Catanese: The Odd, Yet Understandable Logic for a Revs Playoff Push

Expectations were high for the Revs going into 2024 and the team trying to still aim high is admirable if a little confounding on the surface.

Photo Courtesy of J. Alexander Dolan

The MLS secondary/summer transfer window is now closed, and the New England Revolution made four moves during the window.

• Trade: DeJuan Jones to Columbus Crew for LB Will Sands, $600,000 in GAM

• Trade: Henry Kessler to St. Louis for CB Tim Parker, $600,000 in GAM

• Signings: F/M Luca Langoni and CM Alhassan Yusuf

So if New England is both shedding salaries ahead of next year and adding potential starters, are they playing for this year or next?

Maybe it’s both. In a year where not much has gone right and the New England literally can not do any worse (in the Eastern standings anyway), why not try to multitask short and long-term objectives?

In the short term, the Revs could definitely be taking a hit defensively, especially at left back.

However, more minutes for young Peyton Miller are not a bad thing and the effectiveness of Alhassan Yusuf in the middle could be a boon to the team’s overall organization and effectiveness.

Adding Luca Langoni to what will eventually be a loaded winger/attacker corps might help now but will cause a logjam when Tomas Chancalay returns and might put Esmir Bajraktarevic and Jack Panayotou on the bench more than we’d like these last 11 games.

Yet despite the changeover and additions, it was Sporting Director Curt Onalfo who doubled down on a playoff push post-Leagues Cup, first by outlining a very glass-half-full look at the standings:

“Our expectation is to do everything we can to try to make the playoffs. We are sitting in last place [in the Eastern Conference], but we are five points out of playoff contention [and] we have two games in hand. We have a team that is getting healthier, and a more robust team because we just added players.”

This is not an unrealistic or unreasonable point of view since the lower half of the Eastern Conference is pants and getting into the two play-in spots, currently occupied by Atlanta and Toronto, is not an impossible task.

Difficult yes, but at a minimum a team with a healthy DP playmaker in Carles Gil, DP striker in Giacomo Vrioni, and U22 wingers in Luca Langoni and Dylan Borerro should be able to make the playoffs.

Onalfo recognized that the task was difficult before saying the team would make a bid:

“Our goal is to make the playoffs. It’s 11 games left, seven of which are on the road, four at home, so it is not going to be an easy challenge, but our guys get better every single day. Caleb [Porter] has got everybody dialed in and we are going to make a push. That is why we were bold in this window.”

The Revs were absolutely aggressive this summer and splashed a significant amount of cash while also freeing up cap space for next year. Which is why doubling down on a playoff push while making long-term moves…feels like a combination of strange and dangerous.

It would have been entirely reasonable for Onalfo to pivot the team’s expectations on Wednesday, but he chose not to. This is an overly assertive concept given how the team has performed and the rash of injuries that descended upon the team. I don’t hate Onalfo being confident in his new roster additions or Porter’s abilities, but it’s also entirely possible that wounds from the 2023 season run deeper than the 2024 injury list.

New England has lacked confidence and cohesion for over a year now. Some of the issues are injury-related, though the slow integration of Porter’s tactics didn’t help.

The June run the Revs made with an almost fully healthy squad showed at least some potential of the new regime. The team had success with their quicker, more direct offense, but that was submarined by more injuries. The influx of youth minutes has been a nice side effect, regardless of results.

I don’t know if I would be adding more pressure onto myself and my squad by expecting to make the playoffs from dead last with a third of the season left. I don’t know if a playoff push, potentially at the expense of significant minutes for youngsters like Miller, Jack P, Esmir, and Buck, is worth it to get bounced in a one-off play-in round or swept in two games against a top seed. I don’t know how I would expect to make the playoffs after making two cap-clearing deals involving long-time contributors for the club.

And yet, despite all of that uncertainty, it’s not crazy. Perhaps moderately unhinged, but am I afraid of a bad Chicago team? A DC United team that’s allowed more goals than the Revs? A Nashville team in disarray with a new coach? Or a selling/rebuilding Atlanta team so long as we don’t have to play at MBS? Not even a little bit.

Sure Montreal, Philly, and Toronto might be nuisances to play against even on their bad days but talent wise there’s no reason to think the Revs couldn’t pull off a late-season push at full health.

The Revs have a delicate balancing act in place right now. They fell so far below season expectations and are now pushing for a late comeback while trading away two big contracts with the eventual hope of a rebound season in 2025. It’s an interesting roller coaster to try to predict right now. I can imagine a smooth uneventful ride just as easily as I can predict more catastrophic failure, such is sports.

I do not know if it is wise for Onalfo or the Revs to promise anything in 2024, but I can’t help but revel in the fact they intend to go down swinging and hope for enjoyable soccer the rest of the year. I’m not sure if this projection of confidence is foolhardy or just plain necessary given the circumstances.

Perhaps it is both, or a combination of the two. It is an odd, yet potentially satisfying, end to a summer transfer window that could never solve every problem the Revs have currently have nor entirely set them up for the future. The Revs choosing to do a little of both seems logical in some ways and in other ways against the goals the team is reinforcing for themselves in the middle of a dreadful season.

Regardless of the results still to come in 2024, I think there are a number of positive ways the Revolution can end the season, both collectively and individually. Making the playoffs probably won’t change the opinion many have about this season, but a strong finish with a burst of impact youth players certainly might.

Considering the calamity that was the end of last season, at the very least a clear, unified effort these next couple of months could cure a lot of what has ailed this team both on and off the field. Any significant positive steps forward going into 2025 might be enough to salvage this year and perhaps finally rid the team of whatever dark cloud is still following them from 2023.

At this point, I think any type of combination of moral or actual victory is something to look forward to until what might be one of the most important offseasons in recent Revs history. It could be a fascinating end to the year, or more of the same, at this point nothing would shock me and I don’t see an early playoff exit changing my opinion of this season.

But there is something to the current thought process of Onalfo, Porter and Co…whether or not it it is the right course of action or will be effective lies in the 90 minutes a week we lose our minds, only to tune in again a week later. A perfect dichotomy of logic and lunacy.

Sounds like every Revs’ gameplan that’s ever worked to me.