New England Revolution meet Houston Dynamo tomorrow 12 November, at 2:30 PM.
The New England Revs marched to their second consecutive MLS finals beating their nemesis DC United with that much overlooked player Taylor Twellman scoring his 11th goal of the 2006 season and none bigger than this game, in the 4th minute and then staving off wave after wave of DC United attacks. Matt Reis was stout in goal fending of Jaime Moreno, Alecko Eskandrian, and Freddy Adu. The Revs finally prevailed, 1-0 in a game that should have easily gone DC’s way.
The Houston Dynamo made it to their first MLS final beating the Colorado Rapids, 3-1 with Paul Dalglish scoring a pair for the winners. Dwayne De Rosario combined impressively with Dalglish for the Dynamo equalizer.
The Revs and the Dynamo have met twice and both ended in draws, 1-1 each.
What stands out between the two teams is that they are extremely tenacious and play all their matches close. The Revs have tied 12 times and the Dynamo have done so on 13 occasions. The Dynamo are a bit more aggressive on offense having scored 44 goals in comparison to the Revs 39 but the more significant number is that the Revs have conceded fewer goals.
New England defence of Avery John and Jay Heaps vs the Houston Dynamo midfield of Brian Mullan and Dwayne De Rosario.
New England’s chances are predicated on whether Clint Dempsey, their best player can come back from his ankle injury. There are good chances that he will do so.
Khano Smith has looked great in his cameo appearances up front and Shalrie Joseph is his usual physical self in midfield. The Revs will look to limit the service to Brian Ching and Paul Dalglish. To do that the Revs defenders, Avery John and Jay Heaps have to take care of the Dynamo midfielder Brian Mullan’s penchant for splitting wide and raining crosses from the flanks. Dwayne De Rosario is the Dynamo’s most dangerous player and he creates as well scores. He has 11 goals and 5 assists this season.
X factor: Pizza Hut Park in Frisco, TX should see a lot of Orange.
My pick is the Revs will be third time lucky and the big difference will be Clint Dempsey.