The Blazing Musket Previews Colorado-New England

COMMERCE CITY – Burgundy Wave reached out to fellow former SB Nation site The Blazing Musket to help preview Colorado Rapids vs. New England Revolution. We asked Jake Catanese questions to help you get informed on the Revs and ready for the Interim Bowl.

1. The Revs have had a ridiculous week following Bruce Arena’s resignation. Do we have any idea what he did or said and to whom? How will could this whole mess affect the team for Saturday? 

Right now the best information anyone has on this situation has come from The Athletic’s Tom Bogert and Pablo Maurer. We don’t know exactly what Bruce Arena said or to whom, only that it is likely that some of the complaints came from Revs assistant Richie Williams who had been the interim head coach up until this week. Revs II head coach Clint Peay has been elevated to the interim role now.

Several Revs players including Matt Polster and Carles Gil have done a little bit of damage control in the past few days, so it seems that the players are doing their best to remove as much of the distraction as they can. The loyalty and support for Bruce likely ran very deep. The lack of information to the players was likely extremely disappointing to them but I think on the field the Revs should be ready for this trip.

2. The Rapids defense has gotten cooked by opposing star attacking players this year. Regardless of all the news and noise this week, can Carles Gil singlehandedly win the game? What does the attack look like under interim to the interim manager Clint Peay?

Carles Gil is still having a first team All-MLS type of season and can absolutely decide a game. The Rapids will be on the wrong end of a lot of feelings that Carles and the team are going through right now. The attack will likely have Giacomo Vrioni at striker and Tomas Chancalay and Nacho Gil out wide to round out the 4-2-3-1 look the Revs have deployed most of the second half of the season.

The biggest issue for the Revs has been conceding late equalizers and sitting back too much with a lead. I’ve always said this should be more of a counter attacking team and they’ve been known to get leads and generally hold onto them. Four points dropped late against Austin and Minnesota could have really helped build some separation between them and the other teams battling for second in the East.

3. Colorado’s attack is in a slump. But this will be the weakest defense they’ve played in months. Djordje Petrovic Earl Edwards Jr has been solid. There’s several injuries. How can this team get a clean sheet on the road at altitude?

The Revs have absolutely been working with a patchwork backline, but have gotten some incredible game from renaissance man Omar Gonzalez and emergency right back Matt Polster. Earl Edwards has also done really well and been on the end of some weird stuff late in games that I can’t really fault him for. He might platoon with Czech keeper Tomas Vaclik the rest of the season. Fullback depth has been a huge problem for the Revs without Brandon Bye, though Ryan Spaulding getting recalled from his loan at Tampa Bay Rowdies has gotten most of the minutes when he’s been available. 

Clint Peay’s options off the bench will be limited. One of the issues New England had under Arena and Williams was that they subbed very, very late. Hopefully Peay will have a more aggressive approach with subs as load management stuff becomes important down the stretch. I don’t think Gustavo Bou will dress for this one so he’s not available off the bench, which leaves the Revs with Bobby Wood up top, a lot of homegrowns, and Tommy McNamara everywhere else. The Revs nearly got a clean sheet last week and hopefully can get a multigoal lead heading into stoppage time just in case for this one.

4. Clint Peay as interim to the interim manager. Chris Little as Colorado’s interim. Rapids Twitter has been calling this game the Interim Cup/Bowl. Do we like that name? This game’s going to be a mess no matter what, right?

It can’t be any worse than some of the Burgundy-Red jersey clashes we’ve seen between these two over the years. Honestly I think both teams would be happy with a mildly horrific and/or incredibly boring and lackluster 0-0 draw at this point given the circumstances so even if this is a mess there is a silver lining in that point.

I do think New England really needs this game after two excruciating late draws the past two weeks to keep up the pace in second. But yeah, there’s going to be a lot of talk off the field in this one and rightly so. I do kind of like the Interim Cup, we should get a WWE style belt that maybe has a mini-whiteboard with the “Hi My Name Is” sticker in the middle.

5. Projected Lineup/Injuries/Score Predictions/Etc.

Okay so the Revs have two players on season ending injury, winger Dylan Borerro and right back Brandon Bye. Midfielder Maciel hasn’t played all year as he was working back from a season ending injury last year and center back Henry Kessler hasn’t played in months but could return before the playoffs. Bou is officially listed as questionable as he has rejoined training but I doubt he’ll be on the subs bench.

Same as last week unless Ryan Spaulding and Andrew Farrell are healthy enough to start in which case Farrell could deputize at right back to get Polster back into the midfield.

4-2-3-1: Edwards Jr; D Jones, Romney, Gonzalez, Polster; MAK, Harkes; Chancalay, C Gil, N Gil; Vrioni

I think the Revs take this 2-0, led by a Carles Gil wonder strike in the first half to set the tone and a homegrown counter late…*rolls a d6*… Jack Panayotou seals it past the 80th minute.

Photo Credit: Mark Shaiken.

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