New England Revolution Need to Remain Aggressive

“Just keep playing. Keep doing what you did to get the goal. Keep being aggressive, keep being strong, and get the second goal.”

Photo By J. Alexander Dolan

The New England Revolution will need to push for more if they want to earn a playoff spot in 2024.

While the Revolution are 7-3 this season when scoring first, in recent matches they have given up leads after scoring. Against Orlando City, New England conceded three straight goals after Giacomo Vrioni found the back of the net.

Prior to New England’s match against the Philadelphia Union, Caleb Porter was asked about what type of mentality he wants to see from his players once they go up a goal.

“Just keep playing. Keep doing what you did to get the goal,” he said. “Keep being aggressive, keep being strong, and get the second goal.”

But scoring has been difficult for New England as of late. The Revolution have been without Carles Gil and Dylan Borrero while other contributors such as Tomas Chancalay and Nacho Gil are out long-term.

“It’s very important,” goalkeeper Aljaz Ivacic said when asked about New England’s defensive efforts. “We are missing [some of] our best players up top. Defensively, we have everyone, so we have to keep a clean sheet. Obviously, we have problems scoring goals, which is normal since we don’t have our best players, and that puts a bigger responsibility on us at the back. We know we have to take it and we have to keep a clean sheet because, obviously, we probably won’t score as much as we did in the past.”

New England was tested against Orlando City as they were without Xavier Arreaga. In his stead, Dave Romney and Henry Kessler stood in and seemed to fail the exam considering their efforts and mistakes.

Porter said that New England can’t over-rely on Arreaga in terms of its defending and that the work on the training ground needs to show itself on the pitch in matches.

“We need to be a better team defensively,” the head coach said. “It’s not just the back line, it’s not just the center backs. It’s the team defending.

“We have to rely on our daily training,” Porter later added. “We prepare every guy, every single day. You’ve got to rely on that. You’ve seen we’ve had to put guys in and it’s been, for the most part, pretty seamless. I don’t think we’ve lost a game because of personnel. I think we’ve lost a game, at times, because of mentality and overall execution, which sometimes if you are going to your twos or your threes, the quality and the execution isn’t always what you want it to be. This will be another game, for sure, that they will be ready. They will be prepared. They know the plan. They know what they need to do. They know Philadelphia. We have to go and find a way to get a result.”

While the Union are at the bottom of the Eastern Conference, they still possess some venom in the attack with Daniel Gazdag, and Mikael Uhre. The duo has combined for 17 goals in 2024.

Philadelphia will also be boosted by the return of Andre Blake who will start on Wednesday. The UCONN alumni had meniscus surgery back in March. With the return of Blake, goals will be at a premium

New England will need to be on top of its game in all areas of the game if they want to return to the win column. But the back line will need to show marked improvements from its last performance if the Revolution are to be victorious.