Making the most of his opportunities
Revs striker Buksa up for clash with Nashville FC tonight
Adam Buksa understands the terms and conditions of being a single striker in New England Revolution coach Bruce Arena’s strategic designs.
The 6-foot-3, 170-pound international import from Krakow, Poland, has held down the position for parts of 18 games with 13 starts and has the results to show for it.
Buksa has four goals — two fast-break tallies — two assists and is fourth in MLS in shots (48) and sixth in shots on target (18) despite contending with two center backs on a routine basis.
“I’m not the only one dealing with that problem because most teams in the world play with one striker,” Buksa said during a Zoom conference following Thursday’s practice.
“So, it’s nothing new here. It’s my position on the field and it’s not only up to me how I deal with defenders. It’s about the team and how we deal with an opponent as a group.
“As a single striker you can’t do a lot if you don’t have the support. If you don’t have a good striker, it’s difficult for a team to create chances. We need to work as a group, which I think we do.”
Buksa will likely resume his spot as the point man in the Revolution’s offense when they take on Nashville
FC tonight (8:30) at Nissan Stadium. Nashville FC has been given the green light to allow fans in the arena, which will be a first live audience for the Revolution this season.
“I’m happy to play in front of fans and that’s why we play soccer, for the fans,” said Buksa. “I don’t want to say it will be a new experience, but it will be kind of strange after a few months with no fans.
“I’m looking forward to it. Obviously, it won’t be our fans but it will be good to see people at the stadium for sure.”
The Revolution (7-5-7) are currently in fifth place in the MLS Eastern Conference standings, one point ahead of New York City FC with four games remaining. The top-six teams in the East get a preliminary round bye in the upcoming MLS playoffs, while the topfour host in round one.
Nashville is in eighth place (6-6-6) and battling with the New York Red Bulls, Montreal Impact and
Chicago Fire for a favorable preliminary round opening.
“I think it’s an important game for both teams,” said Arena. “Certainly, it helps establish our positions for the playoffs and try and make us obviously eligible for the playoffs, so it’s an important game for both teams.
“I don’t know what to expect from Nashville. My guess is that their posture will be a little bit different than when we played them here at Gillette.”
Nashville FC is an MLS expansion team who battled the Revolution to a scoreless tie in their first meeting on Oct. 3. Nashville played a compact game so they were difficult to break through at a time when the Revolution were struggling to score.
“They’re a great defensive team,” said Revolution right back DeJuan Jones. “I think we will have a lot of the ball, so we just have to work our combinations, whether finding space on the inside or the outside.
“It’s just about finding
gaps behind the defense and putting some goals in the back of the net.”
The Revolution are coming off a hard-luck 2-1 loss to the Philadelphia Union on Monday night at Gillette Stadium. The Union’s first goal inadvertently went in off the foot of Revs’ center back Andrew Farrell on a pass through the scoring area.
Despite the loss, the Revs
are enjoying the best stretch of their unbalanced schedule, going 4-2-2 in their last eight games.
“Right now, we are in a pretty good spot for the playoffs but this game is really important,” said Jones. “This game could put us over the hump and we’ll look to build off this game for momentum.
“We want to finish strong heading into the playoffs.”