Bruce Arena not worried about Atlanta turf

The New England Revolution head down to Georgia on Sunday to face Atlanta United as they return to MLS action after defeating FC Cincinnati in the U.S. Open Cup.

To say Atlanta United is banged up would be an understatement. In the last three weeks, they have lost Brad Guzan and Miles Robinson for the rest of the season. Both players ruptured their achilles and Robinson immediately pointed to the turf when he was on the ground. Josef Martinez has also had to deal with injury issues and Osvaldo Alonso tore his ACL.

The Revolution are already banged up with Gustavo Bou having a lengthy stay on the player availability report with an upper leg injury. Gil has his own injury history including an achilles injury last season.

Ahead of Sunday’s matchup, Head Coach and Sporting Director Bruce Arena was asked if he had any concerns about the turf down in Georgia.

“They have a new turf this year, so we’ll be interested in seeing what’s it’s like, but they have a new turf,” he said. “We play on an artificial field, right? So, it’s nothing new. Then we go to Cincinnati on Saturday and then to New York on the following Wednesday and then back home. It’s all part of it. It’s not really a whole lot there. The last week of that when we play Cincinnati, New York City and Philadelphia certainly will be challenging.”

New England will be heading to Atlanta to play its third game in just eight days. Gil, and Adam Buksa both played 62 minutes on Wednesday evening. It will be interesting to see what kind of starting XI Arena trots out. He indicated after Wednesday’s win that players will be quite fresh considering the game is on Sunday instead of Saturday.

“I think it was a good 60 minutes for a bunch of those guys and we’re able to give them a little bit of rest,” Arena said about being able to sub out players such as Gil and And you know, we should be pretty fresh for the game on Sunday.”