LAST YEAR THEY SPLIT the Eastern Conference honors, with one winning the regular season and the other representing the Right Coast in MLS Cup. Not surprisingly, through the first third of the season they are again the top teams in the East.

So while this one would have had a bit more luster had both teams not lost their previous matches to struggling teams, Saturday's clash between D.C. United and the New England Revolution at Gillette Stadium (7:30 pm ET, MLS Directkick) is an easy choice for our must-watch Major League Soccer Game of the Week.

The Revolution (5-3-4, 19 points) had its nine-game unbeaten run snapped Wednesday as an undermanned Sporting Kansas City triumphed 4-2. Meanwhile, United (6-2-3, 21 points) had gone eight games without a loss before giving up a stoppage-time strike in a 1-0 loss against the Philadelphia Union Sunday night. 

These teams meet only twice this year—the rematch is next month in D.C.—and while it’s still fairly early in the season this is a true six-pointer between two clubs likely to be battling it out with the New York Red Bulls and the Columbus Crew for the top spot in the conference.

THE SUBPLOTS

Ben Olsen and Jay Heaps have been banging heads since they were rivals in Region I (the Northeast) ODP back as teenagers. They matriculated to college in 1995 and continued to clash in the rugged Atlantic Coast Conference—Heaps at Duke and Olsen at Virginia—highlighted by Heaps’ Blue Devils ending the Cavaliers' undefeated season in the 1995 Final Four. (For you soccer historians, that was also Bruce Arena’s last game coaching the college level.)

Olsen won the MLS Rookie of the Year award in 1998 and Heaps followed suit a year later. The two spent most of their long careers facing off in the midfield during annual battles between United and the Revolution (and the first couple of seasons Heaps’ career, which were spent in Miami).

The parallel paths continued after each quit playing, with both becoming head coaches with little (Olsen) or no (Heaps) time spent as an assistant coach. Each had his share of early struggles but both now appear to have mastered their new craft and their teams’ reflect their personalities.

Each were reluctant worker bees as players, with both having to rely more on guile and work-rate as their careers wore on. It wasn’t what either wanted to do, but it was what they had to do to keep playing.

As a coach, Heaps has returned more to who he wanted to be as a player but couldn’t quite pull off, and he has the Revolution dominating with a cadre of young attacking players. With the likes of Lee Nguyen, Charlie Davies, Juan Agudelo, Teal Bunbury, Kelyn Rowe, and Diego Fagundez, he’s assembled the deepest cast of skill players in MLS.

After injuries threatened Olsen’s career in his early 20s, he went from being a flashy winger to a pitbull of a defensive midfielder, compensating for his lost pace with tenacity. He now has United playing with that same commitment.

On paper, United isn’t nearly as talented as the Revolution but Olsen’s United grinds like no other and is smart and opportunistic and somehow manages to usually finish just enough of its chances to come out with the desired result. This clash of personalities and styles adds yet another level of intrigue to this matchup.

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Since joining the Revolution last summer Jermaine Jones hadn’t had a stinker till Wednesday. Playing center back instead of his preferred defensive midfield role, Jones was a step slow most of the game and was shouldered off by Dom Dwyer on SKC's first goal. 

This was just the second game the Revs have lost in regulation with Jones on the field but given that this will be the 33-year-old’s second contest in four days, his form bears watching. The good news for Jones and the Revs—but perhaps not Jurgen Klinsmann—is that Jones will likely return to the midfield.

Heaps rested third-year center back Andrew Farrell against Kansas City but Farrell is expected back against D.C., freeing Jones to return to the midfield, presuming fellow center back Jose Goncalves also starts.For United, Chris Rolfe is playing the best soccer of a career that once long ago got him 10 caps with the U.S. national team. The 32-year-old, acquired from Chicago last season, has registered three goals and three assists for a team that wins mostly with defense. Splitting time between forward and wide midfield, Rolfe has had a renaissance since moving to the nation’s capital with a knack for popping up in the right place at the right time.

THE X-FACTOR

With most of United’s players, you know what you’re going to get every week but forward Jairo Arrieta and Fabian Espindola are a little more erratic. Both have game-changing skill but neither produces on a consistent basis. If either is on his game, United suddenly becomes a dangerous team.

For the Revs, Nguyen has lost some of the consistency that fueled his MVP-caliber season a year ago. He’s not been shy about voicing his displeasure over his contract situation and has reportedly been a sourpuss at training a few times this year. Nguyen deserves a hefty raise—that's not in doubt—but MLS isn’t the kind of league that rewards malcontents and the sooner Nguyen accepts that reality and does his negotiating on the field, the better he and the Revolution will be. 

So far this season he only has a goal and two assists but if Nguyen returns to last year’s form, especially given the breath of talent around him, even United’s league-best defense will be hard-pressed to stop the Revs.

PREDICTION

Jones is the ultimate gamer and it’s hard to see him putting up back-to-back stinkers. Somehow New England pushes past the fatigue from playing midweek and comes away with a 2-0 win.

Brooke Tunstall is an American Soccer Now contributing editor and ASN 100 panelist. Follow him on Twitter.