Caleb Porter Looking For Growth From Henrich Ravas

“He [Ravas] had the one ball that he tried to dribble and was fortunate there, but other than that, Ithought he was pretty steady."

Photo Courtesy of New England Revolution

New England Revolution goalkeeper Henrich Ravas has had a rough start to his MLS career but head coach Caleb Porter seemed pleased with the Slovakian’s performance in the Revs 1-0 win over Charlotte FC.

The shot-stopper made two saves and recorded his first MLS clean sheet on Saturday evening. Still, he showed some problems distributing the ball and also nearly gifted Charlotte a goal.

While looking upfield for a pass, Ravas seemed to lose track of his surroundings. Patrick Agyemang took the ball off the goalkeeper’s feet and had a wide-open net but somehow managed to miss it entirely.

But Ravas’ performance seemed to be much more pleasing to Porter compared to prior excursions out on the pitch for the 26-year-old.

“He [Ravas] had the one ball that he tried to dribble and was fortunate there, but other than that, I thought he was pretty steady. He had a save early and his decision-making was better, and I'm hopeful that all these guys just continue to grow and grow and grow in confidence. That's the key. Also, with continuity comes consistency and comes confidence. So, that was a huge point of emphasis as well. Let's set what we feel like is our strong group – maybe it's not our strongest, there might be a couple guys that you could argue that will still be competing, but for the most part, I wanted to get this win with one group and then honestly, we're going to rotate and play a completely different group on Tuesday. Then we can put this win on the shelf and the other guys, for the most part, get rested and then we're back in New York City, ready to roll in a second game.”

Defender Henry Kessler also thought that Ravas had a positive performance.

“He made a good save in the second half, made a couple in the first half,” the center back said. “Thought he was solid. Yeah, good performance.”

It will be interesting to see if Ravas earns the start against Club America on Tuesday. The match would provide another chance for the goalkeeper to show his growth but even a rotated America squad could do some damage in the attack and ruin Ravas’ confidence.

But the goalkeeper needs to prove that he can consistently perform well as Porter has mentioned on several occasions. If not, New England could be in search of a goalkeeper once again.