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Crowd favorite and media darling Diego Fagundez is being handed his first start of the season tonight against FC Dallas as head coach Jay Heaps appears to be moving his New England Revolution to a more traditional two-forward setup. Fagundez appears to be entering to replace Kelyn Rowe, who made the bench but has been nursing some leg injuries this week.

Revolution center half Clyde Simms was his usual consistent self in Saturday's 1-0 win. (Photo: Kari Heistad/CapturedImages.biz)

It wasn't an episode of Revolution. Or Chicago Fire, for that matter. But for Jay Heaps' side, Saturday's night's 1-0 win at Toyota Park couldn't have been scripted any better.

IT'S HERE! IT'S HERE! IT'S REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY HERE! THE REVS' SEASON HAS STARTED!

Be sure to discuss the New England Revolution's upcoming victory (knock on wood) in the comments section below!

Lineups

Revolution: Matt Reis; Andrew Farrell, A.J. Soares, Jose Goncalves, Kevin Alston; Donald Smith, Clyde Simms, Kalifa Cisse, Juan Toja; Lee Nguyen, Jerry Bengtson

Bench: Shuttleworth, Barnes, Caldwell, Dorman, Rowe, Barrett, Fagundez

Fire: Sean Johnson; Steven Kinney, Jalil Anibaba, Austin Berry, Gonzalo Segares; Patrick Nyarko, Jeff Larentowicz, Joel Lindpere, Dilly Duka; Chris Rolfe, Sherjill MacDonald

Bench: Tornaghi, Videira, Paladini, Thompson, Atouba, Alex, Santos

By Kevin Koczwara

The New England Revolution had to wait a week to open its 2013 Major League Soccer campaign. While the rest of MLS was playing last weekend, the Revolution were at home still prepping for the season and chomping to get on the field for a meaningful game. Tonight the Revs get their chance to get their season started with a game at Toyota Park against the Chicago Fire.

Brad Evans converted a first-half penalty kick and Eddie Johnson added an insurance strike just before halftime as the New England Revolution lost 2-0 to the Seattle Sounders FC in the first game of the Desert Diamond Cup on Wednesday night at Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium.

For a preseason friendly, the game was unusually physical, with six yellow cards and two red cards as New England's Sainey Nyassi and Seattle's Marc Burch were both sent off in the 80th minute.

Brad Evans and Eddie Johnson were clearly the highlights of the match. Johnson's move to beat the New England Revolution defense and subsequent shot were exactly what Seattle Sounders FC will need to see from the forward this year. Evans was a strong distributor, great at off ball runs and threaded the penalty shot into the net.

In no particular order, here are ten pressing questions for the New England Revolution:

1. Who is Sainey Nyassi and what does he do?

He costs a pretty penny and due to injury, contributed minimally in 2012. Nyassi saw plenty of time in the playoff years of 2008 and 2009. Many assumed he'd be out of a job come this off season with a midfield boasting Lee Nguyen, Scott Caldwell, Juan Toja, Andy Dorman, Kalifa Cisse, Clyde Simms, Ryan Guy and Kelyn Rowe.

For 6 seasons, Clyde Simms was a key focal point in the D.C. United midfield. He made 182 with United and was widely considered to be one of the most consistent defensive-midfielders in the league. Then came the emergence of Perry Kitchen. Kitchen, a former Akron Zip, was drafted by United in the 2011 SuperDraft and he quickly found himself in a battle for minutes and a starting spot in the midfield.

Clyde Simms was our an of the Match on Saturday. (Photo: Chris Aduama/aduama.com)

After each match the contributors to New England Soccer Today will rate the performances of the New England Revolution players who made an appearance on a 1 to 10 scale (1 horrendous, 5 average, 10 perfection).

Blake Brettschneider came in late for the Revolution on Saturday, but did little to point his team in the right direction. (Photo: Kari Heistad/CapturedImages.biz)

By now, it's clear that the Revolution have quite a few areas to address this winter.

For starters, they've gotto finda set piece specialist.

Clyde Simms will get his first opportunity to play at RFK Stadium against his former teammates on Saturday. (Photo: Kari Heistad/CapturedImages.biz)

With six games remaining on the fixture list, the eighth place (re: not going to the playoffs) Revolution have two choices. They play out the string.

The Union midfield did well to silence Fernando Cardenas and the Revolution's midfielders. (Photo: Walter Silva)

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. A game to forget for the both the New England Revolution and the Philadelphia Union. A dour 0-0 draw where neither team really showed a desire to score a goal or put the opponent on the back foot.

The New England Revolution made history tonight as they extended their winless streak to 10 games, more than any other team in the club's history.

Playing host to the Philadelphia Union for the only time this season, coach Jay Heaps decided to shake up the lineup tonight in lieu of recent performances as well as various injuries and fatigue as they entered the second of their three game home-stand spanning just 8 days.

Shalrie Joseph helped tilt the midfield battle on Wednesday. (Photo: Kari Heistad/CapturedImages.biz)

For 21 minutes, the New England Revolution played and looked like the team  Jay Heaps envisioned. New England pressed. It attacked. The ball moved quickly and players whipped in early crosses.

The New England Revolution emerged in 2012 touting a new style, a new strategy and new players. While promising at first, there was certainly room for improvement. Any reservations with its early hiccups was thought to improve with time as the team developed and as players that were added acclimated to the league and each other.

Thursday's Musket Rounds has the normal look at the New England Revolution lack of news and we'll take a look at last nights' eastern conference games. CONCACAF Champions League results are in and some weird quotes from the Cologne skipper on the things he'd rather his supporters do instead of violence.

When the New England Revolution traded away long-time fan-favorite Shalrie Joseph, they lost something far more important than any stat could ever indicate: a captain. With the club mired in mediocrity, and a fan base calling for blood on multiple levels, the time is now for a man to step up and lead this club into the future.

With the exception of the March 10th loss against Sporting Kansas City, the Revs have not lost any game this season by more than 1 goal. And I used to find a least a little solace in that fact. But it's not really doing it for me anymore. Losses are losses and ours are really piling up now.

The New England Revolution finally found their way onto the scoresheet on Saturday night, but defensive mental lapses once again were their undoing in a 2-1 loss to Chicago. While the squad was relatively healthier than in recent weeks, the Revs produced yet another stale performance in running their losing streak to six games.

The Unites States Men's National Team is playing a "friendly" against Mexico on Wednesday night at the Azteca. The USMNT has never beaten Mexico in Mexico, and frankly they don't draw much there, either. The last trip was during World Cup qualifying in 2009, and the US dropped a 2-1 result.

It's a full-blown late-summer slump in New England, and after one of their most paltry performances of the season, the New England Revolution need a slump-buster. The return of Jerry Bengtson proved to be not enough to spark the struggling Revs offense, and for the fifth time in six matches, New England came out on the short end of the fixture.

Jerry Bengtson's return couldn't save the Revs offense on Sunday. (Photo: Chris Aduama/aduama.com)

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. For the New England Revolution, 2012's focus for improvement – publically, at least – was all about one area: the attack. Halfway through the season, visible – and statistical – progress was evident.

Revolution defender Kevin Alston battles for the ball with Impact defender Dennis Iampichino during Sunday's game. (Photo: Chris Aduama/aduama.com)

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – For the third straight home game, the Revolution fell 1-0, this time at the hands of the Montreal Impact Sunday night in front of 12,857.

The New England Revolution are looking to snap their long winless streak on Sunday night when they welcome the Montreal Impact to Gillette Stadium for the first time in history. The Revs played an ugly 1-0 loss against Sporting KC last weekend, while Montreal is coming off a comfortable 2-0 win despite going a man down in the 68th minute.

It seemed that everybody was ready to point out how physical Sporting Kansas City was on Saturday night against the Revs. And, yeah, they're right-KC really took it to us. But let's not forget that this was the third time we played them this year. So, shouldn't that physical element have been part of the game plan coming into this one?

After a whirlwind week in Foxboro, the New England Revolution produced what many have called their worst performance of the season. The Revs endured a week that saw them trade away an icon, as well as their captain, Shalrie Joseph, and the quality on the field resembled a side that were knee-deep in turmoil.

Chris Tierney was one of the only Revs to put in a positive performance in the loss. (Photo: Kari Heistad/CapturedImages.biz)

After each match the contributors to New England Soccer Today will rate the performances of the New England Revolution players who made an appearance on a 1 to 10 scale (1 horrendous, 5 average, 10 perfection).

Every MLS fan knows the names of Dwayne De Rosario and Chris Pontius. They're legitimate superstars. Bill Hamid, Andy Najar, and Perry Kitchen are well on their way too.

None of those players are nominated for this award. This award is for the other guys.

The Richie Award is named after Richie Williams, the central defensive midfielder on those early championship-winning D.

Troy Perkins, Bryan Namoff, Bobby Boswell (Devon McTavish, 59), Greg Vanney, Marc Burch (Rod Dyachenko, 41), Ben Olsen, Christian Gomez, Clyde Simms, Fred, Luciano Emilio (Nicholas Addlery, 65), Jaime Moreno. These were the D.C. United starters and substitutes that took on the Chicago Fire five years ago tomorrow in what was, until now, the team's last playoff game.

With the Revolution's 2012 season now firmly in the rear-view, we here at The Bent Musket decided to reflect on the season and each select our favorite starting XI from this past year. It wasn't the easiest task, but a fun an interesting exercise nevertheless. Selections include one goalkeeper, four defenders, four midfielders, two forwards, and three bench players.

After every match this season, the staff here at The Bent Musket will be putting together player ratings. Ratings are on a 1-10 scale, with 5 representing a thoroughly average performance, and 6 a decent/capable showing. The final ratings will be averages of individual ratings from Corey Major, and Matty Jollie.

It's halftime at Gillette Stadium and both teams have struggled to get ahead of the other. The wind is blowing and the elbows are swinging, providing the Foxboro faithful with a raucous, chippy first half but with only a handful of chances for the two clubs.

The first clear chance came for Sporting Kansas City in the 19th minute when a corner kick found its way into the Revs' penalty area, and was rebounded within the 6-yard box.