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3 takeaways as the Revolution fall to NYCFC in Yankee Stadium
“I’m not just going to toss this year off,” Caleb Porter said after the game. “We’re going to keep fighting, we’re going to keep working.”
The Revolution continue to search for a first road point of the 2024 MLS season after falling 2-0 to New York City FC inside a cramped Yankee Stadium field on Saturday night.
New England was on the back-foot for most of the game, with space nearly impossible to find on the smaller field. In truth, the away team was probably fortunate not to concede earlier than Agustín Ojeda’s 57th minute breakthrough for New York.
A stoppage time second goal from Julián Fernández put a late seal on the Revolution’s fate, further elongating what has been a very difficult start to the season.
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New England is now 0-3 on the road and 1-5-1 overall in the regular season. Caleb Porter’s team remains last in the Eastern Conference.
Here are a few takeaways:
Revolution lacked both precision and tempo.
While it’s far from a new talking point, NYCFC continues to play on the smallest field in MLS, with dimensions that are the minimum FIFA standard. No matter how many games the Revolution play in such an environment, it forces the same dynamic each time.
As the field shrinks the amount of space, it correspondingly limits players’ time in possession, forcing decisions to be made at a faster tempo. New England struggled with this.
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Center backs Henry Kessler and Dave Romney, normally among the team leaders in passing completion percentage (each averaged over 86 percent this season prior to Saturday) had subpar nights. Romney in particular, as a more risk-averse player in possession, completed 40 of 58 passing attempts (69 percent).
This dynamic by itself was not what caused the defeat, but was representative of the larger pattern: New England lacked a consistently effective outlet after recovering the ball.
Deprived of any dependable method of buildup, the Revolution drove forward primarily off of the occasional NYCFC turnover, or on counterattacks.
New England was unable to find the proper tempo for enough of the game, with players dwelling on the ball for too long. While this matters far less on a larger field, the margins become predictably smaller inside Yankee Stadium. This resulted in turnovers or, at best, forced safer but less threatening passes away from New York’s goal. Too often, Revolution passes also lacked precision, running out of bounds, to the opposing team, or simply not into the intended space (forcing the tempo to slow down).
Defensive coordination remains an issue.
In comparison, NYCFC was far from exceptional. Despite it being their home field, New York looked only marginally better in the narrow confines of Yankee Stadium, reflecting their own slow start to the season. While NYCFC hasn’t stumbled out of the gate as badly as New England in 2024, Nick Cushing’s team entered the night 1-4-2.
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Still, NYCFC built more numerous and better quality chances on goal, and probably should have taken a lead in first half stoppage time when New York playmaker Santiago Rodríguez found space inside the box to receive a low cross from right back Mitja Ilenič. Despite being inexplicably wide open in front of net, the Uruguayan’s shot missed the target.
New England played Matt Polster and Ian Harkes as a double-pivot in midfield. Both players are capable both in possession and defense, yet failed to gain control in the middle third of the field. New York’s central midfield contingent (Keaton Parks and James Sands in holding roles with Rodríguez in the attack) ranked first, second, and third in touches on the ball for the home team.
Part of the issue is coordination between the various components of New England’s defense. Outside backs are often left exposed on counters and—as Rodriguez showed on multiple occasions—Polster and Harkes struggled to consistently deny the space in front of the Revolution’s center backs. The duo also occasionally got caught upfield with neither able to help negate New York counters (this led to the second goal, though Harkes had been subbed by that point).
The level of frustration is growing, but time remains to save the season.
“We need to score more goals, we need to concede less goals, we need to do the basics better, pass better. We need to do everything better,” a frustrated Kessler told reporters after the game. The clearly distressed center back acknowledged the obvious, adding that “results haven’t been good enough.”
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Seven games into the season, only San Jose (1-7-0) has been worse than New England in MLS. While bad luck has played a role in certain games—Sands was very lucky from New York’s perspective to not receive at least a yellow card for multiple infractions on Saturday—Kessler was correct in identifying issues with both attack and defense. Porter’s team, quite simply, has struggled to prevent goals and score them.
Yet despite the doom and gloom of the current situation, the Revolution can retain at least some level of hope due to the prevailing reality of MLS: The league is designed to have parity, and even the worst team can be a good week or two away from playoff contention. Trailing the final wild-card playoff spot by just six points—and with 27 regular season games to go—it would be foolish to discount any possibility of a turnaround.
“I’m not just going to toss this year off,” Porter said after the game. “We’re going to keep fighting, we’re going to keep working.”
Even on Saturday, New England was denied a 90th minute equalizer from winger Tomás Chancalay’s forceful header only by a fantastic save by New York goalkeeper Matt Freese. Fernández added a second NYCFC goal moments later, but the chance to earn a road point had been there late in the second half.
With the Champions Cup behind them, Porter is looking forward to a consistent stretch of time in which he can focus on MLS games on a more manageable schedule.
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“We have seven weeks in a row here where we have a full week of training and then we have a game on the weekend,” he said. “We have to continue to train, to prepare, to reflect, to look at all the mistakes we make, to make those corrections, and go again.”
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