New England Revolution II (7-3-4; 26 pts.) return to Gillette Stadium on Sunday night to face New York City FC II (7-4-3; 25 pts.) for the second of three meetings this season between the two sides. The match kicks off at 6:00 p.m. ET and streams on MLSNEXTPro.com.
New England played to a 1-1 draw against Toronto FC II on Sunday, falling in the penalty kick shootout, 5-3. Forward Marcos Dias notched his fourth goal of the season in the 50th, becoming the team’s leading scorer in the process. Midfielder Michel distributed the assist on the goal and now leads Revolution II with four helpers on the season. Goalkeeper Jacob Jackson, who continues to lead MLS NEXT Pro with five clean sheets this season, collected three saves in Sunday’s match.
“I think we were just a lot more collective in how we did things. The spaces and the gaps were less in our lines,” Head Coach Clint Peay said of the team’s defensive performance. “I thought we dealt with the space behind our back four better as well and we tried to be not as predictable, so we tried to unbalance them by pressing in some moments and maybe being a little bit more of a mid to low block in some other moments, so just keeping them guessing and hopefully catching them a little but off balance if we do that.”
New England and NYCFC II most recently met on March 27 at Belson Stadium, when the two clubs kicked off their 2022 MLS Next Pro campaigns. The two sides played to a 2-2 draw with New England winning the penalty kick shootout, 4-3. Homegrown midfielder Damian Rivera recorded the third brace in Revolution II history in the match, scoring in the 7th and 70th minutes. Revolution II saw five players make their professional debuts with Jackson, Italo, Ben Reveno and Trevor Zwetsloot all starting and Academy forward Malcolm Fry making an appearance off the bench.
“Yeah, we’re similar teams in some ways,” Peay stated. “Obviously, their goal output has been the best in the league, so they’ve really kicked it up a notch in terms of being able to create chances, score goals, and so we saw that potential early in the season and just took them awhile to kind of reach it so certainly if there’s anything that’s changed for them it’s just how often they’re finding the back of the goal and how often they’re creating the chances so they’re going to be very difficult.”
Revolution II Season Memberships and single-game tickets are on sale now. For more information, email tix@revolutionsoccer.net or call 1-877-GET-REVS.
WHAT TO WATCH FOR AGAINST NEW YORK CITY FC II:
· Forward Marcos Dias adding to his team-leading four goals on the season.
· Homegrown midfielder Noel Buck making a 23-minute appearance to reach 2,800 minutes played with New England’s second team.
· Defender Pierre Cayet making his 30th start with Revolution II.
· Goalkeeper Jacob Jackson improving upon his 1.08 GAA and 0.80 save percentage.
· New England adding to the 38 players – and 21 Revolution Academy products – who have made their professional debuts with Revolution II thus far.
