FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – The buildup to Saturday night’s MLS regular season opener against the Portland Timbers was meant to look a lot different for the New England Revolution.
When preseason plans were announced back in early January the Revs had a pair of Scotiabank Concacaf Champions League games on the docket, scheduled for February 15 and February 22, both at Gillette Stadium against Haitian side AS Cavaly. New England planned their preseason prep around those games, training for two weeks in Los Angeles before returning to Foxborough on February 9.
Ultimately, however, neither of those Champions League games were played as Cavaly withdrew from the competition following difficulties obtaining the necessary visas required to travel. That development sent the Revolution through to the Champions League quarterfinals – where they’ll meet Liga MX side Pumas UNAM next month – but it also left the Revs battling unpredictable New England training weather and without any matches for three weeks ahead of the opener in Portland.
“We had a little bit of a hiccup with our preseason plans, obviously, with the games being called off at such a late moment,” said Revolution assistant coach Richie Williams. “We were fortunate enough to be able to get Hartford last week and now El Paso this week to get ready for the game against Portland.”
It took a bit of late scrambling but the Revs were able to schedule a pair of friendlies against USL Championship opposition at Gillette Stadium to fill the void. Gustavo Bou and Tommy McNamara scored in a 2-0 win over Hartford Athletic on February 17, while Bou (x2), Sebastian Lletget, and Emmanuel Boateng were on the board in a 4-1 win over El Paso Locomotive FC on February 22.
They weren’t the competitive Champions League matches that the Revs had hoped to have under their belts before Saturday’s opener at Providence Park, but they were unquestionably beneficial exercises for a Revolution group that needed more games to continue building towards full fitness and sharpness.
“We’ve worked them pretty hard, but not too much,” Williams said of the players. “But you just don’t know when you don’t have competitive games. That was the part we were looking forward to with the Champions League games and getting two competitive games in before we played the match against Portland. It’s never easy, but we do feel confident, we do feel good about the group, but now it’s up to them to get out there and perform.”
“We think we’re ready,” said DeJuan Jones. “We’ve had a lot of tough, challenging preseason games and I think that’s just making us tougher and putting us in a good spot for the first opening game. Two tough games in LA and two good preseason scrimmages here since our [CCL] games got canceled, but we’re really excited and Saturday’s going to be a great opportunity for us.”
Saturday also officially begins the Revolution’s defense of the Supporters’ Shield, having claimed their first league trophy last year by setting an MLS record for points in a season (73). While they fell short of their ultimate goal of winning an MLS Cup – losing in a penalty shootout to eventual champions New York City FC – the Revs know that last year’s success will make them a target in 2022, and every opponent will be eager for the opportunity to prove themselves against New England.
Sporting director and head coach Bruce Arena has made sure that his players are aware of that reality and has them prepared to deal with that on a weekly basis.
“He said that we did really well last year, but we’re going to have a target on our backs and we’re going to have to perform at a higher level than we did last year,” Matt Polster said of Arena’s message. “There’s a high expectation and a high standard, and we expect to do that as a group and try to replicate what we did last year.”
“We want to even go further than we did last year,” added Williams. “We had a successful year – Supporters’ Shield winners, broke a record in terms of points – but obviously we know that in the playoffs we fell short against NYCFC, and we want to make sure that come October this year – and obviously the final in November – that we want to be in a position that we can now obviously be in the playoffs, play well again, but now when the playoffs come around, can we now advance and get to MLS Cup?
“The goal for all the teams in the league is to win MLS Cup, and obviously here in New England we haven’t been able to do that in the history of the team, so that’s our goal and that’s what we’re looking forward to. Hopefully we can put it all together this year and have a good run.”
