Behind Enemy Lines: Scouting New England Revolution 🔎
Behind Enemy Lines: Scouting New England Revolution 🔎
FC Dallas continues to search for their first road victory of the 2024 season.
FC Dallas looks to lock up its first road win of the 2024 regular season as it takes on the New England Revolution in the final game before the break for the League Cup tournament.
Caleb Porter’s club comes into Saturday’s game after losing 5-1 on Wednesday night in Philadelphia.
Key Player: Ian Harkes
Harkes was one of the lone bright spots for the Revs during their midweek loss at Philadelphia. He scored a goal and showed some flashes of quality in a game where, otherwise, the rest of his team looked pretty bad.
Key Matchup: Sebastian Lletget vs Ian Harkes
Given the Revs injury situation at the moment, this game could easily come down to a midfield battle. Dallas has been good lately at winning those and will want to go into the Leagues Cup break with a positive road result.
Availability Report1:
Suspended: none
Out: Emmanuel Boateng (Hamstring), Dylan Borrero (hip), Noel Buck (quad), Tomas Chancalay (knee), Carles Gil (leg), Nacho Gil (knee), Nick Lima (groin)
Questionable: DeJuan Jones (hamstring), Mark-Anthony Kaye (hip), Tommy McNamara (hamstring), Peyton Miller (thigh), Giacomo Vrioni (calf)
On Loan: none
International duty: none
Quick Notes:
Our last meeting: You have to go back to the 2022 season to see when these two clubs last met. New England won 1-0 at home over FC Dallas. New England has a 13-8-1 record at home in all-time meetings against FC Dallas.
Recent form: After going 2-10-1 in their first 13 games of the season, the Revs have been a bit better since the summer began by going 5-4-0. However, going into Saturday’s game, New England has lost three in a row.
At home vs. Western Conference teams: The Revs have split the previous two matches against Western Conference opponents this season. They defeated Vancouver 3-2 on June 15 before losing 2-0 at Seattle.
Potential Lineup:
Like Dallas, New England has had to deal with a slew of injuries and quick turnarounds on the schedule. They’ll likely be rotating their lineup a bit on Saturday.
Ivacic, Mensah, Arreaga, Romney; Farrell, Harks, Kaye, Miller; Fry, Wood, Panavotou
Keys To Three Points over New England
Push for the chances: New England has one of the worst defenses in MLS this season, giving up 46 goals (and has a -24 goal differential). Dallas will want to continue to push their attack into the offensive third and take plenty of chances on goal. While Petar Musa will be out of this game (yellow card accumulation suspension), Logan Farrington could have a big night on the road.
Play that counter-attack: New England may want to push numbers forward in this one at home. The times that they have looked good this season at home, they’ve found more numbers in their attack, with players finding holes in the opposing defenses. Dallas will need to do well defensively to limit the chances but also stretch the field out on counterattacks like we saw against Austin on Wednesday night.
Keep that passion going: Wednesday night was something else for FC Dallas. At times, they looked down defensively against Austin, but once they began to push the Verde around with the passion that Peter Luccin wanted them to bring, good things happened. We need more of that passion to flow if this team is ever going to get a road win this season.
Note: MLS has an injury report deadline, which is the day before each game. For now, I will include last week's injury report in our weekly scouting reports.