FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – The New England Revolution are ready for some home cooking.
After dropping a pair of away games to kick off the 2015 season – the fourth straight year they’ve opened with back-to-back road trips – the Revs will finally return to Gillette Stadium on Saturday afternoon, when they’ll host the Montreal Impact in their home opener (3 p.m. ET on Comcast SportsNet New England).
“I think it’s exactly what we need,” Darrius Barnes said of getting some home support. “We’ve had two rough goes on the road and to get back here in front of our home fans, to get the ball rolling here at home would be huge to get three points and get that momentum and confidence.”
Home success continues to be paramount in Major League Soccer, where extensive travel makes earning points on the road an almost Herculean task. Only two MLS teams managed better than .500 records away from home last season – Seattle Sounders FC and the Portland Timbers. Of those two sides, only the Supporters’ Shield-winning Sounders reached the MLS Cup Playoffs.
Conversely, home success almost directly translated to overall success in 2014. Seven teams – including the Revolution – won between 10 and 12 home games, and all finished in the top eight in the league.
“Any of the teams that you see do well, they have great home records and they’re able to protect home-field advantage,” said Barnes. “That’s something we’re going to have to do and that’s something we’re definitely going to take seriously this year.”
The records show that the Revs took home-field advantage seriously last year, as well. Including a pair of postseason contests they went 12-4-3 at Gillette Stadium last season, buoyed by a remarkable 8-0-2 run through their final 10 games in Foxborough.
“We definitely felt we had an advantage at home,” Barnes said. “The fans were behind us, the fans were supporting us game-in and game-out. When there were lulls in the game, we felt that energy and that atmosphere pick up. I think that’s huge.”
“We’ve always wanted to make this a tough place to play for teams, and a place where we can have some success,” said head coach Jay Heaps. “We’ve got to have that mindset going into the game.”
A revamped Impact side will present a stern test for the Revolution – and Montreal has won on two of their previous three visits to Foxborough – but after a pair of shutout losses on the road to open the season, there’s a sense of urgency in Revs camp to make the most of Saturday’s opportunity.
“We need to get back to that state of mind and get focused and be ready to go,” said Barnes. “We’ve dropped six points on the road and it’s time to grab three. We’ve got to go take them.”
