Personnel wise it's been a disastrous couple of days for the New England Revolution. Rajko Lekic is off in Denmark, Monsef Zerka has signed in India, Milton Caraglio is off in Chile, Re-entry Draft pick Danleigh Borman is in South Africa, and now news out of Columbia has told us that one of the Revs "big" offseason signings has changed his mind and will not suit up for Jay Heaps in Foxborough.

Two months after he was taken by the Revolution in the first stage of the Re-entry Draft, it appears that left back Danleigh Borman won't be in Foxboro in 2012.

According to a report, the 27-year-old is close to returning to his native South Africa to play for Pretoria-based SuperSport United.

The 2011 MLS season saw two teams tied for last place across the league, the New England Revolution and the Vancouver Whitecaps. Because of this, I got to thinking about how the off-season has been approached by these two clubs and how they compare so far heading into the 2012 season.

To start, both clubs parted ways with their head coaches, although Vancouver did so before the end of the season, and both hired on new ones.

On Thursday, the New England Revolution contacted New England Soccer Today to deny the claim of the unnamed source contained in the "Zerka Not Returning" article published on Feb. 1.

In the aforementioned article, the source told New England Soccer Today that Revolution head coach Jay Heaps and general manager Michael Burns "never had serious discussions to try to bring [Monsef] Zerka back.

The New England Revolution have finally begun the process of solving their issues at forward this week with the acquisition of Colombian target man Jose "Pepe" Moreno. The 30-year old striker joins the Revs on loan after a short stop with Once Caldas, where he scored 7 goals and 4 assists in twenty matches during the second half of 2011.

Our friends over at New England Soccer Today are once again flexing their muscles and showing off their superior sources, and today's piece does not disappoint. Few people were probably expecting Monsef Zerka to return this season, but most were operating under the assumption that the front office was at least making some attempt to bring him back at a reduced salary.

On Sunday afternoon, Revolution Head Coach Jay Heaps, along with players Benny Feilhaber and Chris Tierney, took part in a conference call with media members.

Along with the adjustment of a new head coach and different formation, a large question mark entering this season is who will provide the offense in the final third of the pitch.

The Jay Heaps era got off to a winning start as the New England Revolution beat FC Tucson (Premier Development League) 2-0 in their 2012 preseason opener. Sainey Nyassi and Kenny Mansally were the Revs goalscorers.

Instead of the traditional two 45-minute periods, the match featured two 35-minute periods followed by an additional 45-minute period.

When the New England Revolution travel back to Boston from Arizona on Tuesday they'll already have over two weeks of preseason training and their first preseason friendly under their belt. Five new players and numerous trialists have gotten their first participation with the team, while the entire squad is experiencing preseason under new head coach Jay Heaps for the first time.

Another major component of the Revolution attack will not be returning this year, as Danish newspaper Jydske Vestkysten is reporting that Rajko Lekic has signed a six-month contract with Lyngby. Terms of the deal will reportedly be published on Monday.

Lekic is the second Revolution striker this month to take his services elsewhere.

While the New England Revolution has added experienced players to both the backline and midfield since Jay Heaps took over as head coach, one area that has gone largely unaddressed is striker. Since the Revs declined options on Argentinean striker Milton Caraglio and Danish forward Rajko Lekic, no proven replacements have signed on.

The New England Revolution participated in their first scrimmage in 2012 against an outside opponent last night as they played the PDL side FC Tucson. Sainey Nyassi and Kenny Mansally scored the Revs' 2 goals that helped them get the W. The game was a total of 115 minutes and was broken into three different periods of play.

Now that preseason has begun for the New England Revolution, it's time to take stock of what the team has and where it needs to improve. In that vein, I've decided to do a quick "if the season began tomorrow" examination of the optimal starting XI (and game day 18) on the roster right now.

I have taken a few liberties.

It turns out that you really can go home again. Just ask Bianca D'Agostino.

The 23-year-old Longmeadow, Mass. native was signed by the Boston Breakers, the team announced on Wednesday. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

D'Agostino was taken 18th overall by Philadelphia in last year's WPS Draft before she signed on with Atlanta during the 2011 season.

Head Coach Jay Heaps oversees the first day of preseason practice at the Dana Farber Fieldhouse on Monday (Photo: Chris Aduama/Aduama.com).

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. Jay Heaps couldn't wait to get his players together for the first practice of 2012.

On the first day MLS allows its clubs to convene for preseasons training, the new Revolution head coach was busy overseeing and instructing his squad at the Dana Farber Fieldhouse Monday afternoon.

To kickoff 2012, my first (and only) blog entry centered on a plea for the New England Revolution to be "blog worthy" in 2012. A hope that it would "show the fanbase how big the Revolution dream is, and steps you are taking to achieve it."

Given a week of activity, I'm concerned the team still cannot explain the vision of the team's future the way I'd like, but its actions actually give me hope.

Thursday marked yet another MLS Super Draft, but it was one with huge significance throughout Revs Nation: the players selected would be the first under new head coach Jay Heaps. Massive amounts of excitement were attributed to the fact that the Revs had their highest pick in almost a decade at #3, and with several holes to fill, this year's Super Draft was of utmost importance.

The New England Revolution selected defender Tyler Polak from Creighton with the 22nd overall pick of the 2012 MLS SuperDraft. (Photo Credit: Andy Mead / MLSsoccer.com)

Seeking to address its defensive shortcomings, the Revolution turned its attention to the rear by selecting Tyler Polak with the 22nd overall pick in the SuperDraft.

The last time the Revs had a top 3 pick in the draft, they took a 21-year-old named Taylor Twellman in 2002.

Ten years later, Jay Heaps and Co. hope that they landed a similar talent in Kelyn Rowe, who was selected with the third pick in Thursday's SuperDraft in Kansas City.

Rowe, a creative midfielder out of UCLA, will be be counted upon to revitalize an attack that was nearly non-existent for many stretches last season.

The day has finally arrived. Coaches, General Managers, Owners, and PR battalions all across Major League Soccer have descended upon Kansas City in hopes of landing the next big name in American soccer. This year's draft has a particularly heightened importance and buzz around New England, given the Revolution's #3 overall pick in this afternoon's draft, and with several holes to fill, it's clear that the 2012 MLS Super Draft has huge implications on the birth of the new Revs regime.

Coming off its worst season on record, there's no doubt that the Revolution will have to maximize every available opportunity to help them get back to respectability. After selecting three established MLS players during last month's Re-entry Draft, their next chance to bolster the roster arrives on Thursday with the SuperDraft.

With a week to go before the start of its preseason, the Revolution announced that it had signed midfielder/forward Fernando Cardenas and central defender John Lozano to deals for the upcoming season. Both players last featured with Colombian side America de Cali, which was relegated to the second division last month.

In the spirit of honesty, I can let you know that I've been writing the same Revolution-focused blog post for well over a week. It's a long winding tale of where the team stands and what you might do differently from a business and marketing perspective. Goodness knows, I didn't have the heart to also tackle on-field possibilities in the same post.

Today Major League Soccer released its 2012 regular season schedule. Per MLS's new conference-focused schedule format, this season the Revolution will play each of its Eastern Conference opponents at least twice (Houston and Toronto), and the rest they will meet three times. The Revs will play two away games against Sporting Kansas City, DC United, the Montreal Impact, and the Philadelphia Union and two home games against the Chicago Fire, the Columbus Crew, and the New York Red Bulls.

Back in November, the New England Revolution made a major step by hiring former defender Jay Heaps. The assistant coaching staff of the previous regime was kept on until Heaps could hire his own crew, and as news about various drafts circulated, one question has remained: who will Heaps bring in to support him?

Photo by Howard C. Smith/ISIphotos.com

By FRANCO PANIZO

American players are not the only ones going abroad for training stints during the MLS offseason.

In an effort to keep sharp and maintain fitness, Rafael Marquez has begun practicing with Barcelona B.

The New England Revolution today announced the additions of three members to new head coach Jay Heaps' staff. Jay Miller joins Heaps as his primary assistant, while former Revolution defender Nick Downing was named strength and conditioning coach and Scott Emmens was hired as the team's equipment manager.

Twenty-eleven turned out to be an interesting year, to say the least. It was a year that witnessed the long-awaited arrival of Jurgen Klinsmann as U.S. Men's National Team coach, the U.S. Women's National Team falling in agonizing fashion to Japan in the World Cup final, Steve Nicol's departure as Revolution manager, the introduction of Jay Heaps as his successor and.

According to a report from Radio Cooperativa (Chile), Milton Caraglio, the Revolution's first Designated Player, has reached an agreement with Chilean first division side C.S.D. Rangers.

Caraglio, who was signed by New England to a Designated Player deal on Aug. 2, scored three goals in 12 games with the Revolution, including a two-goal effort against New York on Aug.

This is a Special Edition soccer news blast during this holiday week. I have been off enjoying regular life, cut had to at least lay all of this good stuff on you once this week. We will be back to regular service next week. But for now here is some news, in pretty much random order - no headlines or sections:
dN
du Nord at the Controls - Tue Dec 27, 2011 - My Dad's birthday - new music mix at Spotify.

If you didn't see the Chelsea v Fulham match yesterday, it was a 1-1 tie. Amobi Okugo sums it up well on the twitter.

The Red Bulls continue to insist they will embrace another MLS team in the Big Apple. It's going to be lonely playing in front of 1,500 people in Harrison in 2014.

Alex Morgan is one of Scott French's best stories of 2011.

The Revs already have their veteran leader in the back: Matt Reis. (Photo by CHRIS ADUAMA/aduama.com)

Over the past few seasons there seemed to be a general consensus that the New England Revolution needed a veteran in the back line to help guide its relatively young defense. Admittedly, I was a part of that group.

An anemic New England Revolution offense started to turn around towards the end of the 2011 season thanks to some late additions, but new head coach Jay Heaps might not get the chance to build upon that improvement in 2012.

Jay Heaps may have to replace Rajko Lekic and other key players from the 2011 squad.

Revolution right back Kevin Alston keeps a close eye on Galaxy midfielder Miguel Lopez (Photo: Chris Aduama/aduama.com).

Heads down. Hands on hips. That was the unofficial pose of the Revolution defense in 2011.

After giving away goals at a philanthropic rate (58, the second-most in MLS last season) it's not a stretch to say that the biggest task head coach Jay Heaps faces this offseason is improving his team's porous D.

Junior N'Tame (left) may be set to join the Revs after trialing with the team in October. (Photo by Art Donahue/artdonahue.com)

Despite trialing under former New England Revolution head coach Steve Nicol in October, Théophile Junior N'Tame may be a part of new head coach Jay Heaps' plans. According to a report on French site MLS-News.

The New England Revolution are a team in transition this offseason. Long-time coach Steve Nicol has been fired and replaced by a man familiar to Revs fans: former player Jay Heaps. The new head man comes in at a time ...
Visit http://www.majorleaguesoccertalk.com for the rest of the story.

The New England Revolution are a team in transition this offseason. Long-time coach Steve Nicol has been fired and replaced by a man familiar to Revs fans: former player Jay Heaps. The new head man comes in at a time ...
Visit http://www.majorleaguesoccertalk.com for the rest of the story.

Head coach Jay Heaps potentially added two pieces to his team on Monday afternoon as the New England Revolution selected Nate Jaqua and Clyde Simms in Stage 2 of the 2011 Major League Soccer Re-Entry Draft. The Revs now control the MLS rights to each player and the league will extend contract offers to both within the next seven days.

The Chicago Fire selected former New England Revolution striker Kheli Dube with the 8th Pick in the Second Round of the MLS Re-Entry Draft. Dube would leave the New England Revolution, the only MLS club he has ever known, if the two sides can reach a deal in the next 7 days. In four seasons the Zimbabwean compiled 14 goals and 8 assists in 72 appearances.

Thirty-eight days.

That's how much time general manager Michael Burns and first year head coach Jay Heaps have left to assemble a new and improved squad before the preseason kicks off on Jan. 16.

Following its worst season on record, it would be an understatement to say that Burns and Heaps have their work cut out for them.