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4 takeaways as the Revolution fall at home against FC Cincinnati
New England is off to its worst start in an MLS regular season since 2001.
The Revolution lost 2-1 at home to FC Cincinnati on Sunday, a fourth consecutive defeat to open the 2024 MLS regular season. In league terms, it’s the second worst start in club history.
As good as New England has looked at times in CONCACAF Champions Cup — Caleb Porter’s team advanced in midweek to the quarterfinals where they will face Club America starting April 2 — the weekend results in MLS games have been lacking. That trend continued yet again on Sunday against Cincinnati.
After both teams got off to a tentative opening 45 minutes, 2023 MLS MVP Lucho Acosta’s second half cameo for Cincinnati proved to be the difference. Having also played a midweek Champions Cup game, Cincinnati started with several key players on the bench. Acosta’s introduction led to both goals for the visitors and a 2-0 second half lead.
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Giacomo Vrioni eventually willed New England back into the game with a spontaneous solo goal, but the Revolution were unable to complete the comeback after regaining some late momentum.
Here are a few takeaways as the Revolution sit at 0-4 for the first time since starting 0-6 in 2001:
The Revolution midfield didn’t play at a high enough tempo.
It’s easier said than done, of course, but a problem for New England against Cincinnati (and at other points so far in 2024) has been too slow of a tempo in the team’s passing buildup.
As much as Porter wants his team to “control” games, the Revolution’s possession advantages (the home team totaled 62-percent possession on Sunday) haven’t resulted in enough chances on goal in attack. Cincinnati was perfectly comfortable to let New England try to pass the ball around the back, shuffling from one side of the field to the other without losing defensive organization.
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Cincinnati head coach Pat Noonan used a 3-4-2-1 on Sunday, with wing-backs Yuya Kubo and DeAndre Yedlin not only providing width in the attack — Kubo was credited with the opening goal — but following Revolution wingers cutting inside to help on the defensive end. The patient passing approach by the home team was too slow in the first half to create clearcut chances.
Porter, going back to a 4-2-3-1 after two games of 4-3-3, made second half adjustments to counter Cincinnati’s tactics. But by the time Ryan Spaulding was subbed on to provide width on the left (with DeJuan Jones switching to right back to add crosses from that side), New England was chasing the game.
The set piece disparity continues.
Both Cincinnati goals were scored off of set pieces. The first goal, conceded from a corner kick, was arguably the fault of New England goalkeeper Henrich Ravas (who failed to cleanly deal with the initial flick-on). Center back Henry Kessler was also partly to blame for not clearing the in-swinging corner.
Ravas, who aside from the initial error on the corner made several quality saves in the game, nearly made a remarkable goal-line clearance. But after review, the ball was judged to have crossed the line and a goal was awarded.
The second goal, via Acosta’s free kick, resulted from a clever recognition by the Argentine, who noticed New England players’ natural tendency to jump while in the wall (and not leaving a player to sit on the ground at their feet). Acosta correctly diagnosed that there would be space below the wall, and fired his free kick beneath jumping Revolution players and into the net.
It’s not the first goal New England has surrendered in such situations in 2024, and is made more glaring by the lack of set pieces goals scored on the other end.
Giacomo Vrioni has scored in consecutive games.
Following a start to the season in which he generated more suspensions in all competitions (two) than goals (zero), Vrioni has found two second-half strikes in as many games.
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His goal on Sunday was particularly illustrative of his potential as a striker in Porter’s system: Generated purely by his own work rate, Vrioni created a turnover outside the Cincinnati box, cut around his defender, and fired a low finish to the far post. It demonstrated his energy, ambition, and finishing capacity.
Yet he continues to be an enigma for New England. His defensive combativeness led to a goal, but it also led to another unnecessary yellow card (which he received in stoppage time for pointlessly stepping in front of a goalkeeper’s clearance).
He also totaled the lowest number of touches (28) of any player on the field who played 90 minutes. Such a lack of involvement is not universally a bad sign for a striker — many goal-scorers need only minimal involvement in open play — but it shows two worrying signs for New England.
First, a team dependent on the possession-based playmaking of Gil is hesitant (or unable) to consistently get its center forward involved in the buildup. Second, it shows New England’s unwillingness (or, again, inability) to play a more direct style. This has hampered Porter’s approach against teams that use an effective press.
The team will finally get some rest.
With the Champions Cup quarterfinals not starting until April 2 (the second leg in Mexico City will be played the following week on April 9), it now means that Porter’s team will get a full week to prepare for a March 23 matchup at home with Chicago.
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After opening the season on a wild stretch of eight games in 26 days, the Revolution can take a brief pause and reset. This, especially in terms of league games, will be an important moment to regroup.
Things will get busy again during the two weeks in which there will be Tuesday night match-ups with Club America, but for now, the respite could help New England finally get some league points.
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