MLS Regular Season | Match #24
New England Revolution vs. D.C. United
Saturday, August 13 | 7:30 p.m. ET
Gillette Stadium | Foxborough, Mass.
Watch: TV38, myRITV (Rhode Island)
- Talent: Brad Feldman (play-by-play), Charlie Davies (analyst), Tamara Brown (sideline)
Listen: 98.5 The Sports Hub (English), 1260 AM Nossa Radio (Portuguese)
CURRENT FORM
New England Revolution
10th in Eastern Conference (7-7-9, 30 pts.)
Last Result | 3-0 win at Orlando City SC
Goals from the unlikely trio of Matt Polster, Wilfrid Kaptoum, and Henry Kessler lifted the Revs to a 3-0 road win over Orlando City SC last weekend, snapping a six-game winless run and lifting them into a tie for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Kessler earned MLS Team of the Week honors for his performance, while Djordje Petrović was included on the Team of the Week bench after keeping a third straight clean sheet.
Now the Revs return home to Gillette Stadium, where they’ll play four of their next six games during a hectic three-week stretch. New England haven’t lost at home since April, going 3-0-5 in their last eight games in Foxborough, but that stretch does include draws in five of their last six home games.
D.C. United
14th in Eastern Conference (6-13-4, 22 pts.)
Last Result | 0-0 draw vs. New York Red Bulls
D.C. United enter the weekend at the bottom of the MLS standings – that after missing the playoffs by a single point in 2021 – but they’re currently a team in transition after appointing Wayne Rooney head coach on July 12. Rooney’s first game on the sidelines was a dramatic 2-1 win over Orlando on July 31, and the MLS originals also picked up a valuable point in a 0-0 draw with the New York Red Bulls last weekend.
Several new pieces have recently arrived or are soon to arrive in the nation’s capital, including a pair of Designated Players in Christian Benteke and Victor Pálsson. According to Steve Goff of the Washington Post, Pálsson is expected to be available for a debut on Saturday in Foxborough, while Benteke awaits his visa.
KEY PLAYERS
Revolution midfielder Tommy McNamara
Few players have been as ever-present as Tommy McNamara this season, with the 31-year-old midfielder one of just three players – along with Carles Gil and DeJuan Jones – to appear in at least 22 of the Revolution’s first 23 regular season games. All told McNamara is fifth on the team in minutes played (1,587), and second among midfielders behind only Gil.
The versatile veteran has played in a variety of spots for the Revolution this season, including a more advanced role on the wing last weekend in Orlando, where he registered a pair of assists in the Revs’ 3-0 win. It was McNamara’s second multi-assist game in a Revolution jersey, the last coming on October 20, 2021 in New England’s 3-2 win over D.C. United.
D.C. United forward Taxi Fountas
A strong candidate for MLS Newcomer of the Year, Taxi Fountas has been electric since debuting with D.C. in mid-April. The 26-year-old Greek forward announced himself to the league with two goals and one assist in his first start, which was D.C.’s 3-2 win over the Revs on April 23.
Fountas already has three multi-goal games through 13 MLS starts, and he’s racked up 11 goals and three assists through 16 total appearances. An MLS All-Star, Fountas did only play 49 and 45 minutes in his last two appearances on August 3 and August 6.
STATUS REPORT
Revolution
The Revs have dealt with a rash of injuries in recent weeks and that appears to be the case once again on Saturday, with Dylan Borrero (leg), Gustavo Bou (leg), Maciel (leg), and Jon Bell (head) all listed as questionable, in addition to rookie goalkeeper Jacob Jackson, who is out for the season following knee surgery.
Additionally, newcomer Ismael Tajouri-Shradi is recovering from injury and he anticipated his timeline for a Revolution debut might fall in the range of 10 days to two weeks.
“We’ve had injuries. It’s unfortunate. It’s life, and we’ll probably continue to have some sort of injuries as we move through the month of August,” said sporting director and head coach Bruce Arena. “We’ll anticipate we’ll have to make some changes as we did in our last game in Orlando, but it’s going to be a difficult week ahead with three games. Obviously, we go to Toronto and then Montreal next week, so we need to get our players that have been out healthy and ready to play, as well.”
D.C. United
The visitors list five players as out ahead of their weekend visit to Foxborough: Adrien Perez (foot), Bill Hamid (hand), Brad Smith (knee), Brendan Hines-Ike (foot), and Chris Odoi-Atsem (illness). That’s in addition to recent signing Christian Benteke, who is in London awaiting visa paperwork.
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING
New England Revolution sporting director and head coach Bruce Arena
“Whenever a team has a new coach, it’s never easy to predict how they’re going to play, but they’ve been playing some version of a 4-4-3 or a 4-2-3-1. They have a good attacking player in [Taxi] Fountas, [Ola] Kamara has scored nine goals this year for them, Fountas has 11 for them I believe. Yeah, they have a couple new players so it’s a difficult team to predict anything. [Ravel] Morrison’s a new player for them, a couple new players in the attack, in the midfield, new goalkeeper in recent weeks, [Miguel] Berry in the trade from Columbus, so it’s hard to give any assessment or make a prediction on how they’re going to play.”
New England Revolution defender Christian Makoun
“I think the first objective is to qualify for the playoffs. I think I’ll give the team my best. The team is very advanced at this point in the season, so I understand that I have to work twice as hard to be in the right form when the team needs me. We know we have some injuries at the moment but the team’s handling things in the right way. I’ll keep working when it’s my turn to help this team get points and make the playoffs.”
