New England Revolution Scouting Report: Where Improvement Meets Failure

Builder of dreams? Master of delusions?

Their fortunes haven’t been so good and for some time. After showing up in 2023, the New England Revolution damn near fell off the map in 2024 – only the San Jose Earthquakes strayed into “Thar Be Dragons” – finishing 16 points out of the real playoffs (and nine points below the play-in round) and one slim point above Chicago Fire FC/the abyss. Caleb Porter and The Organization overhauled the roster over the off-season – see the line up /subs in last week’s 2-1 win over Red Bull New York versus the Decision Day line up/subs that handed Inter Miami CF the all-time single-season points record – which brings things current.

New England Revolution
1-3-1, 4 pts., 3 gf, 6 ga (-3); home 1-2-0, away 0-1-1
Last Results: DLLLW (yep, just five games played so far)
Strength/Location of Schedule
@ NSH (0-0 D); v CLB (0-1 L); v PHI (0-2 L); @ NYC (1-2 L); v RBNY (2-1 W)

Notes from the Field
Toward the beginning of last weekend’s broadcast, the color commentary guy announced New England had fired just 5 shots on goal in 2025. This has been confirmed. Their first goal of 2025 was an own-goal scored by New York City FC’s Thiago Martins (who, just to note it, had the audacity to lose his shit at his back-line colleagues after last weekend’s collapse at Atlanta United FC after that). How many shots did the Revs fire on goal in that one? Just one. Out of six total. Having sat through about 40 minutes of that game, I’d note a few things: 1) the Revolution didn’t look as incompetent as those top-line numbers suggest, you could see the green shoots, etc., and 2) as suggested by their other top-line numbers (e.g., 6 goals allowed), they can defend. The latter gets a bit sloppy in transition – and NYC took advantage, if just once – but it’s not defense that’s killing them. Also of note, the Revs started 2025 against taller opposition than some, maybe even many. That can be looked at two ways, of course – i.e., are those teams good, or does New England make them so by being bad? – and that’s where recent trends come in. The win over the Red Bulls – which came fucking late, by the way, and after a build-up held together by spit and the gospel according to Norman Vincent Peale (see full highlights?) – was the first time they’d won the xG battle all season (and they posted some harrowing numbers prior). They looked good for it too – had a couple things going on – e.g., Carles Gil feeding Luca Langoni through the right-side channel and playing to a late run by Ignatius Ganago – and that allowed them to more than double their shots on goal on the season. A multitude of questions hang over the win – e.g., how good are the New York teams this season, or just right now? (Red Bull has looked a little baffled every time I’ve watched them, fwiw); is the new Revs roster coming together? – and that points to the main question FC Cincinnati has to answer: are they one of the “good teams” this season?

Personnel & Mechanics
Porter has started Aljaz Ivacic in goal in every game so far (I think), a ‘keeper I know well (played for the Timbers) and he’s a strong shot-stopper. I see a fair amount of tinkering with the back line, though by injury or preference I can’t say. Mamadou Fofana has been the constant (and, like Moe, he’s their leader; also from Mali) and he had him paired with (Colombian) Brayan Ceballos until…does it matter? Wyatt Omsberg started against Red Bull, only to get replaced by former Dallas defender (right?) Tanner Beason. Porter’s going really nuts at fullback, swapping (let’s keep it going, Israeli) Ilay Feingold from right to left, starting Will Sands one week, Brandon Bye another, and, last weekend, (17-year-old) academy kid, Peyton Miller, at left back; that last one excited the color commentary dude (think it was Maurice Edu). It looks like Matt Polster and Alhassan Yusuf (nice Apple TV short on him, btw) have become the favored pairing at the expense of Jackson Yueill, while Gil, Ganago, Langoni have been the favored attacking players from the wings and midfield. Finally, Maxi Urruti started the last two games after what I assume was an injury to Leo Campana. Don’t know what’s going on there, honestly, but the only time I saw Urruti touch the ball against either New York team was when he picked it off a defender’s shoe.

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Gil still poses the biggest threat in all that, directly or indirectly (but just 41 goals over his time in MLS; thought it'd be higher), and a ton of the offense still goes through him and he still has the range to make that happen. Ganago (shit! forgot! Cameroonian, and with a couple sniffs at the national team) has good mobility and, credit to him, he fired most of his shots on goal, if too close to the ‘keeper, but he presents as a player still finding his best possible role in Porter’s system. Langoni enough speed to make me think Lukas Engel has a busy Saturday afternoon ahead. Further back in the field, and I type this with respect, I have questions about any combination of Polster, Yusuf, and Yueill – though some of that could turn on Obinna Nwobodo’s availability – but the heart of the backline struck me as fundamentally sound, especially with Ivacic back-stopping it and even after Beason came on. In terms of gameplay, New England showed some appetite for defending high and aggressive, and they seem to have the legs for it, but they also compacted all right and all the fullbacks I watched handled wide players pretty well…

What Does Cincy Do About All of That?
…which doesn’t mean I’m not dying to see Luca Orellano stacks up against whoever they start on (mostly) the left. Any advantage could be big in the face of (per Laurel Pfahler on Bluesky) what looks to be an unhealthy number of missing (Obinna Nwobodo) and day-to-day players (e.g., Miles Robinson, Yuya Kubo, and Evander. Having Nwobodo unavailable might work against my Plan A – i.e., getting at the Revs midfield, any which way you can, e.g., pressure it, play through and around it until you figure out the best way to break it. Fingers crossed on Evander’s availability, because I think Cincy will get a boost out of Evander’s off-kilter (e.g., deep-lying) approach to the attack. If Cincy can’t overwhelm that interior space, I say let DeAndre Yedlin run riot behind Orellano and try to feed runs to the back post. On the defensive side, mind the sequence noted above – e.g., Gil to Langoni to Ganago – and maybe worry less about stopping Gil than in cutting off his options. That pretty much covers it. The Revs were pretty shit on the road in 2024 and they’re so far winless away in 2025. Barring major changes from last weekend’s line up, and may Nick Hagglund and Matt Miazga heal soon, Cincinnati should be clear to focus on winning this game…and that brings me to…

Loose Notes from the Rest of the East
There’s a lot going on in MLS’s Eastern Conference, but less separating the “leading teams” – i.e., going with first-place Miami to 8th place Cincinnati (goading intended to Atlanta and both New York teams). With Miami hosting Toronto FC on Sunday, I don’t see any point in fretting about catching them, but I see enough daylight for Cincinnati to climb out of 10th and into mid-table. Columbus will probably take all three against Montreal, but, between Charlotte FC v Nashville SC, Atlanta v Dallas, Red Bull v Chicago, and Philadelphia Union v Orlando City SC leaves ample potential for draws and teams stalling on 11 and 12 points. A Cincy win would lift them above that scrum and let them get their noses ahead by the end of the weekend. While it’s still far (FAR) too early for that to matter, it’s better be at the head of the pack than sniffing ass at the back.

We’ll see how this one shakes out. Oh, and as noted on Bluesky, I’m still sorting out where and how to post these Scouting Reports. One concept (already on life support, naturally) would start with posting an instant reaction post shortly after watching FC Cincinnati’s latest game (whenever that happens) and then updating that original post with the Scouting Report and a wrap up for the rest of the East. The other would involve tightening these posts WAY up. That won’t start until next week, so, until next Sunday, adieu.