New England Revolution midfielder Kelyn Rowe will likely feature in hhe season opener against Colorado. Photo/Kari Heisted
The off-season is finished. Major League Soccer is about to start its 22nd season and the New England Revolution will make their competitive 2017 debut on the road against the Colorado Rapids.
New England enters 2017 with renewed hope of making the post-season after missing out last year. They’ve added pieces to their back line, clarified their goalkeeping situation, and decided to stick with a 4-4-2 diamond formation since the end of the 2016 campaign.
The first opportunity to judge the newest installment of the Revolution comes on Saturday, when they’ll square off against the Rapids in Commerce City, Colorado.
With that, here are five areas of focus ahead of the Revs’ Week One match-up.
Will the Revolution—per usual—get off to a sluggish start?
The Revolution are just 5-11-5 in season openers while the Rapids are 13-3-5 all-time in their home openers—so you can almost Nate Silver a guess as to who’s favored to win this game. But slow starts tend to plague the Revolution well after their first match of the season. New England are notorious, in fact, for their poor starts. They’re very much an early summer and fall team and have been, largely, since their inception.
Beyond that, New England are actually in for a stiff test on Saturday. They’re playing away, at high altitude, against one of the youngest and most dynamic attacking teams in the league. The Revs certainly have the attacking tools to handle most oppositions this year and have been training at elevation during preseason camps in Arizona, but the team’s back line and holding midfield are also still very much untested.
First look at the Delamea-Angoua defensive pairing
That’s a nice segue into why it’s worth keeping an eye on the back line. The Revolution’s biggest problem last season was keeping the ball out of their own net. They missed out on the playoffs in 2016 largely due to goal differential, which was in the gutter due to their porous back line.
Defensive newcomers Antonio Delamea Mlinar and Benjamin Angoua both have high level experience playing abroad, but is their center back partnership ready to handle MLS in a competitive setting? What’s more, MLS carries a learning curve, even for the most hardened and skilled veteran players. It’s both good and necessary that the Revs addressed their back line in the off-season, but be cautiously optimistic that it’s ready to go from the start.
Beware of Colorado’s three-pronged attack
Cody Cropper will likely get the start on Saturday and will need to order and organize his back line—particularly its new center back pairing—accordingly to deal with Colorado’s attacking threats. Cropper has shown he’s a capable shot-stopper and Mlinar and Angoua are both experienced, but the Rapids have pace up top and will take advantage of an out of sorts back line.
There’s no Taylor Twellman on Colorado’s roster, but that doesn’t mean Shkelzen Gashi, Dominique Badji, and Kevin Doyle can’t reek havoc—particularly as an ensemble. The trio cumulatively accrued 21 goals last season and is set up to be a powerful combined force once more.
Cronin vs. Kouassi
Finally, after over one year of waiting, Revolution designated player Xavier Kouassi gets to lace up in a competitive game. Beware, though: he’s still recovering from the ACL tear that kept him off the pitch last season and regaining full fitness. Colorado is probably the worst environment for the Ivorian to be in his first full game back. The elevation alone, paired with his responsibilities in transitions, will likely slow him down and prevent him from going the full 90.
More importantly, though, is seeing how Kouassi handles a midfield battle with league veteran Sam Cronin. Kouassi is more skilled than Cronin, but is less experienced in MLS. Don’t think Kouassi can’t lose this battle. If he does, and he and Scott Caldwell fail to control the midfield, don’t expect the Revs to come away with any sort of positive result.
Will the hybrid 4-4-2 diamond formation work as well as it did at the end of last season?
The 4-4-2 diamond hinges greatly on Kouassi and Caldwell’s relationship in the middle, though it also opens the door for almost anyone to take the reigns in the attack. Lee Nguyen is the key figure here. He’s been as advanced as we’ve ever seen him, and will spark the playmaking. How well he can involve Kei Kamara, Juan Agudelo and Kelyn Rowe will depend greatly on how the 4-4-2 diamond shifts and shapes as the game goes on.
No one past midfield has that much of a defined role once the ball gets into the attack third, and that can be a good thing. But there needs to be a balance. Over-attack and you’ll see an over-taxed midfield. Under-attack and you’ll see an inefficient, route one-style passing and playmaking game.
In short, the 4-4-2 diamond is a delicate formula. But this formation is made for a creative, attacking team like the Revs.
If you want to reach Julian email him at julianccardillo@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @juliancardillo
