PREVIEW – The New England Revolution’s ten-game unbeaten streak came to an end last weekend. It was a game full of drama in which NYCFC came out on top. It doesn’t get any easier for the Revs with a trip to Subaru Park coming this time around. Can they get back to winning ways against the MLS Eastern Conference leaders?
An MLS Eastern Conference Face-Off: New England vs Philadelphia
The Union is the Team to Beat in the MLS Eastern Conference
It is Philly who leads the way in the MLS Eastern Conference currently. In the overall standings only LAFC and Shield leaders Austin FC are ahead of them at the time of writing. They are unbeaten in their last three, including a narrow win in Florida against Inter Miami. New signing Alejandro Pozuelo did not feature for Phil Neville’s men.
Prior to that, Alejandro Bedoya, Julian Carranza and Mikael Uhre all scored multiple goals in a 7-0 thrashing of DC United. This was such a blowout that the latter have been prompted into bringing Wayne Rooney back on board. The last Union defeat was in Chicago with Federico Navarro netting the solitary game of the match. Late drama on home soil saw Philly overcome NYCFC in a huge fixture at the summit of the MLS Eastern Conference before that.
— New England Revolution (@NERevolution) July 9, 2022
Flipping the script to the Revolution and as previously mentioned, they accumulated a run of 10 games without a defeat. Three penalties were given in the first half at Yankee Stadium and one may have been kept out by Djordje Petrovic, but the damage was still done. On top of that, Andrew Farrell saw red, meaning he’ll be absent this weekend. Bruce Arena was very matter-of-fact when discussing the 4-2 loss at the hands of NYCFC. “We’re moving forward. We’re not even worrying about that anymore. What we’re doing is focusing on the next game. The last game is out of our control at this point.”
New England Revolution’s 10-game unbeaten run ended
The latter stages of this streak were drawn central but they were unbeaten all the same. Orlando City, the Vancouver Whitecaps and FC Cincinnati all took points from New England whilst they got a turnaround win against Minnesota. Midfielder Sebastian Lletget echoed this sentiment: “I think more than anything we were disappointed we didn’t get more wins in those games. At least I was and I know the group was. We put ourselves in really good positions to win games.”
Read More: Curt Onalfo Discusses His Role as the New England Revolution Technical Director
The Revs Have Had the Edge in Recent Seasons
The MLS Eastern Conference-leading Union visited Gillette Stadium earlier this season. Just a couple of months ago, the pair shared the spoils. It was goalless for a fair while before Gustavo Bou gave the Revs the head with 75 minutes on the clock. Moments later, Uhre was substituted in and had an instant impact.
In seasons gone by, three of the last four games had gone the way of Arena’s men. Besides a draw at Subaru Park in the May of 2021, this fixture was all about the Revolution. Matt Polster is a rare goalscorer but he was on target in both of the victories last season. Adam Buksa and Tajon Buchanan scored the goals a couple of years back.
Always a battle when we play Philly 👊 pic.twitter.com/o7hCoZzGmr
— New England Revolution (@NERevolution) May 28, 2022
Bruce Arena on the game
Scoring seven goals in a Major League Soccer game is no mean feat, proving that the Union deserves to be leading the MLS Eastern Conference. That being said, they are more known as a defensive team that concedes goals few and far between. This was highlighted by Arena in the media availability: “It’s obviously going to be a low-scoring game, which is very typical with the [Philadelphia] Union. It’s going to be hard fought, and it’s going to go down to the last minute.”
The Revolution’s head coach went on to say; You need to be as mistake free as possible and as you can in this game, which is not easy to do. They obviously have a good defensive record, so I would not recommend us falling behind.”
Farrell is one of the few players out of action for New England, Lletget having returned to full health. “It was unfortunate, just picking up a little bit of a hiccup, a hamstring strain… So I’m glad that I did have those two games to rest to get it to where it is now.” he is a key player in the Rev’s midfield and this will continue against the Eastern Conference-leading Union this weekend.
