TUCSON, Ariz. – Saturday night’s Desert Diamond Cup championship match between the New England Revolution and Columbus Crew SC (9 p.m. ET streaming live on revolutionsoccer.net) offers one last chance for both sides to fine tune ahead of next weekend’s regular-season openers.

As such, it’ll feel pretty close to the real thing.

While the Revs have used their first six preseason contests to build fitness, mix and match lineups, evaluate individual players and partnerships, and experiment with different options, Saturday night’s preseason finale is meant to recreate the look and feel of a regular-season match.

That means head coach Jay Heaps will likely push his starters into the latter stages of the game – anywhere between 70 and 90 minutes – as the Revs ready themselves for their opener against the Houston Dynamo just nine days from now.

“It’s going to be as game-like as we can make it in terms of how we go about it,” said Heaps. “It’s kind of our final dress rehearsal.”

In last year’s DDC finale against FC Tucson, Heaps put out a lineup which featured 10 of the 11 players who started in the season opener against Seattle Sounders FC. It’ll likely be a similar scenario this year, with a starter-heavy group featuring for the majority against Columbus.

The Revs will return to the Northeast on Sunday as the mindset shifts towards the regular season, but for now the players and coaches are focused on making the most of their final 90 minutes this preseason.

“The season’s coming quick here,” said Chris Tierney. “We need to make sure we’re continuing to improve and get sharper and sharper as the season approaches. It’ll be a very important game for us to kind of fine tune things before the season starts for real.

“And we’ll also try to win the game.”