New England Revolution vs. Real Salt Lake match preview

The New England Revolution have been in a rough stretch, going 0-2-3 in their last five. Can they get back on track against struggling Real Salt Lake?

The season is still young but with the form both of these teams are in these next couple of weeks could be do-or-die.The New England Revolution are 2-4-4 with 10 points on the season which is good enough for ninth in the Eastern Conference. RSL are in 10th place in the Western Conference with a 2-6-2 record for eight points.

New England

Let’s start with the positives.

The Revolution’s attack has been the most consistent since scoring picked up a couple of weeks ago. At times problems have come from mental mistakes caused by lineups and roles being moved around.

Kelyn Rowe has been playing left back more often than midfield. Lee Nguyen has bounced between forward and attacking mid and Kei Kamara has had trouble keeping his spot in the lineup.

A lot of the trouble New England has faced has been longevity. A few of the Revs’ losses have come from tiring out near the end of the match.

The defense has also been disappointing. As was evident a few matches this season, the team has a very difficult time keeping possession out of their own side of the pitch.

There is some good news in the fact that the team is fully healthy and ready to be called on as nobody is on suspention.

New England Likely Starters:

Cody Cropper (GK) – Andrew Farrell, Antonio Mlinar Delamea, Joshua Smith, Kelyn Rowe – Xavier Kouassi, Diego Fagundez, Scott Caldwell, Lee Nguyen – Kei Kamara, Juan Agudelo.

Real Salt Lake

RSL are in big trouble.

Not only have they failed to look competitive against the best teams but they aren’t meshing well. They have trouble all over the pitch, especially in goal as backup Matt Van Oekel hasn’t had a great time.

Four of their next six games are on the road. Not good news for a team that’s 1-3-1 on the road this season.

Adding injury to insult in this case, they are without six players (four on International Duty, two injured) with four others questionable for the game.

It remains to be seen whether or not young Venezuelan star winger Jefferson Savarino will in Saturday’s game. He was recently signed as a DP after impressing with Venezuela.

RSL Likely Starters:

Matt Van Oekel (GK) – Chris Wingert, Aaron Maund, Chris Schuler, Demar Phillips – Stephen Sunday, Luke Mulholland – Jefferson Savarino, Albert Rusnak, Joao Plata – Yura Movsisyan.

Series Highlights:

In the lifetime series Real Salt Lake leads with nine wins to New England’s eight with five draws. RSL also leads in scoring, 34-25.

In New England, RSL leads 4-3 with two draws and New England leads scoring 16-13.

RSL are on a three game losing streak, they haven’t lost four in a row since 2011.

The New England Revolution have only won one of their last nine regular season games against RSL (6L-2D).

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Prediction

The Revs will take the game behind their strong attack but RSL will nearly make a comeback in the waning minutes. Revs win 3-2.