Saturday at Gillette Stadium, the Vancouver Whitecaps will take on the New England Revolution as they return to MLS action after a well-deserved week off.

Things were looking troubling for the Whitecaps leading into the final week before the break, but they were able to right the ship with two wins on the bounce against Sporting KC and Colorado Rapids, which helped vault Vancouver back into a comfortable playoff position.

The Whitecaps are out on the road the next two weekends, and they’ll open up their trip with this visit to the last-place Revolution. Though New England is still at the bottom of the Eastern Conference table with just 13 points from 15 matches, they have picked up two straight wins against quality opponents in Nashville SC, and more recently, the NY Red Bulls.

The story for Caleb Porter’s side so far this season has been pretty simple, they simply haven’t been good enough at either end of the pitch, nor do they have the depth to survive the rigours of an MLS schedule on a week-to-week basis. Their goal-scoring record, just 12 goals so far this season, is the worst in the league. While their defensive numbers are further from the bottom of the table, they’ve still been well below average in that area, allowing 1.80 goals against per contest.

Added to this, it’s not as though New England has been getting unlucky in terms of the expected numbers. Their combined -15 xG differential is 4.1 goals worse than any other team in the league so far this season, and their actual goal difference mirrors that -15 figure exactly.

Now, as mentioned, the Revs have won their last two matches going into this one, but neither of those performances on their own looked like particularly sustainable routes to success. Nashville dominated New England 3.2 to 0.7 in terms of expected goals but lost the match 2-1 at home to the Revs. New England’s last match at home against the Red Bulls was tighter, 1.1 to 0.9 xG in favour of the Red Bulls, although it still took an MLS Player of the Matchday performance from goalkeeper Aljaž Ivačič to help get the result across the line.

All of this is to say that Vancouver has a real opportunity this weekend to earn another three points on the road. Especially against Eastern Conference opposition, there’s no reason Vancouver shouldn’t be aggressive in their mentality and go all-out to put the Revs on the back foot early on. We’ve seen the Whitecaps shift to a 3-5-2 system in the week before the pause, and I imagine they will look to build on that approach against New England. Vancouver’s renewed ability to gain an advantage in the midfield over the last two matches has been crucial to their success, both helping them get on the front foot going forward, and relieving some of the pressure on their backline.

While New England does not have many distinct strengths in their squad, they are solid through the middle of the park with a double pivot of Mark-Anthony Kaye and Matt Polster behind Carles Gil. The Spaniard Gil is the one player on the Revs who can really take over a match on his day, as he leads the Revs with 5 goals and 2 assists this year, so Vancouver will have to do what they can to contain him without their star defensive midfielder Andres Cubas, who is away with Paraguay on international duty. Ali Ahmed is also away for Canada.

Ultimately, one of the most important things for the Whitecaps to do over the next couple of weeks as well is to get Brian White back in form. The American striker has not scored for Vancouver since April 28th, and the connection between White and Ryan Gauld will be vital to Vancouver’s fortunes in the second half of the season – the Whitecaps will go only as far as that duo can take them.

If White and Gauld can find that connection in New England, and Vancouver can contain Carles Gil without Cubas in the midfield, I think that Vancouver can take this match comfortably.