New England Revolution 1 - Philadelphia Union 5: 3 Thoughts
Simply begging for the Revs to stay healthy
The New England Revolution returned to the pitch on Wednesday evening and failed to secure three points as the club’s injury woes continued.
Giacomo Vrioni was added to the long list of injuries as he missed out on the match. Head coach Caleb Porter was forced to do the best with what he had available.
Porter trotted out a 3-4-3 formation that at times changed to a 5-4-1. The starting XI featured Xavier Arreaga, Jonathan Mensah, and Dave Romney. The midfielder quartet consisted of Ryan Spaulding and Andrew Farrell on the wings paired with Ian Harkes and Matt Polster in the middle. Up front, Jack Panayotou and Esmir Bajraktarevic were on the wings with Bobby Wood replacing Vrioni at striker.
In contrast, Philadelphia got Andre Blake back between the sticks and had youngster Cavan Sullivan available for selection.
But what do you need to know about Wednesday’s match? Here are three thoughts.
1 - No Surprises
The Revolution lost and it wasn’t really surprising considering who they had available. If New England had even taken a point, it would have been a miracle.
The first goal put the Revolution’s injury issues on display. Players who are usually not in the starting XI failed to do their job. Spaulding and Farrell failed to clear the cross to Tai Baribo while Mensah — as well as Arreaga and Bajraktarevic — failed to mark the Union goalscorer.
Philadelphia quickly added another set-piece goal with Jakob Glesnes heading home a corner in the 39th minute. Once again Farrell seemed to do a poor job marking his man.
Baribo added another goal in 44th minute, where Mensah left him completely unmarked. Ivacic got a hand on the ball but it is hard to blame the goalkeeper considering how much space the Union player had.
Along with the result not being surprising due to the personnel on the field, the nature of the goals wasn’t too shocking either. No matter who is head coach, New England seems to struggle to defend set pieces.
It’s tough to get too worked up about this match considering the fact that it played out exactly how we all thought it would.
2 - The Revs Need Reinforcements
Wednesday’s lineup shows that New England needs reinforcements once the Summer Transfer Window opens.
While the Revs seem to have plenty of depth at center back, the same can’t be said for the midfield and at striker. When you also take into account the injuries at the wing, New England could use some help there as well.
The Revolution have to be aggressive during the window or else they will remain at the bottom of the Eastern Conference. Wednesday's match showed that New England doesn’t have the depth to be a contender.
3 - Trying to Find Brightspots
One positive takeaway Revs fans can have is that Harkes scored a great goal. For less than a minute it seemed like the Revolution might put up a fight but Baribo managed to secure a hat trick soon after Harkes’ goal.
Harkes has looked good in his starts. It has been pleasing to see him get a run of starts and hopefully that will continue.
Fans in New England can also be pleased to see Malcolm Fry get serious minutes and Peyton Miller make his debut. Fry in particular seemed to bring a bolt of energy to the field after being brought in and nearly scored his first MLS goal, weaving through Union defenders.
But all in all, it is hard to take away a lot from this match. The Revs were massively injured and would have been lucky to secure a draw. A loss was likely on the cards as soon as New England’s starting XI was revealed.
The Revolution will now focus on Saturday when they face FC Dallas. For the sake of the fans who will be in attendance, hopefully New England will be a lot healthier heading into the weekend.
Overseas at the moment, so glad to have this recap. Injuries, injuries, injuries. Has to be a correlation between either the training or the trainers.
On the other hand, this can also be seen as a bad game. Yes, more than half the team out because of over-training by Porter, but the starters were all veteran Revs, not Revs II callups. We even had Kessler and Kaye, proven MLS players on the bench, and yet the first half was an onslaught by Philly. This has been a severe trend towards being unwatchable, and that goes to the front office and the coaching staff.