Signal Intel: New England Revolution vs Chicago Fire

With the Fire set to take on their MLS 1.0 brethren this weekend, Jake Catanese from The Bent Musket and I sat down (figuratively) to talk about what’s going on with the New England Revolution. You can find my answers to his questions here.

How did New England go from arguably the MLS Cup favorite at the beginning of the season to fighting for a playoff spot this year?

Injuries, transfers, and more injuries. I’d argue the Revs were more of a CCL darkhorse than MLS Cup favorite at the start of the year but a slow preseason and missing most of your key defenders and starting keeper meant the Revs got bounced in the quarterfinals against Pumas.

Some key midseason additions with Djordje Petrovic in net and Dylan Borrero out wide gave New England a solid boost in the middle of the year. But despite those additions, the Revs have never truly hit their stride and have been treading water the last month or so without DP strikers Gustavo Bou and Giacomo Vrioni as well as Borrero.

The Revs spent the middle part of the year not losing a lot of games, but also not winning a lot either and that is the difference between this year and 2021. That shield-winning team kept finding ways to win and that magic just isn’t around this year. I still think at full strength the Revs can be a threat in the playoffs but they need to get healthy fast.

What’s going on with the stadium situation?

I am perhaps the worst person to ask this because I am still of the opinion that the New England Patriots/Revolution are contractually obligated to be playing in East Hartford, CT.

There has been significant rumors about a stadium in the area of Everett, MA that I think getting a lot of pushback politically most of these things do. The biggest problem for a Revs stadium is the same as the current problem— public transportation access. Gillette serves a fine purpose for the Revs but they’re never going to fill an NFL stadium consistently like they could with a 25K seater in greater Boston.

What’s the rebrand process been for you and how have the fans reacted to it? Has it gone over better than the Fire’s first try at it?

I honestly think anything would have gone over better than that Fire rebrand, someone made a very good decision to bin that as quickly as they did.

I will forever stan the glorious Crayon Flag as perfect but I don’t have any real feelings towards the current logo. I don’t think it’s bad nor do I think it’s great. Any potential the Revs had to make it good failed upon launch which they did in the final home game of the year and more officially over the offseason.

The Revs rebranded without any significant merchandise stocked up and sold out of what they had very quickly, especially jerseys. I might eventually get over the logo being average if the team had more branding to reinforce that glorious sash as is rumored for their next away shirt but the launch of this new rebrand will always be dismal in my opinion.