FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — The road hasn't treated the New England Revolution kindly so far this season.
In their seven matches away from Gillette Stadium, New England have picked up a modest haul of two points. The current calculus must change sooner rather than later with the season nearing its half-way point and the Revolution set to play five of their next six matches on the road.
New England midfielder Ryan Guy believes he and his new teammates have the ability and the fortitude to turn matters around starting with Sunday's match at Seattle (4 pm ET, MatchDay Live).
“All we need is a little bit of luck at this point,” Guy told MLSsoccer.com earlier this week. “Get a few goals and one or two wins. That will really turn our season around, especially against the good competition. We've got Seattle and Salt Lake coming up and those will be real uphill battles for us. If we can overcome those, we'll really turn ourselves around.”
The return of Benny Feilhaber to the squad should provide a timely boost. Feilhaber has not played since spraining his right ankle in a 2-1 defeat to the LA Galaxy on May 28, but he returned to full training last week and looks set to feature in some capacity against the Sounders.
Although Feilhaber looks poised to take the field at some stage and Ryan Cochrane (hamstring) could join him in the squad, Revolution coach Steve Nicol will still likely have to do without a few regulars as his side seeks its fourth win in five attempts against Seattle.
Didier Domi (right Achilles tendonitis), Kheli Dube (whiplash) and Stephen McCarthy (left shoulder subluxation) are ruled out of the contest, according to the Revolution's injury report. Chris Tierney (left foot contusion) is listed as doubtful, while Ousmane Dabo (right quadriceps strain) is pegged as questionable for the match.
Despite those injuries and the poor road form, Nicol said he expects his side to continue its trend of competing on the road at CenturyLink Field.
“We don’t go anywhere and lie down,” Nicol told revolutionsoccer.net earlier this week. “We haven’t made a huge amount of chances on the road, but we have made some and haven’t taken them, which would’ve given us more points. So it’s kind of a similar story. Keep trying to create [chances] away from home and take them.”
