MLS Regular Season | Match #16
New England Revolution vs. CF Montréal
Sunday, July 25 | 6 p.m. ET
Gillette Stadium | Foxborough, Mass.
Watch: TV38, myRITV
Listen: 98.5 The Sports Hub (English), WBIX 1260 Nossa Radio (Portuguese)
Revolution Pregame Live (3 p.m. ET)
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CURRENT FORM
New England Revolution
1st in Eastern Conference (9-3-3, 30 pts.)
Last Result | 5-0 win at Inter Miami CF
Bruce Arena opted to make six changes for the Revolution’s midweek trip to South Florida and was rewarded with the biggest road win in club history, rolling to a 5-0 win in the Revs’ first-ever meeting with Inter Miami CF. Arnór Traustason and Adam Buksa both bagged braces – Traustason’s two goals were his first in MLS – as the Revs stretched their lead atop the Eastern Conference to five points.
Brad Knighton kept his second straight clean sheet as the Revs ride a 246-minute shutout streak into the weekend, while New England’s 28 goals are tops in MLS. Buksa and Gustavo Bou lead the way with seven goals apiece, tied for fourth in the league’s Golden Boot race.
CF Montréal
5th in Eastern Conference (6-4-4, 22 pts.)
Last Result | 1-0 loss at New York City FC
First-year head coach Wilfried Nancy has CF Montréal looking like a serious threat in the Eastern Conference, as the Canadian side enters the weekend just one point back of the third-place Philadelphia Union. Montréal was a playoff team under Thierry Henry in 2020 – falling 2-1 to the Revolution in the Play-In Round at Gillette Stadium – and look only to have improved under Nancy.
A narrow midweek loss to New York City FC snapped what was a six-game unbeaten run for Montréal, which had gone 4-0-2 between May 29 and July 17. Their most recent win was a wild 5-4 victory over FC Cincinnati, which marked Montréal’s return to Stade Saputo after playing their home games in the U.S. since last September.
KEY PLAYERS
Revolution forward Adam Buksa
Buksa’s first MLS brace not only capped off the Revolution’s 5-0 win over Inter Miami on Wednesday night, it also tied the Polish striker with Gustavo Bou for the Revolution team lead with seven goals. Both enter the weekend tied for fourth in the MLS Golden Boot race, four goals off league leader Raul Ruidiaz of Seattle.
With six goals in his last 10 appearances totaling just 478 minutes of action – an MLS-best rate of 1.13 goals per 90 minutes – Buksa has been one of the league’s hottest strikers in recent months. In the Revs’ 3-2 win over Montreal last October, Buksa had one goal and one assist.
Montréal forward Mason Toye
American striker Mason Toye has emerged as a legitimate goal-scoring threat in 2021, registering six goals in just 517 minutes of action to average 1.04 goals per 90 minutes. Three of those goals have come in his last three appearances, including a brace in Montréal’s 5-4 win over FC Cincinnati last weekend.
Toye had just seven career goals in 42 appearances with Minnesota United before joining the Canadian side late last season, but in Montréal the 22-year-old striker has found his form.
STATUS REPORT
Revolution
New England will once again be without the trio of Tajon Buchanan (Canada), Matt Turner (USMNT) and Henry Kessler (USMNT) for international duty at the Concacaf Gold Cup. Canada will take on Costa Rica in the quarterfinals on Sunday at 7 p.m. ET (FS1, TUDN), while the U.S. will face Jamaica at 10 p.m. ET (FS1, TUDN).
Luis Caicedo continues to recover from surgery, while head coach Bruce Arena said a decision on DeJuan Jones – who missed Wednesday’s win over Miami through injury – likely wouldn’t be made until Saturday.
“Jones looked good (Friday) in training, and hopefully (Saturday) he’ll feel fine,” Arena said. “We’ll make decisions on what we do with him.”
Despite playing their third game in nine days the Revs should be somewhat fresh, as several players were given a breather on Wednesday night with the Revs rotating heavily with six changes to the starting XI.
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING
New England Revolution head coach Bruce Arena
“I think the coaching staff is more adaptable than the players. We’re constantly trying to find a way that’s best suited for the players – not the other way around. Each week, we get to know the players a little bit more. Obviously, the games answer a lot of questions we have. Game-to-game, week-to-week, depending on player availability, we try to position our team as best we can given our strengths and weaknesses. The players, to use your word ‘adaptable,’ they certainly step in and get the job done, but we try to put them on the field in spots where they’re comfortable.”
New England Revolution center back Andrew Farrell
“We need to get back to winning at home. Montreal’s coming in this weekend. They’re a talented team. They have good pieces up front and a good backline. It’s going to be a big challenge for us and we need to be ready for that. We need to follow up these two road results with a win at home and keep that momentum going. I think momentum’s so huge in this league. Obviously we had a little bit of a lull and now we’re back kind of getting things where we want to be and we need to keep that going Sunday.”
