch this week because they could finish level with the Red Bulls on points and the two teams tied the season series, meaning that the tie-breaker would move to goal difference ... New England is the only team in the league that can clinch a playoff spot this weekend, while Columbus is the only team to have already clinched.

DESPITE LOSS, REVS STILL SECOND IN MLS STANDINGS

Despite falling to league-leading Columbus on Saturday night at Gillette Stadium, the Revs still occupy second place in the Eastern Conference and overall MLS standings with four games remaining in the regular season ... New England (12-8-6, 42 pts.) trails Columbus (15-6-5, 50 pts.) by eight points for the top spot in the league, but maintains a one-point lead over third-place Chicago (12-9-5, 41 pts.) and a seven-point cushion over fourth-place New York (9-9-8, 35 pts.) ... Houston (10-5-10, 40 pts.) leads the Western Conference.

LATE HEROICS AGAINST REAL SALT LAKE

New England has made a habit of scoring late goals against Real Salt Lake, as four of the club's nine total goals against its Western Conference foe have been scored after the 75th minute ... the trend started in the first-ever meeting between the two teams on Aug. 10, 2005, when a Brian Dunseth own goal in the 76th minute and Khano Smith's 90th-minute strike helped the Revs to a 4-1 win in Foxborough ... on Sept. 3 of that same season, Smith scored the game-winner in the 76th minute, this time in a 1-0 win at Rice-Eccles Stadium ... then on July 28, 2007, Jeff Larentowicz scored the game-winning goal in the 82nd minute as the Revs earned a 2-1 victory in Salt Lake ... meanwhile, RSL has never scored a goal against the Revs after the 75th minute.

RSL REVERSES THE TREND

The Revolution has been deadly this season when scoring the first goal - the club is 12-2-2 when getting on the board first - but Real Salt Lake is one of two teams to earn a victory after conceding the opening goal to New England ... Adam Cristman gave the Revs an eighth-minute lead at Rice-Eccles Stadium on June 28, but a Jay Heaps own goal and Tino Nunez's first career strike earned the hosts a come-from-behind victory ... the Revolution's only other defeat when scoring first this season was Aug. 9 against Chicago, also a 2-1 loss.

STAYING HOME

This weekend's match against RSL will be the Revolution's second consecutive home match, marking just the second time this season that the club will play two straight regular-season matches at Gillette Stadium ... the Revs lost to Columbus, 1-0, this past Saturday at Gillette Stadium ... the only other time that New England played back-to-back regular-season home games this season was on May 29 against D.C. and June 6 against FC Dallas ... the club also hosted consecutive home games in both SuperLiga 2008 and the U.S. Open Cup.

LAST OF THE WEST

Saturday night's match against Real Salt Lake is the Revolution's last regular-season game against a Western Conference team in 2008 ... New England has had considerable success against the West this season, boasting an 8-3-2 record against Western Conference teams entering this weekend's contest ... however, one of those three losses was to RSL on June 21 at Rice-Eccles Stadium ... the Revs are 4-1-1 against the West at Gillette Stadium and haven't lost at home to a Western Conference team since dropping a 1-0 decision to Colorado on April 12.

DUBE RETURNS AFTER EIGHT-MATCH ABSENCE

Rookie of the Year candidate Kheli Dube returned to the field on Saturday night against Columbus after missing eight regular-season matches with a severe right adductor (groin) strain ... Dube replaced Kenny Mansally in the 60th minute, marking his first regular-season appearance since July 4 at Los Angeles and his first appearance in all competitions since the SuperLiga 2008 Final on Aug. 5 ... the Zimbabwe native leads all MLS rookies in both goals (4) and assists (3) despite missing almost one-third of the season because of his injury.

TWELLMAN'S QUEST FOR 100: THREE TO GO

With 97 career regular-season goals to his name, Taylor Twellman is just three goals shy of becoming the fifth player in Major League Soccer history - and the first in Revs' history - to score 100 goals ... Twellman is currently ranked fifth in MLS career goals, seven behind fourth-place Jeff Cunningham (104), currently of FC Dallas, and 25 shy of D.C.'s Jaime Moreno (122), the league's all-time leading goal scorer ... the U.S. National Team member has scored his 97 goals in just 168 games, while all four players ahead of him on the charts have made at least 260 career appearances ... Twellman is on pace to become the league's youngest 100-goal scorer.

REVS RESERVES EARN SECOND WIN; HIT THE ROAD

The Revolution reserves (2-5-2, 8 pts.) earned their second win of the season this past Sunday, defeating the Columbus reserves, 1-0 ... guest player Nick Tornaritis scored the game-winning goal in the 76th minute and Brad Knighton made three saves en route to his first shutout of the season ... the Revs reserves will return to action after just one day of rest, as they travel to Canada for a make-up game with Toronto FC on Tuesday, Sept. 30 at 10 a.m.

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