The New England Revolution are once again headed out west, albeit to a much different atmosphere than Los Angeles. New England faces off against Real Salt Lake on Saturday evening in a match during a FIFA international window.
New England will be without Peyton Miller, Dor Turgeman, Brooklyn Raines, and Ilay Feingold, who were called up to their respective senior national teams. Additionally, Judah Siqueira earned a youth national team call-up after making his MLS debut and earned a first-team contract.
The Revs are also dealing with injuries. Jack Harrison and Alhassan Yusuf will miss at least six weeks, while Luca Langoni and Leo Campana are still recovering from injuries. Langoni could make a return against Salt Lake, but Campana is still weeks away from returning to the pitch.
“Luca will be in consideration for this game," Revolution head coach Marko Mitrovic said when asked for an injury update by The Blazing Musket. "I said a few weeks ago when I spoke about Ilay [Feingold] and Luca, I know people got excited because they were integrated with the team. But there are also psychological components of that because being off the field so long and away from the team, sometimes just being on the bench and being around the team helps a lot from a mental perspective. Now, with Luca, he has had several weeks of trainings, and he is getting to a stage where certain minutes he can play and he can perform. We feel positive about Luca, but still he will need some time before we can talk of him playing the whole game and performing. With Leo [Campana], he is making steps forward. We hope that everything is going to be fine in the coming weeks and that we are going to have Leo back with us.”
Campana has been out since March with what commentators described as an ankle injury, but officially classified as a lower-body injury. It adds to his rather long injury history throughout his career.
With Campana's struggles to stay healthy, New England will have a difficult decision to make regarding the Ecuadorian. Mitrovic clearly has faith in Turgeman, so if Campana can't stay healthy, why should the 26-year-old still be on the roster?
Campana's contract is through the 2027 season with an option for 2028. While New England might want to just wait it out, a contract buyout in the offseason is a possibility.
But absences aren't the only thing that the Revs will need to deal with. New England will head to Utah to face Real Salt Lake. The Revs will not only face an opponent that they aren't familiar with, but they also will be playing at altitude, which is something Daniel Gazdag noted.
"Obviously, there are some challenges," Gazdag said. "It's a long travel. The altitude in Salt Lake, we don't play them as much, so we don't know the team as much, but the staff did a good job showing [us] how they play. I think we will be ready for that, and obviously the challenge is part of the game. I think we are ready, and we go there to win the game.”
The 2026 season has been rather disappointing for the Western Conference club. Salt Lake is in 13th place and has lost four straight matches.
Diego Luna is sidelined with an injury, and the club will also be without Juan Manuel Sanabria, Luc de Fougerolles, and Saba Lobjanidze, who are on international duty. Ari Piol, Justen Glad, Griffin Dillon, Zach Booth, Lukas Engel, and Juan Jose Arias will also miss the match due to injury.
The match will be one that tests both sides and Marko Mitrovic is confident that the depth in his squad will be able to prevail.
"We’ll have players, besides all the players that are not here with us or are injured, that are available," Mitrovic said. "As I said, we really believe in all of them. Whoever is on the field, we strongly believe that that player can perform and help us. Now, if that player spent most of the time with the second team or most of the time with the first team, we believe in our processes and we kind of don’t separate them in that way. We all belong to this club, and every player that is with us, again, we strongly believe in those guys.”
If New England can secure three points without some important players, it would aid the club in its efforts to have home-field advantage in Round 1 and potentially further in the postseason. Even considering the Revs are facing, it seems like a match that New England should be winning as a top team in MLS.
