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Revolution-Toronto FC Preview

May 21, 2010 - 9:35 PM By KATE HEDLIN STATS Writer

New England (2-5-2) at Toronto FC (3-4-1), 1:00 p.m. EDT

Toronto FC has played well at home, greatly due to the play of Dwayne De Rosario, which makes his absence this weekend particularly poor timing.

With the club's leading scorer away for international duty, Toronto will try to stay perfect at BMO Field this season when it faces the New England Revolution on Saturday.

De Rosario will be absent as Toronto (3-4-1) resumes league play after a scoreless draw against the Vancouver Whitecaps on Wednesday in a qualifier for the champions league tournament. Immediately afterward, De Rosario flew to Argentina to join his Canadian squad for international play.

Teammate Julian de Guzman was expected to join De Rosario, but a hamstring injury kept him with Toronto. He is not being ruled out for Saturday after practicing lightly Friday.

Still, even with the possible return of de Guzman, De Rosario's absence is going to be hard to make up for. He has six goals and three assists in eight games this season and has scored the last three times he's faced New England.

Three of his goals and two of his assists have come at home, where Toronto has won all three of its games while outscoring opponents 8-2. TFC is 8-0-2 at home since a 2-1 defeat to Los Angeles on June 6.

De Rosario's departure puts more of a scoring burden on Chad Barrett and O'Brian White, both of whom have two goals in seven contests this year.

"It is always a concern when your top scorer is not here," coach Preki told the club's official website. "But we have a job to do and we are confident that whoever is on the field will perform well."

Even with De Rosario in the lineup, TFC couldn't manage many opportunities in its last league match, with only one shot on goal in a scoreless draw against Los Angeles last Saturday.

Fortunately for the team, Stefan Frei was solid again, recording four saves. Frei has a 1.63 goals-against average, giving up three goals in the last four games after allowing 10 in the first four.

While Toronto's improved goaltending and an upcoming stretch heavy with home games has the club hopeful the season can turn around, New England (2-5-2) continues to struggle after winning two of its first three games.

The Revolution are 0-4-2 since a 4-1 victory over Toronto on April 10. They have been held to four goals during that winless streak and were shut out for the second time in three games last Saturday with a scoreless draw against San Jose.

New England had four shots on goal, including one of its best opportunities by Joseph Niouky in the 62nd minute, but the Revs were unable to produce.

"It's frustrating (coming away with one point), but you've just got to deal with it. It happens," defenseman Pat Phelan said. "Any team can beat any team in the world, so it's just one of those things. It's frustrating, but like I said, we can take a lot of good from it."

Rookie Zack Schilawski scored three goals in an 11-minute span against Toronto last month, but he's recorded just one goal since.