FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Of course New England Revolution players have seen that Wayne Rooney play.
Yes, the one where he makes a lung-busting, 60-yard recovery run to stop Orlando City’s Will Johnson from scoring on an open net, then lofts an inch-perfect long ball for Luciano Acosta to head home in Sunday’s last-gasp 3-2 win for D.C. United.
“You need guys putting in effort like that to win games,” Teal Bunbury said. “I thought it was an unbelievable play.”
But head coach Brad Friedel, perhaps mindful of his 450 Premier League appearances, wasn’t as quick to praise Rooney. He called the former England national team striker a “world-class player,” but said all players should hold themselves to that standard.
“How can I put it? If you don’t do it, then you shouldn’t be playing the sport. Let’s put it that way,” Friedel said. “That’s a normal thing to try and accomplish. Then to have the technical ability to create and other things, that’s what differentiates a lot of world-class players, which Wayne most certainly is. But working hard? Anyone in the world can work hard.”
The dismissive tone is also indicative of what’s at stake Sunday night, when the Revs and D.C. meet for the first time at Audi Field (7:30 pm ET | FS1 - Full TV and streaming info).
New England enter on a six-game winless skid and have dropped to seventh in the Eastern Conference. Meanwhile, D.C. coach Ben Olsen’s team are unbeaten in four, and have scored seven goals in two wins this week, as they work their way up the East standings after playing 12 of their first 14 games on the road while awaiting the opening of Major League Soccer’s newest soccer-specific stadium.
The importance of this match and its potential playoff implications aren’t lost on Andrew Farrell.
“Maybe they’ll be not as fresh as we’ll be, and we just have to come in and get the three points,” Farrell said. “We have to get another win away from home.”
There will also be some familiarity, given the Revs beat United 3-2 at home on June 30. But that was before the summer window opened, and New England added defensive reinforcements in defensive midfielder Cristhian Machado and center back Michael Mancienne.
Conversely, D.C. made a splash with Rooney, brought former goalkeeper Bill Hamid back on loan from FC Midtjylland, and traded for left back Vytas from the Portland Timbers.
Despite the changes, Friedel still expects a hard-fought, stingy game.
“They’ll play the exact same way they did when they were here,” Friedel said. “There’s very little difference. They’re a good passing team, we’re a very good pressing team.”
Added center back Jalil Anibaba: “We’ve never looked at them as a team that’s rejuvenated or not dangerous in the earlier parts of the season. They’ve always been a team that we know can be dangerous.”
So for New England, tied with Orlando and D.C. for the fewest road points in the Eastern Conference, the task is corralling Rooney & Co. to avoid further falling out of the playoff hunt. And for D.C., it’s a win-at-all-costs approach as they try to salvage their season with a home-heavy second half.
“At the end of the day, if we play our game, we know we can win any game,” Diego Fagundez said. “We just have to make sure everybody is prepared, everybody is ready and when it comes down to set pieces and our chances, we need to finish them.”
