Porter Not Surprised By Club América's Quality: "It's Like Having 11 DP's"

"We weren’t naive at all on the calibre of this team...I said it would be one of the best teams that our players would ever play, and we got humbled today.”

Photo Courtesy of Nathan Robillard

For the New England Revolution, a 4-0 leg one home loss to Club América all but ended their hopes of advancing past the CONCACAF Champions Cup quarterfinals on Tuesday, barring a miracle at the Estadio Azteca in the return fixture next week.

Although the Revs were outplayed in nearly every aspect of the cold and rainy midweek contest, Head Coach Caleb Porter said he wasn't surprised by the quality the visitors brought to the field.

“They were the better team, we knew it was gonna be a difficult game, we weren’t naive at all on the calibre of this team [and] the talent of this team,” Porter said. “I said it [would be] one of the best teams that our players would ever play, and we got humbled today.”

América’s quality and depth, according to Porter, was not something that was unexpected, but still challenging to manage with their quality on full display.

“They brought in guys off the bench that were DP’s in MLS,” Porter said. “That’s difficult. You’re playing a team that can manage the window a lot better than we can…Very good quality out of their team, everywhere. It’s like having 11 DP’s.”

Ultimately, a slow start and an inability to break down the seven-time champions led to the Revolution’s demise. While a new-look 3-5-2 aimed to supplement the attack and give Ryan Spaulding and DeJuan Jones opportunities to have more attacking freedom on the counter in the wingback role, the Revs ended up pinned in their own half with the midfield under too much pressure to generate forward momentum, and they struggled to advance the ball or threaten goal throughout the game as a result.

“I just thought the first 20 minutes were too tentative,” Porter said. “We basically left the five [defenders] vs. their three, which meant we never got pressure on the ball, and that was not what was meant to happen.”

Although América dominated possession in the early stages, Porter said he didn’t believe the early 2-0 deficit told the story of the game in the opening minutes. The difference maker in the game, he said, was the visitors’ ability to take their chances when they got them — something the Revs have struggled with all year.

“They weren't better than I expected, no,” Porter said. “[They’re] clinical. Even if you look at their first two chances they were goals. They had three clear chances in the first half, and two of them were goals. [They had] the quality in and around the box, to finish and make plays and punish us, because I didn't think the game was 2-0 the first 15 minutes the way it was going, they had a lot of the ball, but they scored on their first two chances.”

The Revs return to league action on Saturday as they host Charlotte FC at 7:30 in the final game of their home stand at Gillette Stadium. Then, on a 3-day turnaround, a daunting 2,000+ mile trip to the Estadio Azteca awaits them on Tuesday as they’ll look to do what they can with a quarterfinal tie that is all but put to bed.