Revolution Rotate In CCC Ahead Of Sunday's Game Against Cincinnati

Porter: “We felt it was important, up 4-0 in the aggregate, to rotate so that we're not only fresh in this game, but also now we're fresh for Sunday.”

Photo Courtesy of the New England Revolution

The New England Revolution’s plan to rotate some players for Thursday’s Concacaf Champions Cup worked well as they earned a 1-1 road draw against Alajuelense to advance 5-1 on aggregate.

The Revs went into leg two of their Round of 16 game with a 4-0 advantage over Alajuelense. With this weekend marking their eighth game in 26 days, head coach Caleb Porter decided to rest some players.

“We had a plan coming into this game knowing that we're behind in the league and that Sunday’s game is really important too,” Porter said. “We felt it was important, up 4-0 in the aggregate, to rotate so that we're not only fresh in this game, but also now we're fresh for Sunday.”

One player that didn’t make the trip to Costa Rica was Carles Gil. Jeff Lemieux of RevolutionSoccer.net said that the move was “precautionary” and that the midweek game was a “good opportunity for him to rest during a hectic stretch of games.”

Some players came into the starting lineup on Thursday while others split time.

“We had a plan of always starting Tomás [Chancalay] and bringing on Giacomo [Vrioni], just so we'd get a good push out of each guy, and then now for Sunday, we're fresh,” Porter said. “We did the same thing with [Henry] Kessler and [Dave] Romney. We did that with [Mark-Anthony] Kaye coming into the game as well. So obviously, we rotated [Ryan] Spaulding and [Andrew] Farrell in at outside back, so couldn't have gone any better.”

The Revs conceded in the fourth minute but then prevented their opponent from scoring for the rest of the match. Vrioni put the game out of reach in the 81st minute when he scored his first-ever road goal for the Revolution.

“For us to actually get a result and not just hang on, because I've seen this game go two, three to zero, and then you hang on and then it doesn't feel good, right? Even though you advance, you feel nervy and you don't gain as much confidence from the experience,” Porter said. “So, I think we gained by getting the result and dealing with the pressure of it, and now we’re fresh for Sunday.”

The Revolution return to Foxboro on Sunday in search of their first league win. The game against FC Cincinnati kicks off at 2 pm.

“This Sunday game is massively important, so now we've got a group that's fresh for the first time,” Porter said.