MLS Regular Season | Match #17
New England Revolution at FC Cincinnati
Saturday, June 22 | 7:30 p.m. ET
TQL Stadium | Cincinnati, Ohio
Watch: MLS Season Pass on Apple TV
English Talent: Nate Bukaty (play-by-play), Devon Kerr (analyst)
Spanish Talent: Sergio Ruiz (play-by-play), Walter Roque (analyst)
Listen: 98.5 The Sports Hub (English) 1260 AM Nossa Radio (Portuguese)
English Talent: Brad Feldman (play-by-play), Charlie Davies (analyst)
CURRENT FORM
New England Revolution
15th in Eastern Conference (5-10-1, 16 pts.)
Last Result | 3-2 win vs. Vancouver Whitecaps FC
After a challenging start to the season, the New England Revolution have found their form just in time for a strong summer, topping Vancouver Whitecaps FC, 3-2, at home last Saturday to make it three wins in a row. With this coming weekend’s game against FC Cincinnati marking the halfway point of New England’s MLS campaign, the Revs have lifted themselves out of the basement of the Supporters’ Shield standings and now sit only four points outside of the play-in spots in the Eastern Conference.
As is often the case, captain Carles Gil has been crucial to the Revolution’s run of success, assisting in each of the Revs’ last three wins, and notching an impressive goal against Nashville SC during that run, as well. He now leads the team in both goals and assists so far this regular season, with five and four respectively, and his streak of helpers in particular has proven pivotal at a time when both starters and deputies have been stepping up in big ways to help the team turn things around.
FC Cincinnati
2nd in Eastern Conference (12-3-3, 39 pts.)
Last Result | 4-3 win vs. Philadelphia Union
A wild back-and-forth affair between Cincinnati and Philadelphia midweek saw the Orange and Blue emerge with all three points on the back of a last-minute Lucho Acosta goal to seal the 4-3 home win. That victory makes it a remarkable nine wins in Cincy’s last 10, a clear statement that last year’s Supporters’ Shield winners aren’t planning on slowing down any time soon.
The Revs have already faced off with FC Cincinnati once this season, falling 2-1 at home to goals from, unsurprisingly, Acosta as well as Yuya Kubo. Recent improvements from New England will give Revs fans hope going into this rematch, though, particularly on the defensive side of the ball, as Cincy’s four goals against Philly on Wednesday came from only five shots on target, one of which was from the penalty spot.
KEY PLAYERS
Revolution winger Esmir BajraktarevićEsmir Bajraktarević’s last two appearances for the Revs have seen him score the first two goals of his Major League Soccer career, although he took them both as confidently as if they were his 100th and 101st. Everyone around Foxborough is hoping that the young winger will have a seat on the plane to Paris next month to represent the United States at the Olympic Games, but until then it will be all eyes on Esmir to see if he can continue his run of attacking form for New England.
Beyond just his own performances, Bajraktarević has also been happy with the cohesion across the entire attack, saying after last Saturday’s win over Vancouver that, “the longer we play together, the more we get connected.” He added that it was great to see fellow 19-year-old Noel Buck notch his first goal of the season in that same game, saying, “He’s a very close friend of mine, so I was very happy to see that.”
Cincinnati midfielder Lucho AcostaLast year’s Supporters’ Shield-winning campaign would surely have been very different without last year’s Landon Donovan MVP Lucho Acosta. He’s similarly putting on a jaw-dropping show this year, pacing the league with 14 assists while also tallying nine goals – and there’s still half a season to go.
A closer look at his stats gives off a sense of inevitability; he has only failed to notch an attacking return four times this regular season, and he has multiple returns in six of his appearances, including in Cincinnati’s visit to Gillette Stadium in March. New England will have their work cut out for them in trying to contain Acosta, or perhaps simply doing their best to outscore him.
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING
Revolution head coach Caleb Porter on his team’s three-goal first half against Vancouver:“I think we’ve played for spells exactly like that, it’s just the goals came [tonight]. That has been the missing piece, just that precision and that final third execution. I thought it was a dominant performance. It’s too bad the way it ended, because it makes it feel tighter than it was. In my opinion, the way we played the second half, it should have been four or five [to] one, easy. [It] was very comfy in the second half. I thought we controlled the game, but it’s also good to have something to talk about and something for me to be on their backs this week to keep them locked in and hungry. But three wins in a row and we’re playing well. We’re playing extremely well, and I thought we got great performances today. It’s just too bad at the end of the game to give up that late goal, and obviously, I would’ve liked to see at least two or three more goals in that second half, and I thought we should have scored them.”
Porter on his takeaways from the second quarter of the 2024 MLS season, and his goals for Q3:
“We wanted to get 13 points minimum [in] quarter two. We got 12, so we’re a point underneath that. We wanted to get at least four wins and a draw, and we got four wins. I would have loved five wins, but by and large, a marked improvement, because we got one win in the first quarter and we got four in the next. I still think we’re conceding a few too many goals, but we’ve scored more goals, so that’s great. I’d like to see our plus-minus on the goal differential still get whittled down a little bit. But unquestionable, much, much better this quarter than the first. The next one, I’d like to see in the nine games now, because we’ll chunk it with the nine, I’d like to see at least five wins.”
Porter on the impact of captain Carles Gil in the team’s recent run of good form:
“For me, he’s one of the best players in the league. I’ve said it from day one, but I also think he is in as good of form as he’s ever been. Obviously, he’s been in really good form in his career in certain years, but I think his influence on both sides of the ball, not just with goals and assists, but just with rhythm. He’s not getting credit for some assists that are, really, he was instrumental in setting up the goal, he just didn’t get the actual assist in some cases. I told him after the game right in front of the whole team that I think he’s playing as well as [we’ve] ever seen him play in his career. It’s great to see and I think it’s a byproduct of him working really hard, having a great attitude, and also really fitting into our game model as a true number ten, who is a true fulcrum for our attack.”
Porter on how the team plans to handle FC Cincinnati and Lucho Acosta:
“[It will be] very important to show that we can compete against this caliber of a team, both sides of the ball, to show that we can defend extremely well against one of the league’s best attacking teams, and best attacking player in the league, arguably one of them, MVP last year, you know? And he has more assists this year than he had last year already. He’s lethal, but they have other good players as well, so you can’t forget about the other guys. [Yuya] Kubo’s playing really well, [Luca] Orellano is playing extremely well, he’s incredibly dangerous, [DeAndre] Yedlin is a good player getting forward in the attack. They have a balanced team, so we have to defend well as a team, that’s the key. With the positions that Acosta gets in, you have to be aware – he’s on the left a lot, yes, he’s on the right some though, he’s in the middle, he’s everywhere, so we just have to communicate and be aware of him.”
Revolution midfielder Carles Gil on how the team feels after collecting its third consecutive win:
“We’re in the best moment and we want to continue like this, winning games. We’re still in the bottom [of the Eastern Conference]. We’re still not happy with our season, for the moment. I think we have a perfect test against maybe the best team over the last year and a half, and we want to win.”
Gil on how the team is evolving under Caleb Porter:
“I think in the last games, we’ve played very well. Not just for the wins but the way we’ve played. Also, Dylan [Borrero] is a very important player for us. He’s a different player, he can go into space. I think we’re showing we’re a good team, with the ball, having chances, scoring goals, and having the rhythm of the game that we want. We need to continue like this.”
Revolution defender Nick Lima on continuing the team’s strong defensive showings against Cincinnati:
“It begins and ends there; we’ve got to keep balls out of the net, and if you don’t give up goals, you can’t lose the game … It’s a hard place to play, they have one of the best players in the league in Acosta, we know that, and they have other pieces that can score goals. I think every team’s capable of scoring some goals in this league, so we have to go there with that same edge that we’ve been having, a little bit of grittiness and grind. It’s never easy going on the road in this league, as you’ve seen in the past and throughout this year. We’re going to go there and defend first. We’ve been doing well, but, again, it’s about the next one, the one in front of us.”
Lima on Cincinnati’s system and midfielder Lucho Acosta:
“[Acosta] has been one of the best players in the league, and we’re going to look out for him, and I think every team tries to, with more or less success, as you saw last night [against the Philadelphia Union]. But yeah, he’s a key factor for them, has been and will continue to be, and so we have to go with him in the front of our mind throughout the whole night … They have multiple ways of scoring; I think more or less everything begins with him though. Stay aware of him, be physical with him – if there’s any weakness, I think he’s still physical for his size, but that would be it. We just have to be aware of him.”
