Revolution at a crossroads

foXboroUGh — Caleb Porter is accustomed to his teams finding ways to win. Since Porter began coaching the revolution, though, the team has been figuring out how to do the opposite.

the losing habit started late last season, before Porter’s arrival in January. Under bruce Arena, the revolution were in second place in the MlS standings at 12-4-7 (43 points). After the league placed Arena on administrative leave, the revolution went 3-7-3 (12 points), with two of the defeats to the Philadelphia Union in the playoffs.

now, after a 3-0 loss the Union Saturday, the revolution stand in last place with a 2-9-1 mark (7 points). Porter has been unable to reverse the losing trend, and part of the reason is the revolution doing one of the things coaches despise: “beating themselves.”

Against the Union, a 14th-minute red card to ryan Spaulding placed the revolution at a disadvantage. referee filip Dujic ejected Spaulding after a clash with Mikael Uhre in the center circle, the sequence set up by an ill-advised pass from Esmir bajraktarevic. it was a textbook DoGSo call, a tackle from behind “denying an obvious goalscoring opportunity.”

Spaulding could have avoided a foul — Porter called him “one of the fastest guys on the team” — and would have had nearly 50 yards to make up ground. but things happened quickly, and Uhre sold the foul. Yet the Union did not open the scoring until the 38th minute, when revolution right back nick lima was caught upfield on a long clearance from goalkeeper Aljaz ivacic. Union left back Kai Wagner outjumped lima and sent Jack McGlynn in alone, McGlynn’s cross headed in by Julian Carranza.

these were typical Union plays. they wait for a mistake, an opponent caught out of position. And they are opportunistic enough to capitalize. this philosophy is not exclusive to the Union. there are a lot of turnovers in soccer, and it often makes sense to just wait for a chance to make the opposition pay. but it is not easy to anticipate errors and also be in position to turn them into goals, or red cards. Consider:

R the revolution’s pass completion percentage in this game was 81.2 percent; they made 63 passes that were not completed.

R the Union’s percentage was even higher — 88.2 percent — with 80 passes not completed.

that might seem like quite a few off-target passes, but only a few resulted in game-changing sequences. And that was enough for the Union to obtain a numerical advantage and take the lead. Unfortunately for the revolution, this game symbolized their struggles since Arena left.

from the top down, the revolution have not been putting themselves in position to succeed. Arena resigned in September, and though management believes it followed hiring protocol, by the time Curt onalfo was named general manager in December and Porter hired a month later, they were cutting preparation time close.

Margins got thinner as the revolution were entered the Champions Cup, meaning they had to start play with a visit to Panama feb. 21, then jump into their MlS opener at D.C. United feb. 24. A Giacomo Vrioni red card against United basically doomed the revolution for their first two games. Vrioni was ejected in the 25th minute of a 3-1 defeat, and suspended for the second game, a 1-0 loss to toronto fC. With bobby Wood (knee) injured, the revolution’s lack of forward depth was exposed. And it’s continued mostly downhill, with the exception of a run to the Champions Cup quarters.

negative momentum can be difficult to halt. one solution might have been wiping the slate clean — something discouraged by MlS roster restrictions, though inter Miami is proving it’s not impossible. revolution management stopped far short of cleaning house, believing the roster needed no shaking up. but Porter has since changed his thinking.

What has been difficult to gauge is just how close to the edge the revolution were performing under Arena. the team went from a recordbreaking 2021 (22-5-7, 73 points) to a losing record in 2022 (10-12-12, 42 points) to last year’s ups and downs. it also was a team that started the 2019 season 2-8-2 (8 points), before being turned around by Arena.

With their record eerily similar to the pre-Arena takeover, it’s proof that coaching the revolution can be tricky. one year they are championship-worthy, the next they’re cellardwellers.

When Arena came in, Union coach Jim Curtin said the rest of the league should resign itself to the revolution winning the MlS Cup. though they never got to the final, in at least three of Arena’s five seasons, the revolution looked capable of doing so. for Porter, a two-time MlS Cup winner, revolution management set similar expectations. that goal appears unrealistic, but circumstances could change with a couple wins.

A week ago, 14 teams — nearly half the league’s membership — were stuck on three victories or fewer. After a slate of midweek and weekend matches, the number of teams with three wins or fewer is down to 12. lacking promotion/relegation, MlS can be forgiving, and it is often difficult to determine whether teams are underachieving or are simply mediocre.

last week, after a victory, nashville fired Gary Smith, the coach who built the team from scratch. Smith’s tactics were conservative but effective; he never experienced a losing season in MlS and won the

2010 MlS Cup with the Colorado rapids. nashville presented a generic MlS lineup, led by a former league MVP (hany Mukhtar), that would need to overachieve to contend for a title.

the revolution’s strategy under Arena was basically the opposite of Smith’s in nashville. but the emphasis on attack left the revolution vulnerable, one reason for the recent highs and lows. Porter hoped to remake the team, finding a balance between nashville’s ultra-defensiveness and Arena’s go-for-broke offense. Porter’s changes could prove to be for the better, but not without bolstering the roster, which he realized once the season started.

though revolution supporters have seen this before, they are returning in droves. An attendance of 34,947 was announced for the

Union game, and another 25,000plus crowd is expected Saturday against new York City.

“no one is down in terms of their play,” Porter said. “they are going to keep their head up, keep going. the team is on board. You saw how they were fighting. nothing is going to change. We’ll keep going back to work.”