FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Almost exactly one year ago, the New England Revolution embarked on their first-ever Leagues Cup journey, making a promising run that was cut short only by a penalty shootout loss to surprise contenders Querétaro FC. Now, the Revs have the opportunity once again to prove themselves on the continental stage, and hope is high around Foxborough that the team will be able to make another strong push.
This year’s Leagues Cup campaign comes at a difficult point in the season for New England, though, as a number of key players are still on their way back from injury. But with depth players stepping up to the plate in recent weeks, and particularly with multiple Homegrown Players shining brightly, the Revolution are poised to give Leagues Cup 2024 everything they’ve got and make their mark on the tournament.
“We want to compete for trophies, and this is an opportunity to win a trophy,” midfielder Tommy McNamara said after training on Tuesday. “We have had a very frustrating and difficult season up until this point. A little bit of a rollercoaster. So, it’s an opportunity to compete for another trophy and it’s an opportunity for us to kind of cement who we are, what we are trying to be, and how we want to play. I’m looking forward to the opportunity.”
McNamara has been one of the players to be called on more in recent weeks, demonstrating his maturity and leadership in being asked to play out of position and nearly contributing with a goal last time out against FC Dallas. He shared that it had been frustrating to be out of the squad for so long with injury, but added that he was happy to be back helping the team now.
“I was healthy to start the year, played down at Club América and played in New York City following up on it, then got injured the following week in training,” he said. “So, it took a while to recover from that one, a couple of setbacks, but I’m happy to be back playing again now. I feel good. I was able to play, started last weekend’s game and started this weekend’s game – 80 minutes – so I’m looking to, kind of, continue to improve my match fitness and match sharpness and hopefully continue to help this team.”
But while McNamara may be on his way back to full fitness, head coach Caleb Porter acknowledged that this year’s Leagues Cup comes at a time when a number of players still have a ways to go. He said that, as always, the team would give this competition everything they have, but recognized that they simply might not have as much to give as they would have otherwise wanted.
“It is not ideal, to have another competition right now with the situation we’re in, to be honest with you,” Porter said after training. “Like always, we will give it everything we have. With what we have available, we will throw everything into this next game and try to get a result.”
When asked about the possibility of rotating players for the tournament, Porter expanded on the team’s ongoing injury situation, and made clear how highly he prioritized the Revolution’s home stretch in MLS.
“Who can we rotate? We’ve got nobody to rotate,” he said. “So, if we could rotate, we would maybe think about rotating. But the way we’re playing right now, in the last four games, we’re playing the guys we have healthy, so there’s not much of a choice. If we were in a different situation, then obviously this tournament becomes much more of a priority. I have to be honest. We’re going to, obviously like every game, we’re going to try to win every game we play. We never try to lose. But we also understand how important the last 11 games are for a push for the [MLS] playoffs and what we can’t do is get any more guys injured. So, we will be playing probably a very similar group that we played last game. We’re not getting any more guys back and we’re not deep enough to really rotate anymore.”
Among the standouts from the group that played last game was Homegrown defender Peyton Miller, who could be given a run in the starting lineup out of necessity after shining bright in his first career MLS start. McNamara, as a 10-year veteran of MLS, felt that Miller compared well to other young talents he had seen around the league, and said he had high hopes for his continued development.
“He is a big talent,” McNamara said of Miller. “He has got a bright future ahead of him. You see how well he took to his debut in Philadelphia, and how well he took to his first start. So, he has got a bright future ahead of him. He’s a really good kid, very mature, so I think he has a long way to go.”
Another upside of the coming group stage is the fact that the Revs will be playing both of their games at home, eliminating the physical toll of travel and keeping the Foxborough faithful behind the team at a time when they need the support. Porter said he looked forward to having the support of the fans for these group stage matches.
“It would be great. Hopefully we [will] get a good crowd,” he said. “Obviously, it’s a Liga MX opponent, which we faced in the Concacaf Champions Cup in Club América. So, it’s another opponent that will help develop us. Again, we’re thin, it’s not ideal to have another competition to manage, but we’re going to obviously give everything we have and try to advance.”
