The New England Revolution will take their midterm exam at a hostile house in Ohio where making the grade is a problematic endeavor.
The surging Revolution (10-3-6), winners of three straight and unbeaten in the last six, will engage Eastern Conference-leading FC Cincinnati (13-2-4) on Saturday night (7:30) at TQL Stadium. The Revolution just swept a three-game homestand where they outscored their opponents 8-3 and took over second place in the conference.
“It should be a good game, they have been the best team in the conference to date,” said Revolution head coach and sporting director Bruce Arena. “They have a really good group of players and an exceptional one in (Luciano) Acosta.
“Just a good overall team, a solid team. They work really hard for each other and they have a great stadium with a capacity crowd every game. They are 10-0 at home this season so it is going to be a challenge.”
The Revolution and FC Cincinnati scuffled to a 1-1 draw in their first meeting on April 29 at Gillette Stadium. The game was memorable for conflicting reasons and ended with the teams tied for first place in the East with 21 points.
The Revolution suffered a huge setback when dynamic young striker Dylan Borrero was lost for the season with a torn ACL. The Revolution secured the draw in stoppage time when Emmanuel Boateng scored on a brilliant crossing pass from Brandon Bye for his first of the season. The Revolution remain unbeaten at home with a 7-0-3 mark.
“I think we are doing good (but) I think we have to do a better job with our passes,” said midfielder Latif Blessing, an MLS veteran from Ghana in his first season in New England.
“We are going to play against a good team. I think we’ve got to do a better job and keep marking and keep doing the right things. I think we are playing good and I think you can see all the guy’s mentality is good. I think we can get points on Saturday.”
The Revolution and FC Cincinnati are statistically comparable after 19 games despite being separated by seven points in the standings. FC Cincinnati enjoys 33-30 edge in goals scored and in goals allowed with 19 to 23 by the Revolution.
The Revolution allowed 10 of those 23 goals in three games while keeper Djordje Petrovic, who was recently named to the MLS All-Star Team, has six clean sheets and ranks second in MLS with 75 saves. In the first meeting, Petrovic stoned Acosta on a penalty kick in the first half. Acosta leads FC Cincinnati with nine goals.
Both teams will be missing key players that were called up to compete with the U.S. National Team in the Concacaf Gold Cup tournament. The Revolution are without left back DeJuan Jones, while Cincy is missing Matt Miazga and Brandon Vazquez.
“In the first game we played this season we tied 1-1 and I thought we had some chances,” said Petrovic. “I can say that the game against Cincinnati will be demanding. This game will be very demanding in how to approach this so we can get three points.”