Following the best defensive start in the club’s history, the 2025 New England Revolution will face a new kind of challenge this week.
On Wednesday, the Revolution will travel just 20 miles to face Rhode Island FC for the round of 32 of the 110th Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup.
“That’s going to come pretty fast and it’s going to be an important game,” Revolution coach Caleb Porter said last week. “It’s a Cup game, and Rhode Island is going to be motivated. All those guys want our guys’ jobs. They want to be in MLS, and they want to do well, so those games are really tricky.
“We’ll use it as an opportunity to develop guys. We’ll use it as an opportunity to keep guys that haven’t been playing in shape. I’m confident that it will be a very good game.”
As well as marking their first midweek match of the season, it’s also the first time New England has ever faced off with the Pawtucket club, which began play in 2024.
“We know all the MLS teams, but it’s good to play different teams,” Porter said. “[RIFC] are right down the street. It should be a good crowd. I hear it’s a great stadium. I have not been there yet, but we’re looking forward to it.”
Although they’ve never competed on the same pitch, the two clubs do have plenty of history together. Rhode Island coach Khano Smith played for the Revolution in the mid-2000s and helped them lift their only U.S. Open Cup in 2007.
RIFC’s co-founder Michael Parkhusrt also began his professional career with New England, playing there for four seasons.
In terms of the on the field talent, Isaac Angking, Joe Brito, Cole Dewhurst, Zachary Herivaux, Dani Rovira and Kevin Vang all graduated from the Revolution Academy before playing for Rhode Island.
To get to Wednesday’s matchup, the squad’s took slightly different roads.
After a top 10 finish in its first season, Rhode Island was one of the 16 USL Championship teams to enter the U.S. Open Cup in the third round.
Beating USL 1 squad, Portland Hearts of Pine, 2-1, RIFC advanced to the Round of 32.
The Revolution landed in the matchup by being one of the 16 MLS teams to join the competition in the fourth round.
It will be the 48th match for New England in the U.S. Open Cup, where they are 23-19-5 all-time.
The Revolution have won four straight matches, all shutouts. Through 10 matches, the club has allowed just seven goals, the fewest in the MLS and the fewest to start a season in Revolution history.
“Part of our process is being a good defensive team and having 11 guys on the pitch that work hard,” Porter said. “I’m proud of that, because to have a good defensive team, it takes 11 guys that are willing to defend. One of our mantras is ‘defending is like breathing.’ There’s no choice in our club. You do it, or you die. It’s that simple, it’s automatic.”
On the other side, Rhode Island has struggled with conceding goals to start its regular season. The club has surrendered eight goals in six USL Championship matches so far and has won just one match.
The Revolution, however, have not always fared well against USL competition. New England has lost two of its last three matches against USL opposition.
Although those two losses were both before Porter joined the squad, he also has had somewhat recent struggles against lower competition.
In his last appearance in the U.S. Open Cup in 2022 as the coach of Columbus, Porter fell in the third round to Detroit City FC, which was in its first season as a USL Championship side at the time.
Wednesday’s match will kick off at 7:30 p.m. at Centreville Bank Stadium, it will also be streamed on Paramount+.
