By Tiffany Williams –
Saturday night the New England Revolution will host Inter Miami CF at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts.
The Revolution, who dueled New York City FC to a 0-0 draw at Yankee Stadium last Saturday afternoon, enter tonight’s match 7-3-6, with 27 points for the season thus far.
On Tuesday when Revolution Sporting Director & Head Coach Bruce Arena met with the media he was asked about the benefits of being back at home, and he said “Hopefully, we’ll be a little bit more rested. Last week was a difficult week and hopefully we have an advantage playing at home.”
When asked about going winless over the past few games, Arena said “There’s probably only a couple of teams that have only lost three games, so it’s not the end of the world. Getting points on the road in Atlanta and New York is not bad.”
When asked what the team has learned during the first half of the season, Arena said “We understand that every game is a tough game in MLS. Given all the issues we’ve had with injuries and all of that, I think if we can win on Saturday, the first half of the season will be successful.”
On Thursday, Revolution Assistant Coach Dave van den Bergh met with the media and when asked about the teams preparation for Inter Miami CF on Saturday, Van den Bergh said “It’s nice to have a full week of practice this time around. It’s been a little challenging with all these games, especially all these away games and midweek games. There’s not a whole lot of time to prepare it’s more like recovering and then seeing who’s was healthy for the next one. It’s nice that we got to get some work in this week in Foxborough and on the practice field. Preparation has been good and then this coming week, just like every game in the MLS, is going to be a tough one especially now that they have a new coach. They have a big push from the [Lionel Messi] news yesterday, and then of course, we lost our game at [Inter] Miami. It’s not going to be an easy game for us.”
Saturday night will also be the kickoff of a three-match homestand for the New England Revolution and when Van den Bergh was asked about the importance of three straight home games, he saidv“I know that the majority of the games in MLS favor the home team more than any other league, so it is important for us. We did look at these three games and told ourselves that we need to get some results. If we can do that, then we’ll be in good shape for the summer that is no doubt going to be tough. It’s going to be warm in certain places and it’s always a challenge here in the U.S. in the summer.”
Saturday night’s match can be heard on 98.5 The Sports Hub or 1260 AM Nossa Radio in Portuguese.