The New England Revolution will be playing an MLS match at Gillette Stadium for the first time since March 7th. This time around things will be a lot different off the pitch. There will be no fans at Gillette Stadium and according to the latest update the stadium will not be able to host fans through the end of September at the earliest.
Thursday’s match against the Philadelphia Union will be an interesting one for New England. It is their first post-MLS is Back match and their last action was on July 25th. New England enters the match with a 1-1-3 record on the 2020 MLS regular season while the Union come in with a 2-1-2 record.
Last time out the Revs played the Union and it was a match that they lost 1-0. That being said, they were right in it but lacked the finishing touch. The finishing touch has been allusive to New England in every match that they have played in 2020.
The major difference between the Revolution now and what they were on the 25th is three transactions that brought in MLS veterans. Matt Polster, Kekuta Manneh, and Tommy McNamara were all brought in by Bruce Arena who was looking to improve his team in the post-Carles Gil world.
Acquiring Polster made Wilfried Zahibo expendable. Manneh and McNamara help provide versatility and specifically in the case of Manneh the ability to put the ball in the back of the net.
As for the Union, after they defeated the Revs in the Round of 16 they were able to advance all the way to the quarterfinals where they fell to the eventual champions Portland 2-1.
You have to like New England’s chances in defending against the Union, the question will be if the Revs can finally score with consistency. We have seen that this team is fully capable in getting into dangerous areas and at some point goals will have to follow.
New England will take on Philadelphia at 7:30 p.m. and will be broadcasted locally on NBC Sports Boston and 98.5 The Sports Hub. Fans can following along here on Trifecta Sports as we will be covering the match live from Gillette Stadium.
1 comment
Comments are closed.