Caleb Porter Credits Giacomo Vrioni's Mentality

“He worked hard and I liked that he kept his mentality strong the entire game."

Photo By J. Alexander Dolan

Giacomo Vrioni did something on Saturday evening that he had only previously done outside of MLS play, score a goal on the road.

New England’s designated player scored just his second goal of the 2024 MLS season along with his first-ever MLS road goal. Vrioni made a strong run towards goal and Ema Boateng was able to find him in the box.

Revolution head coach Caleb Porter was pleased with Vrioni’s performance, even pointing to what he was able to do outside of scoring.

“He worked hard and I liked that he kept his mentality strong the entire game,” Porter said. “He made a few very good runs where he didn't get the ball.

The head coach then seemingly calls out Esmir Bajraktarevic for some poor decision-making.

“We had two very good moments in transition actually, where Giacomo makes the run behind,” Porter later said. “You guys might miss these moments, but if Esmir [Bajraktarević] rolls him in, he's in on a breakaway, we go up 2-1. There was another one where Esmir was in on the right side, where if he just slides the ball across with his right foot, Giacomo is wide open. Those don't register as shots. Those don't show up on expected goals. So, those are things I see that you don't where you might go, if you watched it, go, 'Wow he's in a great spot there.’ We don't find him though. He's in a great spot, we don't find him. So I think, today, I thought he was in good spots. I thought he worked very hard and I'm really glad that his mentality was strong and that he scored that last goal, because I thought he deserved a goal today.”

When it comes to Bajraktarevic, sometimes he puts too much flair into his game which can cause him to miss open players or make mistakes. After dropping a New York defender, the 19-year-old decided to launch a shot from distance instead of finding Vrioni or another teammate. Then later in the match when Bajraktarevic is able to see that he has teammates open, he sends a cross into the box but it is off target.

While Revs fans might think that Vrioni is doing something wrong or is too blame, Porter along with Vrioni’s teammates beg to differ. Mark-Anthony Kaye stated after the game that himself, as well as the rest of the team; need to create more chances for him.

“Giacomo’s a hard worker,” Kaye said. “The team and I, we need to do better to create more chances for him because he’s constantly making good runs. Today, he didn’t give up and he got his goal, well-deserved. I think we can create better chances for him so he can score more goals. In the training sessions he’s scoring every day. He’s working hard, he’s young, he’s hungry. I just hope that as the team progresses, we’ll be able to start producing more for him.”

So while fans seem to believe that Vrioni is doing everything wrong, his teammates and coach beg to differ. If the team can provide the striker proper service, and the DP can start scoring goals; maybe New England can turn its season around. If not, Vrioni will continue to take the brunt of the blame for the Revs’ poor 2024 season.

A common theme for the Revolution this season has been making first steps. So far New England has struggled to turn those positive steps into more consistent positive action.

The same can be said for Vrioni. The striker shows flashes of positive play but then can revert back into the background of the Revolution attack. He needs to turn the page and make finding the back of the net, as well as having an impact on games; a more common occurrence.