Know Thy Enemy: Revolution vs Vancouver Smoke, Mirrors, and Northwest Tea Edition
New England's season might be on the rebound with two straight wins, but the Revs lack a signature win or performance so far in 2024.
Okay, I understand the New England Revolution are on the cusp of doing something rather important that has not happened in quite a long time.
In the words of the great Cleveland Indians manager Lou Brown, “If you win three in a row, that’s called a winning streak. It has happened before.” Considering the Revs hadn’t won consecutive league games since June of last year, that seems like an appropriate reference.
Now, let’s be very clear about the current status of the Revs’ still last-place campaign in the East. They have four wins on the year, two of them coming this month, and every win New England has so far this year can be classified as coming against a bad team.
The Chicago Fire are just bad, Charlotte FC is bad on the road, Nashville thought they were bad enough to fire their head coach, and Revs II also beat RBNY II yesterday so I’m not counting last week’s win as good either. While New England has been notching wins, they have not been doing so in an overly convincing fashion and there’s still a significant amount of smoke and mirrors around the recent results.
Now it’s true that Caleb Porter is correct that the Revs are evolving and improving in their recent performances. The statistics might be underwhelming but the overall play is passing the eye test. In the case of the two penalties against Nashville the numbers are probably more profoundly staggering and we knew there weren’t going to be any good stats to take home from the RBNY match during the international break. But there are seemingly more opportunities going forward, attacking plays are happening faster, and the finishing might still be sluggish but that should improve as chances created increase.
But smash-and-grab jobs still count in the standings, and it is something to build upon. The overall play might only be barely passing that eye test and there’s a ton of room for improvement and consistency still, but given the first three months of the year I will take three points regardless of circumstances or opponent.
But Vancouver represents a solid test and are at least operating at a much higher strength than RBNY was last week. Yes midfielders Andres Cubas (Int’l Duty - PAR), Alessandro Schopf (illness), and defender Ali Ahmed (Int’l Duty - CAN) will be unavailable but the heavy hitters up top in Ryan Gauld and Brian White are both in solid form so far this year so we will see if the Revs defense has been improving with Dave Romney back in the lineup. Do I think beating a Western Conference team with one of the best road records in the league after a cross-country flight counts as a “signature” win? Probably not…
But a win over the Whitecaps could arguably be the Revs’ best win of the year so far, and getting to that three-game winning streak could do wonders for New England’s confidence. Vancouver represents at the very least a solid team and beating them would count as a highly respectable victory, something in short supply to non-existent so far in 2024.
Also, White and Whitecaps head coach Vanni Sartini might like the New England tea throwing tradition more than The Fort itself. Vanni said in a quote provided by our guest Har Johal:
“I saw it once. It’s good to have something special. The Timbers have the guy that cuts the tree. Boston is very famous in America where they throw the tea in 1773. It’s linked to independence and the team is called the New England Revolution. It’s always nice to see when an audience finds a way to connect with the roots of the city.”
Brian White was a little more muted, saying “I actually did not know they did that. That’s kind of cool, it’s cool.”
Now I don’t know something famous from Vancouver that we can throw into the harbor but putting friendly West Coast oysters into New England water seem like a bad idea. We’ll have to ponder this further in the comments, leave your ideas of Vancouver specific things we can throw in the harbor below.
As mentioned above in those wonderful VWFC quotes, our guest today is none other than the intrepid journalist and noted Patriots fan Har Johal of Equalizer Soccer and Daily Hive Vancouver fame. I was going to let her off the hook and enjoy her time in greater Boston but she had to take a shot at my beloved Iggles so an obligatory Nick Foles is better than Tom Brady reference must be made despite the fact we thank her for the answers below.
TBM: You've been galivanting around Boston all week, tell us about your travels and did you happen to notice a good spot to build a soccer stadium in the city?
HJ: There’s a lot of lush greenery and prime waterfront real estate throughout the 617. Anywhere near a populous area with fantastic public transportation would be an ideal place to build a soccer stadium. Everett comes to mind, but that's still not a lock. Having the Revs play at Gillette Stadium is a great alternative for the time being. Hopefully one day fans can have a soccer-specific stadium, but today is not that day.
TBM: Ryan Gauld is good at soccer, leads VWFC in goals and assists, and has never gotten a senior international cap for Scotland. What makes him so important to this team?
HJ: Ryan Gauld is the Whitecaps heart and soul. He’s a scorer, distributor, penalty kick taker, and captain. He does everything. He leads by example on the pitch and in the community. The Whitecaps offence is thriving when Gauld is able to create for himself and his teammates. Playing on the west coast he just doesn’t get the recognition as one of the top attacking players in MLS. It’s hard to find a match where Gauld isn’t making an impact.
TBM: Vancouver sits 5th in the West, is that about where they should be or can this team push into the Top 4 and host a first round playoff series? What are the playoff expectations for this team?
HJ: The 7-5-4 Caps have been fantastic on the road this season. Vancouver’s four wins have them tied with Minnesota for the most road wins in the western conference. The team has excelled away from BC Place. After getting off to a quick start the Whitecaps hit a bit of a slump, but they have turned things around with back to back wins over Sporting Kansas City and Colorado. It’s quite a long travel day for Vancouver to get to Foxboro, but they should be raring to go following the international break and a week of much needed rest.
Finishing in the top four remains a big objective for the organization. Vancouver came close last season. They have the team and coaching staff to reach that target. Sitting in fifth spot in mid June puts them in terrific standing with half of the season still to be played.