As is customary when D.C. United and the New England Revolution get together, we talked with Jake Catanese of the Revs’ site The Blazing Musket to get his thoughts on the state of the team. For our answers to his questions, check out their site.

The District Press: Let’s talk Griffin Yow. How’s the former DC homegrown settling in?

The Blazing Musket: So far Yow has started three games and made two appearances off the bench, scoring as a sub against Cincinnati when the Revs piled on with a couple of late goals in a 6-1 win. The Revs have generally opted for a standard enough 4-2-3-1 with Yow and center mid Alhassan Yusuf playing opposite true winger Luca Langoni and the dynamic between the two wings has been interesting. Langoni is on a heater acting as mostly a true winger and getting into the box a ton, while Yow and especially Yusuf have been a more inside supporting role and it’s worked out well enough. With Matt Polster’s injury perhaps forcing Yusuf back to his more comfortable CDM role, Yow should be in line to get a lot more starting minutes and I am really interested to see how he can partner with left back Peyton Miller who is also working back to full fitness after an injury in preseason. But overall, Yow has been fine and at worst he’s been another one of the new players finding his way for a team that does have a couple of disappointing games under their belt already.

DP: How has Marko Mitrovic’s plan to regroup the US U20 team going? 

TBM: I am all for the New England Revolution fully embracing this develop and sell reputation as we’ve seen post Shield with Matt Turner, Tajon Buchanan, and Adam Buksa being sold abroad and more recently starlet Esmir Bajraktarevic who scoring the clinching penalty for Bosnia and Herzegovina against Italy last international break. I love the idea of building the roster with a lot of U22 and homegrowns whether they came up through Revs II or somewhere else.

But it hasn’t been perfect by any stretch. Defender Ethan Kohler had to be rushed into his first start at right back against Nashville and definitely had some growing pains. Yow as we’ve detailed has been fine but I’d like to see more from him in the attacking half though I don’t mind his all around/balanced role at the moment. Brooklyn Raines is improving and we’re starting to see him win a lot more balls in the defensive half but New England really needs one of their CDMs to be very aggressive with the ball going forward and I think Raines fit that mold with his U20 World Cup experience but we haven’t seen that translate fully yet. As this team plays more games though, especially at home, they are becoming more dangerous.

DP: Is there a dilemma with Leo Campana? Scores goals when healthy, but not healthy right now?

TBM: The best player trait is availability and sadly Campana just hasn’t been that for the Revs over the last year or so. Right now Dor Turgeman is covering at the lone striker spot and probably has that job locked in my opinion especially after Turgeman was pretty unspectacular out wide as a winger in Nashville. If Campana is going to get big time minutes without the Revs going to a two-striker formation, he might have to do it off the bench or in a more wide/winger role. Having Campana on the end of some counters is a devastating thing to have late in games, especially if he’s going against tired legs. While the Revs adding goals late has been a welcome sight for a team that has been actively bad protecting leads in recent years, what might be more impressive is New England getting goals from set pieces and from the run of play thanks to a heavy right side overload with Gil, Langoni, and right back Ilay Feingold simply overwhelming defenses initially before the Revs for reasons unknown take their foot of the gas. If the Revs stay aggressive with their attacking style and mindset and avoid repeated 30-45 minute stretches where they do little attacking wise, they’ll certainly find a way to get Campana involved when he’s back healthy.

Injuries

Just Campana and Polster out as far as I know, no one was questionable on last week’s injury list.

Lineup

4-2-3-1: Turner; Miller, Fofana, Ceballos, Feingold; Raines, Yusuf; Yow, Gil, Langoni; Turgeman

Prediction:

If Miller is close to 100% I see no reason why he shouldn’t start though he has been effective off the bench as a winger recently so Will Sands could keep the left back spot. Otherwise the only change is Yusuf for Polster which was the same sub the Revs made right before halftime against Montreal when Polster had to come off. The Revs have been cruising at home so far this year and I think that continues, 2-0 Revs.