Oppo Research: 5 Things about New England Revolution

In this edition of Oppo Research, Hudson River Blue spoke with Jake Catanese of The Blazing Musket to learn more about New England Revolution, New York City FC’s opponent for the second time this season on Saturday. Here is your NYCFC vs New England Revolution preview.

1. New England is struggling defensively and offensively

Hudson River Blue: Since NYCFC’s 2-0 win over New England in mid-April, the Revs have lost four of their five games, defeating only Chicago. What has that losing stretch been like, and what are some of the issues with the team that you’re seeing?

Jake Catanese: The New England Revolution are bad at soccer. Some of their early season issues are injury/schedule-related due to the extra Concacaf games, but the basics are the Revs are playing a style that I don’t think suits them and are giving away a lot of cheap goals. Combine that with the fact they’ve had two games effectively end by picking up first-half red cards, and you can see the recipe for disaster manifest at the bottom of the standings.

The losing stretch, in particular, has been kind of brutal, with multi-goal losses to Miami, RBNY, and Philly giving up 11 goals in total, and then actually playing well in a 1-0 loss up in Toronto.

Obviously, Miami is going to score on you, but some of the goals against RBNY, in particular, seemed preventable — a Route One ball over the top that both center-backs misjudged, and an immediate response goal late after the Revs got back to within one. The Revs offensive struggles have been well known, and I think that is a style/tactics thing, but the defensive issues need to be shored up ASAP. Hopefully the return of starting fullbacks DeJuan Jones and Brandon Bye will help balance out the formation on both ends of the field.

2. Giacomo Vrioni may not be the right choice

HRB: One of the clearest struggles with New England is goal scoring. The Revs scored a league-low nine goals in 12 games. What needs to change offensively?

JC: Besides the drastic change of tactics I mentioned above, it’s entirely possible that Giacomo Vrioni is not the guy to lead the front line for New England. It’s been a long, unsettled road for Vrioni who constantly got juggled in and out of the lineup with varying degrees of individual effectiveness. But going from a true target man in Adam Buksa during the Shield run to Vrioni, who is more of an all-rounder, the Revs haven’t been able to have their DP striker capitalize on the service they have been able to get to him.

I don’t think it’s entirely Vrioni’s fault, the Revs I don’t think did enough to adjust to his style of play, but he has struggled to finish the chances he has gotten, and we’ll see if the Revs make a significant change at striker in the summer window.

Otherwise, simply getting Carles Gil, Tomas Chancalay, and a healthy Dylan Borrero on the field at the same time should work wonders, as I think that with Esmir Bajraktarevic, New England has as talented an attacking midfield group as anyone in the league. Just need to get everything else to work so it can be effective on the field.

3. Home field advantage = no help

HRB: New England has one of the worst records at home in MLS, losing four games and only winning one. With Gillette Stadium usually being a tough place to play, have opposing teams figured out a way to silence the crowd and earn results in Massachusetts?

JC: I think Gillette is still a tough place to play, but when you’re a bad team in MLS I don’t think it matters where you play. A really talented team like Miami is going to steamroll you, and a very organized team like RBNY will punish your mistakes.

New England has been able to get results against bad teams like Chicago, but when your offense is this ineffective, it puts a lot of pressure on your defense to do more, and this is the exact opposite of a defense-first squad. It’s a shame, too, cause the attendance numbers, even outside the Messi/Miami game, have been pretty good, and the product on the field just hasn’t been able to match it.

4. The X-Factor: Luck

HRB: What’s the X-factor that could decide this game?

JC: Luck. Right now, if it weren’t for bad luck, the Revs wouldn’t have any at all. One friendly bounce in the final third that gets the Revs a finish of a second or a half chance could, in a single game, help break them out of their funk.

This is a team that hasn’t had a lot of confidence or morale since last year, and their run of form in 2024 certainly hasn’t helped. Any solid individual moments are undone by another mistake or the Revs overall mediocre possession strategy. Usually, that luck will manifest in a long-range goal from Carles Gil or Chancalay.