Atlanta United looks to make it five (!) unbeaten on the bounce as it takes on the New England Revolution in Foxborough, Mass. We caught up with longtime friend of the site Jake Catanese of The Blazing Musket to get his thoughts on the match and a banged-up Revs squad that looked to be on the right track until a 5-1 beating at the Columbus Crew on Saturday. Simply put, for better or worse, this is a different New England side than the one that Atlanta beat 4-1 at home in March.
1. Why has it taken so long for this team to come good under Caleb Porter? They did rattle off four in a row before getting shelled by the Crew…is that just a bump in the road for a team legitimately looking to turn things around or was the win streak just paper over the cracks?
The Revs’ start to the season was very bumpy. The extra CCC games probably didn’t help, along with a rash of early season injuries combined with lingering season ending ones from last year, so the Revs were really strapped for manpower early on and it showed. Tomas Chancalay was playing striker a lot more than he should’ve because the Revs didn’t address that area of the depth chart, the backline was a mess every week, and New England could barely generate attacks. The Revs had issues in combining Porter’s possession style with what I think is their preferred counter attacking/direct style of attacking, and when the Revs were relying on a lot of their depth pieces early on, it took some time for that integration to really take hold and build some consistency. I still think the Revs should be far less of a possession team and far more a countering team, and I dislike the way Porter has stuck with underperforming players in the starting lineup instead of going with more in form and/or younger players.
There’s a new injury bug going around (more on that later) but the winning streak was a tremendous boost to morale if nothing else. The Eastern Conference being largely mid this year means the Revs could bolster the ranks in the summer window and get into the playoffs, but they’ll go as far as Carles Gil can take this supporting cast. The defense can’t have games like it did over the weekend with multiple individual errors, and they’ll need the young guns in Esmir Bajraktarevic and Noel Buck to be productive down the stretch.
2. Even though Carles Gil looks to be finding his form and Giacomo Vrioni enjoying a mini-run, goals have been very, very hard to come by for this club: they have scored the fewest in MLS. Tomas Chancalay is done for the year and outside of Gil and Vrioni, no one has scored more than two goals. What needs to happen for the attack to come alive?
Getting Dylan Borrero back in essentially the same game Tomas Chancalay went down was a real bummer, because the Revs could have had one of the best attacking midfield trios in the league with Carles in the middle. As Borrero works back to full game fitness and effectiveness that will be a big help, but the Revs are going to need him to be finding the scoresheet regularly because his ability to create 1v1 is something the Revs have been missing.
Vrioni absolutely needs to keep his current form as best he can. I think his recent spurt of goals means he’ll likely finish the season with New England rather than the Revs moving on and getting another DP striker. New England, however, does need another option off the bench because Bobby Wood (who’s been hurt most of the year) is the only other true striker.
3. What’s your gut feeling about what this team can do over the final 15 matches of the season? Will we see more of the New England team that won four in a row or will it be similar to the one that struggled to get points early on?
I think a bit of both. This is a team that is going to be hampered by inconsistency all year as they deal with what seems to be a never ending list of moderate injuries. Brandon Bye coming back should help out as we can add him into the fullback rotation, Nacho Gil should return at some point and add another option into the attacking midfield, but the Revs are seemingly running on fumes a lot late in games with a lack of options on the bench. Porter and the team shouldn’t be afraid of tapping deep into the roster with guys like Jack Panayotou and Peyton Miller (who also hasn’t been healthy) with what looks like at best a one series-and-done playoff team.
Lineups, injuries outside of Chancalay, and predictions?
Injuries
Okay, so Carles Gil has already been ruled out for tonight which is bad, so the Revs will certainly have offensive playmaking struggles. I mentioned Nacho and Miller already, but the long list of questionables is also concerning when you factor in that Tommy McNamara and Wood have played almost no minutes this year. Ema Boateng started and scored last game, so he’s likely to feature at some point (I would think) even if it’s just off the bench. Not having Mark Anthony-Kaye and Borrero at full strength really hampers who the Revs can start at full strength here.
Lineup
Aljaz Ivacic; DeJuan Jones, Henry Kessler, Dave Romney, Andrew Farrell; Matt Polster, Ian Harkes; Esmir Bajraktarevic, Jack Panayotou, Noel Buck; Giacomo Vrioni
Prediction
You know what? Throw the three homegrowns into the attacking midfield and see what happens. I don’t have a lot of high hopes for this game offensively for the Revs, but I would not say no to a mostly uneventful 1-1 draw.
Sounds like an opportunity for points on the road. We’ll see.