Revolution Remain Hopeful of Making Playoffs

“I might be stupid, but I still believe that we can win all five [games] and get in [the MLS Cup Playoffs] somehow."

Photo By J. Alexander Dolan

The New England Revolution are on the outside looking in in terms of making the playoffs but head coach Caleb Porter still believes that his squad can sneak into the postseason.

But even if that isn’t the case, Porter wants to give fans hope heading into the offseason.

“I might be stupid, but I still believe that we can win all five [games] and get in [the MLS Cup Playoffs] somehow,” he said. “That is the approach that I’m going to take. But if we don’t, we are building for the future and I expect, obviously, that we continue developing and keep building. We want to give the fans hope and something to look forward to and the right message that we are continuing to grow, and that even though this season has been difficult, there is going to be a light at the end of the tunnel.”

New England is currently last in the Eastern Conference. While the Revolution have two games in hand against the likes of Toronto FC, they will need to go on a run as Toronto holds an eight-point advantage on the Revs.

With how much pressure the team is under, cracks can start to appear. That seemed to be the case when Carles Gil and Xavier Arreaga got in a scuffle coming off of the field in Charlotte.

While the incident would have been best served in the confines of the locker room, Porter believes that the argument came from a positive place.

“With Xavi [Arreaga] and Carles [Gil], it comes from a good place,” Porter said. “It shows they trust each other. The number one dysfunction of a team is absence of trust. Number two is lack of disagreement, because of absence of trust. So, they trust each other, which means you disagree. Like your brothers and sisters, you are going disagree the closer you are. But that disagreement needs to happen in a better way, and it definitely doesn’t need to happen in front of 40,000 fans and on national TV. It needs to happen internally in the locker room. But I do think it is a good sign of trust, that guys are holding each other accountable, and it’s a good sign that people care. That should give people hope. You have got a group that cares and you’ve got a coach that cares. You have got a group and a coach that are going to fight. But we cannot be as emotional as we have been and, myself included, we need to be better.”

Caring about your job isn’t a prerequisite. Plenty of people hate their job. Athletes and coaches are in fact human beings who just happen to have larger paychecks than fans who watch them.

Arreaga and Gil have put the incident behind them. Similar to Porter, Arreaga still belives that the season is far from over.

“This is a sport that brings frustrations when the results don’t show like you want them to,” Arreaga said of the incident with Gil. “That’s exactly what happened in the last couple games. Like I said, this happened, it stays in the past. Now we need to look forward and try to win this week and try to get our goal. Why not? I think, for many people, it’s over, the season. But I still believe that why can’t we get the target?”

With how emotional Gil can get on the pitch, he is never a player you have to worry about. He doesn’t take plays off and is a player who fights for the badge.

Arreaga is also a player who plays with passion. While his passion can’t be doubted, the center back is prone to mistakes and has struggled at times since joining New England.

Other players can be a lot more inconsistent. Dylan Borrero can look like he wants to be anywhere besides a soccer pitch against Orlando and then against Charlotte he shows too much passion and gets sent off.

“Obviously, I met with Dylan [Borrero] – that is an individual one. It comes from a good place. He has been frustrated with how things have gone for him,” Porter said. “He comes into the game, he is working hard, he’s trying to defend, he wins the tackle. It is the wrong call, but then he blows up and you can’t blow up, because now all the good things there with the defending and the tackle become, now, a negative. That is just something that he needs to learn at 22 years old. I am still, at 49, making those mistakes. This brain, if you care, it can get to you and it can frustrate you, and I am still learning to manage it as well. Again, at times, I need to be better for these guys. So, that was an example of, hopefully, Dylan learning.”

So while a lot of fans have run out of faith in the Revolution, the players and coaches remain faithful in their playoff hopes.

The road to repaying fans who have supported them through thick and thin begins Saturday. New England needs three points against Nashville. If the Revolution fail once again, the light at the end of the tunnel will be increasingly dim.