Hudson River Blue spoke with Jake Catanese of the Blazing Musket, the successor to SB Nation’s Bent Musket, to learn more about the state of the New England Revolution, New York City FC’s opponent tomorrow in Matchday 16: Here’s your NYCFC vs New England Revolution preview.
Hudson River Blue: The Revolution are coming off a 3-3 draw at Atlanta that must’ve felt like a win. What’s the mood in New England these days?
Jake Catanese: I think the general mood in New England is that we just want the month of May essentially to be over.
Including the game at the Bronx, the Revs will have played five of their last six on the road against some pretty solid teams, though that 3-0 loss in Philly was not unexpected given Carles Gil’s early exit with a knock. The comeback draw in Atlanta coincides with another 3-3 draw at home to Chicago in which the Revs deployed a three-center-back grouping with wingbacks for the first time to try and manage what rotation they have left and it didn’t work early on, but Bruce Arena and the staff are clearly trying things to manage the heavy injury load and still get results.
The positives over the last few games are that the Revs are scoring goals and really capitalizing on the press to great effect. They scored their first goal against Chicago and Atlanta by creating an attacking zone turnover and in both games helped shift the overall tone — starting a comeback against the Fire and temporarily silencing MBS in Atlanta. The Revs were able to manage some of their early season injuries but with Dylan Borrero (done for the year), Henry Kessler (out a couple more months), and Gustavo Bou (barely played in May) all missing extended time on top of veterans like Tommy McNamara yet to feature this year, it’s starting to add up. The goal is to have Kessler and the defense sorted out by the playoffs at which point the Revs should be a threat to make a deep run if they can keep scoring.
