Caleb Porter Reaffirms Belief in Giacomo Vrioni

Porter: "There will be a time when Giacomo finds a goal to win us the game, and I’m hoping it’s Thursday."

Photo Courtesy of the New England Revolution

New England Revolution head coach Caleb Porter reaffirmed his belief in Giacomo Vironi ahead of Thursday’s Concacaf Champions Cup game.

The Revs were forced to play down a man for 65 minutes against D.C. United on Saturday after Vrioni received two yellow cards.

Christian Benteke then put the home side ahead in the 34th minute. The Revolution leveled the score in the 67th via Carles Gil. Benteke got goals in the 72nd and 93rd minutes to secure a 3-1 victory for D.C.

While Vrioni will be available for Thursday’s CCC game against CA Independiente, he’s suspended for Sunday’s league game against Toronto FC.

Porter said he’s had positive interactions with Vrioni since Saturday.

“These guys are professionals,” Porter said. “They’ve dealt with adversity; they’ve dealt with situations and ups-and-downs. My conversation with Giacomo was simple, let’s learn from the mistake.

“He was very apologetic, he was remorseful, he apologized to the team and apologized to me. He felt bad about it. He wanted to do well in the match, and it didn’t go the way he wanted it to go, and it hurt the team.

“But there will be a lot of times this year when a player will make mistakes and we’ll have to support him and support other players when they make mistakes. There will be a time when Giacomo finds a goal to win us the game, and I’m hoping it’s Thursday.

“And that was my conversation with him, that we still believe in him, we still support him, and we still have confidence in him.”

Vrioni had a promising start to the 2024 season as he hit the crossbar and had an assist against Independiente. To be sent to the locker room early three days later was less than ideal.

Still, his teammates appreciate that he took ownership.

“It's not like Giacomo wanted to come out and get a red card,” Polster said. “That situation happened and we dealt with it, but when he came in, he apologized to the team. He took ownership, which is what you want in that situation, and then we move on. There's not much more else to discuss about it. We know he'll come through for us when he comes back into the team.”