On Tuesday the New England Revolution will take on D.C. United at 7:00 p.m. at Audi Field. New England enters the match with a 1-1-4 record on the 2020 MLS season while D.C. comes in at 1-2-3. The Revolution haven’t scored a goal in over 300 minutes, their last goal came against this D.C. United team with Adam Buksa scoring in the 51st minute of the MLS is Back match that took place on July 18th. For those counting at home, that is a long time to not score a single goal.
D.C. has never been a friendly environment for the Revs to play in historically. New England’s last win in our nation’s capitol was 7/27/13 when D.C. United still played at RFK Stadium. At Audi Field the Revolution own a 0-1-1 record. Recent history is a bit kinder to the Revolution who hold a 1-1-3 record in their last five matches against Ben Olsen‘s team.
This will be a critical match for the Revolution to come away with a result in as not only do they need to break their goalless drought but also show that they are capable of winning games without Carles Gil. Gil, the best player on the Revolution roster, is sidelined for months after undergoing surgery on his left foot earlier this month.
Games Being Played At A Rapid Clip
Just because the Revs need to find their groove doesn’t mean they will have a whole lot of time to find it. Starting with last Thursday’s match the Revolution will play six matches in just 23 days.
“I think there’s going to be a lot of progress,” said Revolution forward Teal Bunbury on the busy stretch of matches. “I think it’s going to be a lot about getting rest and recovery in between games. It’s going to determine the depth of your squad, because I think there’s going to be a lot of rotation, a lot of guys that are going to have to be ready when their name and number is called, so being mentally checked in is going to be really important for us, and not taking anything for granted. These games are important. We’re playing Eastern Conference teams, so we need to make sure that we’re getting points out of all of these games. It’s not going to be good enough dropping points.”
As for the Gaffer, Bruce Arena isn’t too happy with the busy stretch of games that the team finds itself in.
“I don’t think this is helping anybody,” said Bruce Arena on the busy stretch. “This is too much, too soon, with the travel and everything else, so this whole year is just going to be a very unpredictable exercise, in my opinion. I think it’s going to be these first two weeks getting back in the regular season is going to be challenging for everyone. We’re not going to be able to predict how we deal with the travel, three games in a week, all those kinds of things. It’s going to be a very challenging year.”
Last time out Starting XI’s:
Revolution: 0-0 draw vs. Philadelphia Union
Adam Buksa
Cristian Penilla, Gustavo Bou, Teal Bunbury
Kelyn Rowe, Matthew Polster
Alex Buttner, Henry Kessler, Andrew Farrell, Brandon Bye
D.C. United: 0-0 draw vs. FC Cincinnati
Kevin Paredes, Junior Moreno, Yamil Asad, Russel Canouse, Julian Gressel
Steven Brinbaum, Donovan Pines, Frederic Brillant
So what can we expect in this match? Tough to say. The Revolution technically have one more day’s rest than D.C. United but they are also flying down to D.C. on the day of the match. So both teams could have tired legs and some serious squad rotation could occur. When these two teams played each other in the MLS is Back Tournament the Revolution were the better team up until Carles Gil left the match in the 62nd minute with an injury. That being said, D.C.’s goal was a result of Antonio Delamea trying to pass back to Matt Turner only to be picked off by Frederico Higuain.
I fully expect this to be a close match that could very well end in a low scoring draw. A point on the road is a win for the Revolution.
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