Ben Sweat Makes New England Revolution Debut
Ben Sweat Makes New England Revolution Debut
The left back played against his former team on Saturaday
Ben Sweat made his debut for the New England Revolution on Saturday and while it wasn’t a noteworthy performance, it was a step in the right direction for the left back.
Sweat came on in the 74th minute to replace Christian Makoun who filled in at left back for an injured DeJuan Jones. The MLS veteran recorded 17 touches, completed 86 percent of his passes, and won all three of his duels. He helped secure the victory for New England even though they struggled against a 10-man Sporting Kansas City.
After being waived by SKC earlier in the month, Sweat admitted that it was a bit of a weird situation considering that little time has passed since he left Kansas City.
“That’s always a weird situation, especially when it’s that quick. So there’s a little bit of weird nerves going into it,” Sweat said. “It was good to get out there. Haven’t played since the red card so I got to shake off a few cobwebs and get right back into it.”
The left back added that his new teammates have made it an easy transition with everyone being super welcoming.
While Sweat was able to get a win over his old team, he along with his teammates weren’t happy with the performance. Bruce Arena said that the team played “crappy” in the second half and Ema Boateng called the second-half performance the worst half that New England has played all season.
Sweat added that the Revs can’t take their foot off the gas pedal and believes that the fact that the Revs are striving to improve even after wins shows they have the correct mentality.
“I mean that’s a winning mentality, right? We let off the gas pedal and obviously they had chances,” the left back said. “They had some good looks and I think we got a little complacent. It’s easy to go to that complacency when you know you are up a man and you were dominating the game at one point so it’s just a lesson learned.”
Sweat will have the opportunity to build some momentum and potentially get his first start in a Revolution uniform as New England faces Hartford Athletic in the U.S. Open Cup. The 31-year-old believes that the Revs need to set the standard when going against a lower-division opponent.
“Yeah I mean they are tough games. They are always tough games,” Sweat said when asked about the U.S. Open Cup. “I’ve been around and been a part of a lot of them so you can’t ever count a team out. It’s a win-win for them. They lose to a better team or they win against a MLS team so it’s up to to go out there and crush teams like that and set the standard and the tempo, especially when they come here.”