Caleb Porter Calls for More Defensive Hunger

“I thought on both goals, we needed to be a little bit more hungry dealing with the cross and not getting beat to the ball.

Photo Courtesy of New England Revolution

The New England Revolution played their first friendly that wasn’t behind closed doors and while there were some promising signs, some issues remained.

New England’s back line looked improved against Atlanta United after a 2024 season that saw them allow 74 goals in all competitions. On Saturday the back line looked much calmer on the ball and a lot less chaotic in the first half. In the second half some fatigue appeared to set in but overall there was some positive signs.

But the Revs did have a glaring issue defensively that seems like it can’t be fixed. The team continues to defend set pieces poorly.

The first goal of the game came off a back-post finish off a free kick. The all too familiar sight of a free runner finding space once again caused New England to go down a goal.

Poor set-piece defending is an issue that has transcended coaches and time in general. Most Revs fans can remember the team struggling in this area for as long as they have been following the team.

Head coach Caleb Porter reflected on the goals that New England allowed after the match.

“I thought on both goals, we needed to be a little bit more hungry dealing with the cross and not getting beat to the ball,” he said. “Both goals, I think, are things that we can correct and clean up pretty easily. I didn’t think they had a ton of chances on the day and it was a pretty even game. They’re a good team, Atlanta, very talented. Up until they scored the goal, we’re there, it’s a very even game. Actually, we had a great chance five minutes in. We were in the box about eight yards out. If we score that goal, obviously, the game is a bit different. Then, disappointing on the set piece. We’ve been working on that a lot, obviously, with our set piece coach coming in as well, the details there. Especially with how hard we’ve been working on those; we have to do better on that.

Curt Onalfo was the first to mention that New England would be getting a set-piece coach back in November. It sounds like the Revs have found their coach and they will be joining shortly.

It does seem worth noting that while preseason is usually utilized to build chemistry and fitness, this is especially the case for the Revolution considering the amount of new players that have joined the team. New England’s starting center backs are likely to be two players who haven’t even played in an MLS game yet.

That amount of turnover means that mistakes are likely to happen as players get used to teammates and adjust to how Porter wants to play.

“But no failure, just feedback in preseason,” Porter said. “It’s important to learn from these things and I still feel very good about where we’re out. The mistakes that we made today, a lot of it is to be expected this early in preseason still. When you make mistakes, in some ways, it’s good, because you really now have to look at yourself in the mirror a little bit. We haven’t had a ton of adversity, so today, we go down and I did think there were times where we battled back and could’ve gotten it to 1-1. In the end, it wasn’t enough today against a good team.”

New England has two more preseason matches left as they play the Tampa Bay Rowdies on Tuesday and Hartford Athletic on Saturday. After that, the regular season begins, and if mistakes do occur, points will be lost.