Caleb Porter's Preferred XI Starting To Form
"I think we have a core of guys that will be in there, but then I think we have some competition as well in a few spots"
The New England Revolution have one preseason game remaining but head coach Caleb Porter is starting to get a sense of what his preferred starting XI will look like.
New England faced the Philadelphia Union on Wednesday in a match that ended as a 0-0 draw. Henrich Ravas got the start in net while DeJuan Jones, Andrew Farrell, Dave Romney, and Nick Lima made up the back line. Matt Polster and Mark-Anthony Kaye served as defensive midfielders with Carles Gil playing in his familiar No. 10 role. Giacomo Vrioni led the attack as a lone striker flanked by Tomas Chancalay and Esmir Bajraktarevic on the wings.
“I think we have a core of guys that will be in there, but then I think we have some competition as well in a few spots, but as I told the group on day one, I don't believe in first team, second team,” Porter said after the match when asked about having a starting XI in mind for the regular season. “It's one team and I need everyone. That'll be put to the test this week, actually the next two weeks, when we have basically a game every three days. So, we're going to recover, and then we've got about three days to prep for Panama. We've already started to take a look at that. Tomorrow, we've got a closed-door scrimmage as well to get the guys that didn't play today a 90. For me, tomorrow is about getting guys a 90 so that we can select anyone in the first couple of weeks where the physical part isn't an issue.”
Porter made minimal changes with only two substitutions being made by the Revs and both came in the second half. It’s clear that the head coach is ramping up his players ahead of New England’s Concacaf Champions Cup match against CA Independiente in Panama.
Center back Dave Romney it was a successful outing on Thursday in terms of building fitness.
“It was good,” he said. “It was tough. Last time [at Orlando] we did 60 [minutes], so straight to 90 is definitely a tough task. But it's always good to get a 90 in under your belt before you're asked to do it in an actual game and you're not in no-man's land in the 85th minute just surviving out there. So, it was good to get 90, I think we got almost everybody 90, and came out of it with no injuries for the most part that I know of. So yeah, it was successful in that regard.”
Soon Revolution fans will finally get to see their team play some competitive matches. The offseason has felt like an eternity but finally we can look forward to the return of MLS.