New England (9-4-3) at Los Angeles (6-5-3)

The New England Revolution are atop the MLS standings even though they’ve been without their best offensive weapon for much of the season. Now that Taylor Twellman is working his way back onto the pitch, New England doesn’t figure to easily give up its lead.

With Twellman likely to make his first league start of the season Friday, the Revs look for their fifth consecutive win over the Los Angeles Galaxy before heading into a month-long break from MLS play.

New England (9-4-3) has represented the Eastern Conference in the last three MLS Cup finals, and the Revs have looked strong again this season even though Twellman has only played in two games due to ankle and knee injuries.

The striker, with 92 goals in seven seasons with the Revs, returned Saturday after a seven-game absence due to an ankle sprain. His appearance off the bench was a brief one in a 2-1 win over Toronto FC, as Steve Ralston scored both of New England’s goals.

“I know their defenders noticed him when he was on the field,” Ralston said of Twellman, who started and scored in the Revs’ 3-0 victory over the Richmond Kickers in U.S. Open Cup play Tuesday.

With the win over Toronto - which coach Steve Nicol said was among the team’s most complete performances of the year - the Revs bounced back from their first loss in eight games. They fell 2-1 at Real Salt Lake on June 21, but are 6-1-2 in their last nine MLS matches.

“We’ve had a lot of changes and a lot of things disrupting us but we’ve managed to get it done,” Nicol said Saturday. “Tonight we passed the ball as well as we’ve done all season.”

They’ve also won their last four games against the Galaxy, sweeping the season series the last two years. Their two victories at the Home Depot Center during that span followed an 11-game winless streak at Los Angeles, as the Revs had gone 0-8-3 since winning their first road game against the Galaxy on July 4, 1996 at the Rose Bowl.

The Galaxy will be trying to sort out some defensive problems after allowing seven goals in their last two games. They lost 4-1 on the road to D.C. United on Sunday, allowing 22 shots and 13 on goal.

“They won every secondary ball,” Los Angeles’ Chris Klein told his team’s official Web site. “They were first to all of those and once they got them they kept them. I think that was a big difference in the game. At this level you don’t want to say they wanted it more but it sure looked like it.”

While the Galaxy have scored an MLS-high 32 goals - including 11 from Landon Donovan to lead the league and nine from Edson Buddle in the last seven games - they’ve also allowed a league-high 28 goals.

Many of their problems have come against Eastern Conference teams. Los Angeles is 1-4-1 against those clubs with 15 goals allowed, and has yet to face first-place New England.

While the Galaxy also have MLS games the next two weeks, the Revs don’t play another league match until they face Chicago on Aug. 9.