Taylor Twellman has been sidelined indefinitely due to complications resulting from the concussion he suffered in the Revs Aug. 30 game against the L.A. Galaxy. Despite missing 14 regular season games, Twellman notched eight goals and two assists, one short of 100 career goals, and is tied with Steve Ralston as this season’s goal leader. The Revolution now head into the playoffs missing their three most prolific strikers: Twellman, Adam Cristman an Ralston. Gabriel Badilla and Khano Smith will not suit up as a result of red card suspensions.

Today after practice in the freezing rain, the mood was subdued. “How confident can you be?” asked coach Steve Nicol. “We think we’re going to win the game – full stop.

“We played [Chicago] three times and two of those three times we were a man down, so obviously a step in the right direction would be 11 against 11 for 90 minutes. We’ve lost twice to them in questionable circumstances. They outplayed us in one of the games, beat us here 3-nil and deserved to do it, but the other two are a wash for me.”

Nicol said his decision to go with a 4-4-2 formation instead of the traditional 3-5-2 was largely a result of circumstance. “We only played four at the back at the middle of the season because of the tired legs,” he said. “It’s pretty straight forward – we’ve lost Ralston, otherwise we would play three. It just means that the fullbacks have a wee bit more license to get further forward when you play with four as opposed to three.”