New England Revolution’s playoff journey begins at Philadelphia tomorrow. What to expect

Tomorrow, the fifth-seeded New England Revolution will begin their participation in the new, expanded playoff format that Major League Soccer introduced this season.

The teams seeded 1-7 in each conference automatically qualified and received a bye into the Round of 16, while the 8^th and 9^th seeds advanced to a Wild Card Match that determined the actual 8^th seed, the team that will meet the top seed in the opening round.

Those two games were played on Wednesday night.

In the Eastern Conference, the New York Red Bulls crushed Charlotte FC, 5-2 and will open against top seed FC Cincinnati.

In the Western Conference, Sporting Kansas City and the San Jose Earthquakes played to a scoreless draw, but SKC prevailed in the penalty kick shootout, 4-2, and will meet top seed Saint Louis City FC.

The first round this year will be a best-of-3 series, with the higher seed having the advantage of playing two games at home, if needed.

In order to guarantee that each team plays at least one game at home, the setup for the higher seed is home-away-home games.

A week after defeating the Philadelphia Union at Gillette Stadium (2-1), the New England Revolution will face the Philadelphia Union again tomorrow, but this time at Subaru Park in Chester, Pennsylvania.

Kick-off is scheduled for 5 p.m.

The second game, at Gillette Stadium, will not be played until Nov. 8.

There will be no ties under this format, so if the teams finish regulation deadlocked, they will straight to a penalty shootout to determine the winner.

Philadelphia, despite their recent struggles, are slight favorites, primarily because of the advantage of having two games a home as the Revolution managed only three victories in 17 road games and have not won in Philadelphia since 2015.

In addition, the Union are also quite successful at home, losing only once in the 17 games played at Subaru Park.

But last Saturday’s victory over Philadelphia gave the team a huge boost of confidence.

“I think guys are excited about the result over the weekend, excited about getting started with playoffs. So, yeah, just optimism, really,” Interim Coach Clint Peay told the media after Tuesday’s practice. “Obviously, any time you win you feel better about yourselves. It’s a good feeling, but we certainly don’t want to look at the game and think it was all right. We want to still learn from it and see how we can grow so we can be a better team as we advance through the playoffs.”

For Revolution Midfielder Matt Polster, last Saturday’s win perhaps put a little seed of doubt in Philadelphia Union’s minds.

“I think it [the win] puts maybe a little seed of doubt [in their minds],” said Polster. “They're a very good team, especially at home, but maybe we question them a little bit. We had a little tough stretch, but to end the way we did and to put in a very good performance throughout the 90 minutes is a building of confidence for us.”

Despite the win, players and coaches realize that this will be a different game. Last week, Philadelphia was more concerned with not conceding goals because they had a four-goal cushion over the Revs in the tie-breaker format.

The Union managed only two wins since the start of September and won only one of their last five games at home, allowing five goals during that span. There is some concern about how the defense has played and captain Alejandro Bedoya recognized that “it’s pretty clear that we know we could do better.”

Jim Curtin told The Inquirer that he is concerned about the Union’s inability to close out games, as shown last week at Gillette Stadium.

But despite whatever issues might be affecting Philadelphia, the Revolution fully realize this game will be a struggle and a stiff test.

“They're going to be loud. They're going to get after us. I think it's going to look a lot different than it was this Saturday,” Polster said. “They're definitely going to press a little bit more. They're going to play a lot more direct and look for flicks in behind. Those front three are really, really dangerous at times, so we have to be really, really focused as a group, limit their chances like we did. And then I think we have a front three, four, five players that can score goals consistently for us.”

“It’s not going to be easy,” acknowledged coach Peay. “We obviously have to go Philly, and Philly’s very difficult to play at home. They’ll be ready. They’ll probably change some things. I certainly think winning the game is good for our morale and our confidence, but we have to recognize that it won’t be easy.”

New England Revolution end regular season with 2-1 victory over Philadelphia Union

The New England Revolutionwent into Oct. 21’s regular season finale at Gillette Stadium hoping not only for a victory, but also for a move into one of the top four spots in the standings that would give the team home field advantage in the opening round of the playoffs. But, although they did get a 2-1 victory over the visiting Philadelphia Union, before an announced crowd of 41,355 fans, the Revolution finished in fifth place and, as a result, tomorrow will open the first round of the playoffs on the road, ironically against this same Philadelphia Union side.

The Revs entered ‘Decision Day’ in fifth place, trailing the Union by three points and the Columbus Crew by two. But the Crew edged CF Montreal, 2-1, and the Union had a four goal edge to win the tie-breaking procedure, thereby finishing in fourth place and relegating the Revolution to fifth.

The Revolution had lost their previous three games, by a combined 8-5 margin, games that saw the team fall behind in the first half and then mount serious comebacks that just fell short. The common thread in those losses were the tactical formation that Peay chose to start the games, which lead to a defensive imbalance that opponents cleverly exploited.

But in this game Peay went back to the familiar 4-2-3-1 formation that the team had used during ex-coach Bruce Arena’s tenure.

“I think they’re comfortable in that,” Peay said during his post-game comments when discussing the change in formations. “It gives them a bit of familiarity, in terms of how they want to move off each other and how they want to defend. “I think the biggest thing for us tonight was making sure, against a Philly team that will hurt you on the transition, that we had the right balance as we attacked.”

Central defender Henry Kessler, who returned to action two weeks ago after missing six months with an injury, sat out due to “an abundance of caution in his ongoing recovery from hamstring injury,” so Andrew Farrell slipped into his slot to play alongside Dave Romney, who, according to the notes from the Revolution sports department, “became the only outfield player to play every minute of the 2023 MLS season”.

And the improvement was very evident from the opening whistle, but it could have been derailed in the 16^th minute, on a defensive miscue. Philadelphia sent a long ball over the top, but Dave Romney was able to get in front of Mikael Uhre, shielded him off the ball and headed it back to keeper Jacob Jackson. But the young keeper had come out too far, could not reach the ball, crashed against Uhre. He then collided with Julián Carranza, the visiting forward chasing the ball, who was quicker to react and, while sitting on the ground, slid a shot just inside the far post.

“I don’t know exactly what happened, but there was a little lack of communication between him and Dave Romney,” Peay said in his post-game conference. “I think I can look back on that and look about how I spoke to [Dave] Romney. He couldn't hear me, and I think that's on me,” Jackson responded when asked to describe the play. “As the goalie, you've got to be loud and command everything. So, I take blame for the goal. But again, learning experience, move on, and now look to try to push forward in playoffs.”

The goal appeared to bother the Revolution, but despite that they still managed to get the equalizer. In the 23rd minute, Tomás Chancalay made a great run down the right, alongside the end line, weaving past two defendants before sliding a cross back to Carles Gil. The captain first timed a shot on frame and Damiem Lowe deflected it, but with his arm. Referee Tori Penso hesitated at first but then pointed to the penalty spot and cautioned the visiting center-back.

Normally, Carles Gil takes the penalty kicks, but this time Gustavo Bou assumed the responsibility. His powerful shot beat goalkeeper Andre Blake.

“Well, like I’ve said in the past, a forward lives on goals,” Bou told the media after the game while explaining the decision to have him take the spot kick. “Personally, I really wanted to score. It has been a while for me with the injury. I’ve played a few games but I’m still getting my rhythm. I’m lucky that I asked to take the penalty kick. I had to score. I know Carles [Gil] will always be there to support me. He didn’t doubt me.”

The goal lifted the Revolution. Yet, despite several approaches to the visiting area, they were unable to create scoring opportunities because the Philadelphia defense was compact and always well positioned. But, in the 42nd minute, they found the right path to the visitors' goal, a sharp and quick counterattack. Just outside his area, Noel Buck played a through ball to Carles Gil, who came down the left flank. The Revolution captain pulled the ball back to avoid an opponent and then lifted it over the top, on to the path of the streaking Gustavo Bou, who came in clean. Damiem Lowe tried to reach the Revolution forward, but he was still able to get off a blistering shot towards the near post. Goalkeeper Andre Blake dove and tried to deflect it, but all he did was help push the ball into the net.

No goals in the second half

There were no changes at halftime and gradually the Revolution intensified their dominance, had more possession, but the Philadelphia defense remained tight, doing a good job closing the paths to their net. The Revolution at times struggled to make what coach Peay called “making good decisions,” sometimes taking the extra pass, other times shooting either too early or too late.

Carles Gil was always in the middle of the action. He forced a tough save from Andre Blake in the 68th minute, after a good pass from Noel Buck. Two minutes later, he barely missed the target on a counterattack led by Matt Polster, and finally in the 73rd minute Gustavo Bou set him up but Blake denied him.

Philadelphia coach Jim Curtin sensed the danger and brought on fresh legs, with Leon Flach and Jesus Bueno replacing Jack McGlynn and Mikael Uhre. The changes worked, the visitors began to threaten the Revolution's back line and they came close to scoring on two occasions, first in the 74th minute when Julián Carranza's bullet sailed just over the crossbar, then and three minutes later on another hard shot, this time by Jesús Bueno, that sailed inches wide of the far post.

Some of the Revolution players began to show signs of fatigue, but Clint Peay made no substitutions, apparently satisfied with the performance from the unit on the pitch.

That decision nearly proved costly, as Philadelphia scored in the 87th minute. Kai Wagner took a free-kick, Julián Carranza tried to head it on net but couldn't reach the ball, which then reached Nathan Harriel at the far post, and he fired past Jackson. But the assistant referee had raised the flag to signal that Carranza was in an off-side position and had interfered on the play, the VAR confirmed the decision, and the goal was disallowed.

Finally, 2:30 minutes into injury time, Peay made his only substitution, with Justin Rennicks replacing Gustavo Bou. On the next play, the referee blew her whistle to end the game.

The victory was not enough for the Revolution to succeed in climbing to fourth place, but the quality of the performance and especially the play of the back line and the team defending left more encouraging prospects for the playoffs.

“It was good. I think we haven't been playing well of late as everyone knows,” Andrew Farrell said after the game. “And when we're not doing well, it's just the confidence… We have the talent. We have talented players on our team. It's when confidence is low, it's rough, and so this was huge for that purpose.”

This article originally appeared on The Herald News: New England Revolution’s playoff journey begins at Philadelphia tomorrow