Revs collect three road points despite depleted roster

The New England Revolution earned three important points on the road against Orlando City SC despite missing three lethal attackers.

Gustavo Bou and Dylan Borrero were unavailable for the third straight game, staying home due to injury. Giacomo Vrioni made the trip to Florida but didn’t play a minute despite being on the bench. We learned after the game that the Albania national team striker is also injured.

“All those players have some injuries, so that’s why they didn’t play today,” head coach Bruce Arena remarked.

The Revs opted for a defensive starting lineup that featured Matt Polster, Wilfrid Kaptoum, Maciel, and Tommy McNamara. After enduring some early pressure, it was the Revs who struck first when Polster collected his second goal of the season in the 20th minute.

Kaptoum joined the scoresheet in the 51st minute while Henry Kessler got one of his own in the 75th minute. The Revs walked away with three points courtesy of two goals from defensive midfielders and one from a center-back.

“We’ve had the oddest year,” Arena said. “We haven’t had a break all year. Today, we caught a couple and it turned into three points. It’s been a rough year with a lot of odd things happening and a depleted roster, but we again have a team with a great attitude, great approach to things. When that happens, good things can happen. They certainly deserved to be rewarded for their performance tonight.”

While most people wouldn’t have been able to accurately predict tonight’s goal scorers, Andrew Farrell had at least one of them right.

Henry Kessler explained, “Andrew Farrell was telling me I was going to get one tonight and it’s funny, he said that before last year, and I got one last year too in that game, so he’s got a good sense of when I’m going to score.”

The Revs are happy to collect three points, especially after consecutive scoreless draws, but the team knows that there’s still more to do if they want to make the playoffs.

The Revolution are currently below the playoff line, but there are four teams in the Eastern Conference with 30 points, including the Revs. Arena’s men now return home to prepare for a visit from D.C. United, who are now coached by Wayne Rooney.

“We need to win more games,” Arena said. “You see by the standings in both leagues [conferences], everything’s really close. It’s going to go down to the wire. This is our 23rd game, so we have 11 more games and we have to get a number of three-point games under our belt to put ourselves ahead of that red line.”