New York Red Bulls vs. New England Revolution | 2017 MLS Match Preview

Matthew Doyle

New York Red Bulls vs. New England Revolution
2017 MLS Regular Season
Red Bull Arena - Harrison, New Jersey
Saturday, May 27 - 7:30 pm ET
WATCH: MLS LIVE

An offseason of change has led into a regular season of uncertainty for the New York Red Bulls, who'd previously been the Eastern Conference's most reliable team over the past eight seasons. They've struggled mightily away from home, while at Red Bull Arena they've generally been less than their smothering selves. Getting goals has been hard, and keeping the backline together and healthy has been even harder. They're winless in four overall, and in their last two at home.

For the New England Revolution, 2017 has been a stop-start campaign thus far, with encouraging performances often bookended by lackluster results. But are things finally picking up for good? They've lost just once in their past six, and won their past two – though both of those were at home, a few hours' drive north on I-95.

New York Red Bulls

Bradley Wright-Phillips and Sacha Kljestan were two of the best players in MLS last year and clearly the two best players on RBNY, but 2017 has truly turned into the Sacha and Bradley show. The two stars are keeping up their end of the bargain, but aren't getting enough help in the attacking third from either the kids or the imports, and results have been less than stellar.

Compounding this is the spate of backline injuries. Aurelien Collin has been missed badly, and both fullback slots have seen a rotation of players. Same for deep-lying midfield, as both Tyler Adams (who's on duty with the US U-20s) and Sean Davis have been tried to varying degrees of success.

It's all led to a more disjointed and less assured

Suspensions: D Michael Murillo (Disciplinary Committee decision)
International Duty: M Tyler Adams (US U-20s)
Injury Report: OUT – D Gideon Baah (Broken leg); DOUBTFUL – D Aurelien Collin (abdominal strain)

Projected Starting XI (4-2-3-1): Luis Robles – Connor Lade, Damien Perrinelle, Aaron Long, Kemar Lawrence – Felipe, Sean Davis – Alex Muyl, Sacha Kljestan, Daniel Royer – Bradley Wright-Phillips

Notes: The Red Bulls have not won in two home games (1L-1D). The last time this happened was from May 24 to June 20, 2015 (2L). Their last three game home winless run came from May 10 to June 27, 2014.

New England Revolution

Will the real Revolution please stand up? Two weeks ago they lost 2-0 at Columbus Crew SC, but last week they won 2-1 at home against the same foes. In between they thumped Real Salt Lake 4-0 at home, which broke a five-game winless skid in which the defense had struggled mightily. They've alternated between a 4-4-2 diamond and a 4-2-3-1 (that's looked an awful lot like a 4-4-1-1), and they've had to shuffle their forwards, midfield and left back around almost constantly.

Suss it all out and you're left with a high-scoring team (20 goals in 12 games) that's been very good at home, but desperately wanting away from Gillette Stadium. Thus far they've taken just two points from six away games (0-4-2), and that's a trend they'd like to reverse ASAP.

Suspended: D Andrew Farrell (red card), D Benjamin Angoua (Disciplinary Committee decision)
International Duty: None
Injury Report: None

Projected Starting XI (4-4-2 diamond): Cody Cropper – Je-Vaughn Watson, Antonio Mlinar Delamea, Joshua Smith, Chris Tierney – Xavier Kouassi, Scott Caldwell, Kelyn Rowe, Diego Fagundez – Lee Nguyen, Kei Kamara

Notes: New England are winless in their last eight road games (6L-2D). The Revolution have been shut out in four games over their winless streak.

All-Time Series

The Revs hold the all-time edge, but this series has generally been determined by whoever happens to be hosting. When it's in Foxborough, New England dominate. When it's in New Jersey, it's all RBNY.

Overall: New York 24 wins (112 goals) … New England 29 wins (112 goals) … Ties 15
At New York: New York 19 wins (73 goals) … New England 8 wins (48 goals) … Ties 8