Know Thy Enemy: Revolution vs Atlanta Gut Check Edition
The Revs initial season goals have to be altered if we haven't done so already, and a healthy dose of youth minutes seems an easily obtainable standard.
Alright, so maybe the Revs aren’t back. And that’s okay, nothing was going to be easy this week with three games in eight days and a trip to Seattle looming.
At least tonight the New England Revolution host Atlanta United (Free - MLS Season Pass/Apple TV+; 7:45 pm EDT) instead of another game at the house of horrors known as MBS.
The recent four game winning streak by the Revolution might have bolstered some hope that the Revs dismal start to the season can be salvaged and maybe it can be. Maybe the Revs can get into the playoffs…where they’ll probably get pasted in the first round series by a top team in the East that are probably better than them. Maybe upsets can happen, or a deep Leagues Cup run, I trust nothing and have no faith in MLS predictions.
But there should be some clear goals for the Revs to set the rest of the way. Getting Noel Buck and Esmir Bajraktarevic significant minutes over the next few months should be one of those goals. I’ll even throw in Jack Panayotou getting over 1,000 minutes in all competitions this year as a goal too since he should be getting better playing time than the final 20 minutes of a 5-1 blowout loss to Columbus.
I think it is okay to realize whatever expectations the Revs had this year are gone, regardless of what the team does in the summer window, maybe bringing in another winger, or trading for an MLS veteran probably isn’t going to lead to a deep playoff run.
But the Revs do have a chance to get some of their younger players a lot more minutes the rest of the way. If New England plays .500 soccer (or the soccer equivalent the rest of the way, 1.5 PPG?) relying on only their veterans and get bounced in the first round, that’s not going to be a successful season.
At least by getting the youngsters more integrated and missing the playoffs means that Porter is actually building towards something. New England has a rash of injuries again, no Carles Gil for the second straight day, which means the Revs have really no excuse to not just play the kids.
Start Jack P at the number 10, put Esmir and Buck next to him and let them have fun. I don’t care how bad it looks it can’t be any worse than what we saw in March. I’d love to have Peyton Miller available so the Revs could give him minutes at winger or fullback and if you have no other striker available other than Malcolm Fry, they why is he not getting minutes off the bench?
At this point I can accept the fact the Revs are having a bad season, but I won’t accept a bad season in which the kids get neglected trying to salvage something that is going to take a long winter offseason to fix.
Anyway, another team that might need a long offseason to get things sorted out is Atlanta United who have gone on a Revs-esque midseason selling spree but do sit perilously at the playoff line. Here to check in on all things Five Stripes is Sydney Hunte of Scarves and Spikes who will fill us in on the wheeling and dealings down in the ATL and just what they plan to do with all that cash.
Be sure to check out my answers to Sydney’s questions over on their site along with the rest of their Revs-ATL coverage.
1) Did anyone give that Jamal Thiare/Luka Gavran play the old WWE "Watch out, watch out, watch out/RKO/finisher" treatment because if not I am disappointed, that's the appropriate level of absurdity we're dealing with here. What was it like seeing that play out in real time?
To be honest, it was pretty surreal! I wasn't at the stadium (on vacation) but was watching it on TV - unsurprisingly the camera didn't quite catch it live so I wasn't aware what happened until seeing the replay. It undoubtedly was one of those "remember where you were" moments, that's for sure because it's something you don't see every day in this league.
As far as the WWE treatment...none that I know of, so the best I can do is someone on X giving it the Pink Panther theme treatment. One of our writers at Scarves and Spikes mentioned it.
2) That win over TFC put Atlanta barely over the playoff line for now, what has been the key to Atlanta's struggles so far this year?
A fairly tame offense. The offense hasn't come close to living up to its billing, and a lot of times it looks flat and unimaginative. This is a club that used to pride itself on a free-flowing, active attack, but lately it's been a shell of that: they've scored just 28 times in 20 matches (just under 1.4 goals per game). There's been a little bad luck sprinkled in there, but Atlanta's not getting enough from the wide channels to put goals on the board on a consistent basis. They've already sold Giorgos Giakoumakis and are on the verge of selling Thiago Almada, so it's super, super critical that they get these two DP signings right.
Their mentality has been a bit fragile at times again this season (something they struggled with a lot under Gonzalo Pineda) as well and it's cost them some points, but they look like a team with a little more fight in them under Rob Valentino.
3) So Atlanta seems to be selling players, a lot of players for a lot of money, is there a plan for the summer transfer window to salvage 2024 or is this setting up a big winter offseason for 2025?
I'd like to think the front office feels it can salvage something out of this season. After Gonzalo Pineda was fired, Garth Lagerwey was intentional about pointing out Seattle's success after Sigi Schmid was shown the door and Brian Schmetzer was elevated to the interim role before getting the full-time job. So far Rob Valentino (who is very well respected in the locker room) has gotten a good bit out of this team even without Giakoumakis and several players having been out due to the continental tournaments. Of course, in this league, so many teams make the playoffs so Atlanta only needs to lay claim to one of those nine spots in the East and get hot behind a potential striker-midfielder duo and see what happens from there. Don't forget they're still in the U.S. Open Cup, so pushing their chips toward that to try to get themselves a CCC spot could be the best way to go as well.
4) Best case scenario if Atlanta reloads during the summer window, how high in the East could this team go?
Best case? Probably mid-table since there are so many good teams ahead of them (Miami, Cincinnati, Columbus, etc.), so even if they were to get hot, there would still be a great deal of ground to make up — still you'd give yourself half a chance to make some noise in the postseason (last year's Sporting KC is a perfect example of a team that was able to turn a rough season around and make a playoff push, and they were in far worst shape than Atlanta).
But, again, Atlanta must get the DP signings correct. He won't be a DP, but I'd also be interested to see how Pedro Amador (the new signing at LB) does in Caleb Wiley's absence (Wiley's seeing major interest from Europe so, like Almada, he may not be long for a move as well after the Olympics). I also don't think the absence of a permanent manager will prohibit them from making the moves they need to make since the front office and scouts undoubtedly have targets they can go after to replace GG and (when he leaves) Almada.
Projected lineup: Guzan, Wiley, Gregersen, Cobb, Lennon, Muyumba, Slisz, Firmino, Silva, Saba, Rios
Injuries: Jamal Thiare (shoulder); Edwin Mosquera (ankle)
Prediction: 1-1. This might be a little bit of a slog as the Revs have struggled to find the back of the net and Atlanta is looking for goals with GG gone and Almada potentially having played his last match for Atlanta. I think they hold on for a road point, though.