The New England Revolution look to maintain their unbeaten home record when they host surging Atlanta United on Wednesday night.
New England (10-4-7, 37 points) saw its overall run of seven games unbeaten (3-0-4) snapped on Saturday night in a 2-1 loss to the New York Red Bulls.
The 10-man Revolution nearly found a way to earn a point after Latif Blessing’s 60th-minute ejection. Brandon Bye leveled the game at 1-1 in the 76th minute, and the Revs thought they’d found a second equalizer in second-half stoppage time, only for it to be ruled out via video review for an offside violation.
New England was also without co-leading scorer Carles Gil, who has seven goals and will return Wednesday after serving a one-match suspension for yellow card accumulation. The Revs have only two defeats this season when the 2021 MLS MVP starts.
They’ve also posted a 7-0-3 record so far at Gillette Stadium.
“We haven’t talked about it all,” manager Bruce Arena said of that unbeaten streak. “But I think anytime you play at home you feel like you can win. And that’s important.”
Atlanta (9-5-8, 35 points) enters on a two-match winning streak that came while keeping its first back-to-back clean sheets of the season in a 2-0 home win over Philadelphia followed by a 1-0 triumph at CF Montreal last Saturday.
Winger Brooks Lennon scored in both games for Atlanta. And manager Gonzalo Pineda’s switch to a three center-back formation in those games appears to have resulted in some much-needed defensive stability, even as center back Miles Robinson continues to miss time while at the CONCACAF Gold Cup with the U.S. national team.
“I think it’s working,” Pineda said of the tactical switch. “Sometimes when you see things aren’t working, you look for alternatives, and that’s what we did. But no formation will fix mentality. The credit all goes to the players.”
Robinson will be out again, as will leading scorer Giorgos Giakoumakis, who suffered a hamstring strain that forced him off early in the win over Philadelphia.
–Field Level Media