MLS Regular Season | Match #1
New England Revolution at D.C. United
Saturday, February 24 | 7:30 p.m. ET
Audi Field | Washington, D.C.
Watch: FREE on Apple TV
English Talent: Callum Williams (play-by-play), Calen Carr (analyst)
Spanish Talent: Moises Linares (play-by-play), Pablo Marino (analyst)
Listen: 98.5 The Sports Hub HD2 (English), 1260 AM Nossa Radio (Portuguese)
English Talent: Brad Feldman (play-by-play), Charlie Davies (analyst)
CURRENT FORM
New England Revolution
2023 MLS Season | 5th in Eastern Conference (15-9-10, 55 pts.)
Last Result | 1-0 win at CA Independiente (Concacaf Champions Cup)
The Revs got their 2024 campaign off to a perfect start on Wednesday night in Panama, claiming a 1-0 win over CA Independiente courtesy of Tomás Chancalay’s second-half goal and a shutout effort from debutant goalkeeper Henrich Ravas and the Revolution defense. They’ll now carry that one-goal aggregate advantage into next Thursday night’s second leg at Gillette Stadium, with a spot in the Concacaf Champions Cup Round of 16 and a meeting with Costa Rican powerhouse Alajuelense on the line.
But first the Revs will head to The District for a Saturday night showdown with D.C. United, kicking off the MLS regular season campaign and Caleb Porter’s first year in charge. The ultimate objective will be a deeper playoff run after last year’s first-round exit, but right now the focus is on daily progress and building a foundation for future success.
D.C. United
2023 MLS Season | 12th in Eastern Conference (10-14-10, 40 pts.)
Major change has come to D.C. United as the club hired Troy Lesesne as their head coach last month, searching for fresh ideas after missing the playoffs for the fourth straight year in 2023. Lesesne served as interim head coach of the New York Red Bulls for much of last year and guided a midseason turnaround, taking the Red Bulls from last place in the Eastern Conference into an eventual berth in the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs. The 40-year-old will, however, not be on the sidelines on Saturday night as he serves a one-game suspension dating back to a red card issued in his final game with the Red Bulls.
While the Revs have one competitive game under their belts following Wednesday night’s visit to CA Independiente in the Concacaf Champions Cup, this will be D.C.’s first match of the campaign.
KEY PLAYERS
Revolution forward Tomás Chancalay
New England’s attack features an array of weapons – Carles Gil, Giacomo Vrioni, Esmir Bajraktarevic, and several others spring to mind – but perhaps the most lethal since his arrival last July has been Argentine forward Tomás Chancalay. The 25-year-old bagged six goals in his first 11 appearances while on loan from Racing Club last year, securing a permanent move this past offseason and a Designated Player tag with the Revolution.
Chancalay has already picked up where he left off in 2024, scoring the only goal in Wednesday night’s win in Panama with a clever, bouncing effort from Vrioni’s flicked header. While some rotation is expected in the midst of a hectic stretch to begin the season, Chancalay will surely have some role to play at Audi Field.
D.C. United forward Christian Benteke
It was a largely successful first full MLS season for Christian Benteke in 2023, as the Belgian striker was D.C.’s top scorer with 14 goals and four assists across 31 league appearances (all starts). The 33-year-old finished the last campaign in fine form, as well, bagging four goals in his final three appearances, including a hat trick against the Red Bulls last September.
While the Revs have beaten D.C. on three straight occasions, outscoring their Eastern Conference opponents 7-1 in the process, Benteke did score United’s lone goal during that stretch in New England’s 2-1 win last March.
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING
New England Revolution head coach Caleb Porter
"It's always tricky to start the year because you want to get off to a good start. We're juggling multiple competitions, and you want to get off to a good start in both the league and the Concacaf Champions Cup. You also want to keep building, and to build you need continuity. I've always felt that it's important to build that durability in your team as well early in the year. My point is, if you rotate too much, you don't have continuity and you don't build that consistency or that durability. The only way you can manage these windows is to get your guys used to managing them, which means you keep a core in, and you keep them playing. You really have to worry about, I think when you get to the third game, that becomes a little bit more of an issue. So, you kind of have to look at your group as a whole for sure, look at individuals and where they're at, their previous injury history and figure out a rotation. Do you rotate a couple guys out that third game? Maybe rotate a couple out the fourth game? But you've got to keep a core – that’s my point. And if you keep a core and you build that durability in, when you look at some of the best teams in the league, they can roll with essentially the same 14 or 15 guys, maybe a few rotations, but for the most part if you build that bulletproof durability early in the year you can keep rolling and you just have to manage the training.”
“I think without knowing on the inside our mindset, you might think that was the starting 11, but you don't know what we know about D.C. and what our thoughts were on that game. And in the end, I think over the two games, you might see a little bit where we're at on a starting 11, so I don't view the first game as my top group because D.C. is a very good team, and you could argue, actually, they are a stronger team than the team we played in Panama, so we needed to keep some bullets in the barrel for that game knowing that we needed more strength than in that game. So, I think you could probably look at the subs I made and figure out a little bit where we're at on certain positions. There's probably not too much mystery there, but Esmir [Bajraktarević] has done very well. I view him as a starter for sure, but I probably have 14 starters, 15 starters. It's just a matter of picking the 11 I want for that game tactically. But Esmir has done extremely well, will be a key player for us, so has Noel Buck. Same with him, really good. Jonah Mensah has done extremely well. Henry Kessler, obviously, has been out. He's for sure going to be a starting player. Those are a few there, and we've got a lot of guys that anytime we pick them, whether it's the third game, you know, knowing that now, okay, we get a good result hopefully for this game. We turn around, we've got another game three days later at home in the second leg, and then we turn around again three days later, another home game against Toronto. So, we've got guys that I think you'll see start that third game actually that didn't start the first two that I view as starting players as well, whether that's Ema Boateng, or Ian Harkes, or Bobby Wood. These guys are all capable players.”
New England Revolution goalkeeper Henrich Ravas
“It was different in Panama. Really warm weather, different humidity. I’m really happy with the debut. It was really important for me to kind of start on a good foot, which I think I did. Now we’re looking forward to the next game. I think it’s going to be much different. I think in Panama, obviously we’re still not through the [second] leg but they will give it everything. It’s going to be the same here. I think D.C. will be a good, quality side, but I think we have a good quality team. I think we can get three points out of this game. It’s going to be much different, but at the same time it’s 22 players and one soccer ball. We’ll prepare the best and try to win the game.”
“As I mentioned in the interview I’ve done with the club, my main aspiration now is to be here and achieve something, something big or something great in New England. I’m not really thinking too much forward. I want to be in the present. As I said, winning a MLS Cup for me is a big aspiration, and I think it also is for everyone at the club, especially the fans. For me to achieve something great here as a group, for me that’s the most important thing. I have my personal goals for the season, but I’m not going to speak about them. I want to help this team achieve something and be remembered. It’s my main aspiration to achieve, win something and I would like to win the MLS Cup.”
