FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – The New England Revolution were well prepared to test their midfield depth coming into the season. Their defense, however, is another question.
And, ready or not, answers will come on Saturday when New England play host to the Montreal Impact (3 pm ET; MLS LIVE).
The Revs will be without the services of captain Jose Goncalves, who will miss the game after a red-card infraction in Sunday’s match against New York City FC, and right back Kevin Alston, who suffered a right hamstring injury in the same game.
“We’ve talked about it all year; we’ve talked about it every time that someone goes down,” Revs head coach Jay Heaps said on Thursday. “There’s going to be an opportunity for somebody to step up.”
Veteran Revs defender Darrius Barnes seems like an obvious choice to fill one of the two holes, likely at Goncalves’ center-back spot, having familiarity in Heaps’ system.
After that, there are only two defenders left on the roster in newcomers Jeremy Hall and London Woodberry, with each having made the game-day roster in one of the first two matches, but neither seeing any time.
Hall did see plenty of time at right back during the preseason and is an MLS veteran who has played in 115 league games. Woodberry on the other hand has only eight league matches. The former FC Dallas youth product did pop up at a few different spots on the backline for the Revs this preseason.
As is standard operating procedure, no clues were given as to who might fight what role come Saturday, with Heaps only adding that, “We’ve been preparing those guys for the game on Saturday.”
And while on paper, the matchup against a Montreal side that finished last in the Eastern Conference last year and will be coming into the match on short rest after their mid-week CONCACAF Champions League match may look favorable to the Revs, they don’t see it that way.
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“Yeah, they’re on a short week, but at the same time I think they’ve got a little bit of high because they’ve been doing well,” Nguyen said, referring to Montreal’s 2-0 win over Costa Rican club Alajuelense in the first leg of their CCL semifinal on Wednesday. “We’ve got to be weary of that; they’re coming in confident. At the same time, we’re back at home, so we’ve got to put the game to them.”
“I’m sure they were preparing for both games,” Heaps added. “They’ve got a deep team, so they’re going to be ready to go whether they have the same lineup or have a couple of changes.”
