Intelligence Report: Orlando City vs. New England Revolution

One final game remains in the 2026 Major League Soccer regular season, and Orlando has a chance to finish as high as seventh in the Eastern Conference if it both wins its game and gets help from the two teams above it in the standings. Beyond what happens in other matchups though, the Lions first need to do their part and take care of business against the New England Revolution.

A visit from the Revs means I spoke to Jake Catanese, one of the writers for The Blazing Musket. As always, he did a great job at catching us up on how things are going for New England, and we appreciate his help. I also answered some of his questions about Orlando City, which you can find over at their place.

The Revs had a couple blips after beating Orlando in the form of back-to-back 3-0 losses to Real Salt Lake and the Seattle Sounders, but otherwise it’s been pretty smooth sailing to end the season. Did you see anything in those two games that could prove to be an issue come playoff time?

Jake Catanese: So for context, the Revs lost at RSL and then at home to Seattle on either side of the international break a month ago and New England had just gotten the injury news for both Jack Harrison and Alhassan Yusuf more or less being done for the regular season. So the lineup choice here was a little wonky but nothing the Revs hadn’t already dealt with throughout the year. However, both games played out in a similar fashion — New England went down early and never really recovered and then gave up two goals late to just put a really bad taste in everyone’s mouth.

Not that the Revs played badly in either game, the 3-0 scorelines were a little unfair in my opinion, but if there was a blueprint to contain New England I think that would be it. The Revs can be very good at a lot of things, but breaking down a packed in and organized defense is rarely going to be one of them and has been for a while regardless of coaching regime, and scoring early allows teams to sit back and catch the Revs with their fullbacks up and get really great counter opportunities. It’s not so much an issue the Revs can solve per se, but it is a game state situation I can absolutely see happening again if New England gives up an early goal in the playoffs.

You brought up the addition of Daniel Gazdag when we last spoke back in September. How has he been performing lately?

JC: I think overall my view on the Revs signing Gazdag hasn’t changed, but New England has really had to lean on him as a starting winger in Jack Harrison’s absence a few times. There’s been some mixed results there. We’ve all seen what Gazdag can do in the middle of the field, and having him out wide I think mutes his full potential and effectiveness, so I credit him for going out and doing a solid job that is not in his true wheelhouse. That said, he’s been a big help down the stretch with a pair of late game-winning goals against New York City FC back in September and the Red Bulls more recently. His opener against Miami highlighted his qualities as a more central/second striker type and maybe we see more of that in the playoffs, because he would be a tremendous super sub off the bench late in games. I think it was still a great pickup for New England for the long term and it’s going to pay dividends during the (2027) Sprint Season for sure.

What do you think this team’s ceiling is when it comes to the postseason? If you had to identify a potential fatal flaw, what would it be?

JC: I think that the New England Revolution can hang with anyone in the East; that includes a Nashville team that whooped us twice like half a year ago because the schedule makers are bad at their jobs. The fatal flaw for the Revs is I don’t think we’ve seen their potential best lineup at any point this season due to injuries, so we have no idea if they can throw it together and make it work in a couple of weeks to run the gauntlet that is the MLS Cup playoffs. I think a first-round series win would cap off a tremendous turnaround for the only team in the East that missed the playoffs in 2025 to qualify in 2026 and really springboard this team into the Sprint Season and beyond. At this point, I am enjoying the ride and will continue to enjoy the ride because these Revs aren’t operating at their full potential yet…but they might be very soon and that’s very, very bad news for everyone else.

Will any players be unavailable due to injury, suspension, etc.? What is your projected starting XI and score prediction?

JC: The only change is Jackson Yueill in for Matt Polster in the central midfield, and we could see Mamadou Fofana in central defense, but he did not look good off the bench in Miami, so Marko Mitrovic might opt to run out the same lineup as a week ago. We might see Alhassan Yusuf in some capacity in this one as he was listed as questionable heading into last week’s game against Miami. With an outside shot at moving up into the No. 2 seed, I don’t think I’d risk him, but maybe some substitute minutes can help shake off some rust before the international break. Jack Harrison and Leo Campana remain out.

4-2-3-1: Matt Turner; Will Sands, Joshua Wynder, Ethan Kohler, Ilay Feingold; Brooklyn Raines, Jackson Yueill; Daniel Gazdag, Carles Gil, Peyton Miller; Dor Turgeman.

New England has been far from a dominant team, but Orlando likes to leak goals. I think the Revs take this 2-1.

Thanks again to Jake for his excellent primer on the Revolution. Vamos Orlando!