Saturday night's match between the New England Revolution and the Philadelphia Union will be the third played by the Revs in just seven days. With yet another match in this grueling run to come on Wednesday, head coach Jay Heaps elected to make a couple of significant changes to his lineup both to accommodate injury and give some players a little rest.
Saer Sene is out with a knee injury, and as a result, Diego Fagundez makes a rare start up top, partnering Jerry Bengtson. It's just the second start for Fagundez in the whole of the 2012 campaign, with the teenage phenom seeing most of his time as a substitute.
In midfield, Fernando Cardenas comes in to replace Kelyn Rowe, while Benny Feilhaber will start in the middle alongside Clyde Simms. Both Guy and Rowe are on the bench.
Defense is where the majority of the changes have been made. Chris Tierney and A.J. Soares were both left off the matchday 18, replaced with Florian Lechner and Darrius Barnes. From this point, it looks as though Lechner will start on the left with Barnes in the middle.
Also notable, Tyler Polak and Michael Roach have made a rare appearance on the bench.
For the Union, despite strong reports to the contrary, captain Carlos Valdes is in the starting lineup. This will make breaking down the Philly defense much harder for the New England attack.
Lineups
Revolution: Matt Reis; Lechner, Barnes, Stephen McCarthy, Kevin Alston; Cardenas, Feilhaber, Simms, Lee Nguyen; Bengtson, Fagundez
Bench: Murray, Brettschneider, Guy, Imbongo, Polak, Roach, Rowe
Union: MacMath; Williams, Okugo, Valdes; Lahoud, M. Farfan, Carroll, G. Farfan; Cruz, Hoppenot, Adu
Bench: Konopka, Daniel, Gaddis, Gomez, Martinez, McInerney, Torres