New England Revolution looking to get healthy during international break

The New England Revolution are coming off their worst week in the Bruce Arena era.

New England lost three games during that span allowing seven unanswered goals before Carles Gil found the back of the net from the spot. The back line was leaking goals and Earl Edwards Jr. fell from his impressive form to start the season.

“It’s just a tough stretch. We just had a tough two weeks. For sure, they were better than us today,” Ema Boateng said after the 3-1 loss to Charlotte FC. “They played better and their fans gave them the energy. But we should’ve stepped up. We made a few mistakes that cost us goals and that was the difference in the game. So we have to step up.”

Part of the reason for New England’s struggles has been due to a lack of overall health. Andrew Farrell, Matt Turner, and Henry Kessler have all missed multiple games. Gustavo Bou also missed out on the Revs first trip to Charlotte after picking up a knock against Pumas UNAM.

“Well, we’re going to have a few days off,” Bruce Arena said after the loss. “Just get our team better, get a little healthier. We’ll get some players back and obviously improve on both ends of the field. In all honesty, we can score more goals. We had a couple chances we could do a little bit better on tonight, for example. Defensively, we made too many mistakes. We’ll strengthen our backline with the returns of [Henry] Kessler and [Andrew] Farrell, so that will help us as well. And then I think [Matt] Turner will be back in the near future as well.”

As Arena noted, the squad will get a few days off which will serve them well. Stepping away from the game and recharging ahead of what is a long MLS season can only help New England.

Still, some players are itching to get back to work and fix the issues of the past week. Boateng is ready to work ahead of New England’s April 2 match at home against the New York Red Bulls.

“I wouldn’t say it’s much looking forward to it,” he said. “If you’re going into a break on a win, that’s the best feeling. Confidence is high throughout the break and in practice. I think pissed and ready for the next opportunity to get it right. I mean, we made a few mistakes that cost us and we’re going to learn from it these next few weeks in training. I can see everybody’s going to be battling and ready to show that we’re better as a team.”

That match against NYRB will be crucial. Revolution fans will be expecting a much better team than they have seen as of late. With Farrell and Kessler returning to the back line, there will be no excuses if they continue to leak goals.

With the Red Bulls playing quite well so far this season (fourth in the Eastern Conference), the match is definitely one that Revs fans will want to pay attention to.