This column originally ran in The Standard-Times on Oct. 21 2005.

By Nick Tavares

It's Cup time in the land of MLS, and tomorrow the Revolution will head into Giants Stadium to play the MetroStars in a rare position -- playoff favorites.

The Revolution head into the playoffs with the best record in the East at 17-7-8, the top seed for the first time in their history. They will host the second of the two-game opening series in Foxboro, where they had a league-best 36 points out of a possible 48.

New England's front two of Taylor Twellman and Pat Noonan should be more than able to put pressure on the MetroStars' defense. With seven goals from the duo this season against the New Jersey club, the focus of the MetroStars' back three on the pair should free up midfielders Steve Ralston and Clint Dempsey in the middle.

The Revs' unsung heroes, though, have been their top three defenders. Michael Parkhurst, who played every minute of the season, Joe Franchino and Jay Heaps lead a defense that gave up only 37 goals, with keeper Matt Reis jumping in to help the team to 10 shutouts this season. They hope to contain Youri Djorkaeff and Amando Guevara, the Metros' top scorers.

Much like some New England teams of the past, the MetroStars find themselves in the playoffs as the result of a strong late-season push, and could be very dangerous in this first round. They were unbeaten in their final three games and won their last two with keeper Tony Meola anchoring the team down the stretch to pass the Kansas City Wizards.

The 36-year-old Meola returned to the MetroStars in a mid-season deal with Kansas City and has played like a young'un since, tallying a 1.83 goals against average and two shutouts in 15 games.

The first round of the playoffs is a two-game, aggregate goal series, followed by one-game matchups in the conference championships and the MLS Cup, which will be hosted by Dallas this season.

The aggregate-goal series, basically tallying the total goals scored by each team in the two games to determine a winner, is used to cut down on the likelihood of an underdog victory, as the better teams have a chance to hold off an out-of-character spurt of greatness from a lesser opponent.

This didn't stop the Revs in 2004, though, when they defeated Columbus 2-1 in the two games to advance to the Eastern finals, where they fell to D.C. United.

Possible upsets aside, New England has set itself up for a solid run this postseason and a return trip to the MLS Cup final.

What's sad, though, is the level of attention that the MLS Cup playoffs get is always lower in off-World Cup years than it should be. New England's run to the final in 2002 received far more attention due to the fact that it was on the heels of the South Korea/Japan World Cup.

Next year will likely be the same story. Should the U.S. make even a semi-respectable run in the tournament, discussions of "will soccer catch on in the U.S.?" will run through the nation's papers and sports pundits, the MLS playoffs will get marginally more exposure, and then by November it will once again be like nothing happened. Soccer will escape from the minds of the fickle and the dedicated will continue to watch their favorite sport unabated.

If you're still reading this, you probably fall into the latter group.

And if that's the case, make sure to tune in tomorrow night. There's a good chance you'll see the Twellman/Noonan combination wear out Meola and the MetroStars defense.

Nick Tavares is a columnist for The Standard-Times. Contact him at ntavares@s-t.com

This story appeared on Page C1 of The Standard-Times on October 21, 2005. .