Soccer Weekend: A trip to Harrison is always tough - but anything worth achieving should be tough

Some good news and bad news as we head into the weekend.

First, the bad news. The Revolution, even with a win against the New York Red Bulls Saturday night (7 p.m.), cannot move out of sixth place in the Eastern Conference. Yes, the Revs would be tied with the Red Bulls on points (37), but they cannot supplant New York due to the wins tiebreaker (New York has 11, New England has nine). Que sera, sera. A loss or a draw, like last week, could potentially send New England back below the playoff barrier, as Montreal, Orlando City (victorious Wednesday night), and Toronto FC are all at 33 points.

The good news? This is a team New England has already beaten twice this year — 1-0 at Gillette on April 20, 3-2 in extra time in the US Open Cup on June 12 in Montclair, NJ — and this is an Eastern Conference six-pointer. A good opportunity to gain ground in the hopes of securing a home playoff game — if not, just a playoff spot, period — in October.

And the Revolution will look to make it three straight against a Red Bulls team that has been a teeter-totter as of late: New York is coming off a 4-2 defeat to LAFC, one week after handling Toronto.

Since we last met up with the Energy Drinks, New York has four wins and a draw — 13 points — out of a possible 27. It’s such an inconsistency for the reigning Supporter’s Shield holders that its current run of form is as follows: L-W-L-W-L.

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If New England is to put the Red Bulls to the sword for the second consecutive week, it will need patience, a killer instinct, and remain switched on defensively for 90 minutes — especially with Bradley Wright-Phillips maintaining a super-sub role for Chris Armas’ side in recent weeks.

Much like we said back in April, expect New York to press and maintain a high line of contention when the Revs are in the defensive half.  On the backside, New York is strong defensively, but it has a tendency to switch off. Case in point: on Sunday, the Red Bulls failed to mark on set pieces in dangerous areas, leading to two Los Angeles goals. They will also give space, so the Revolution attackers will need to pull the trigger fast to challenge Luis Robles, who has put up six clean sheets in MLS play this season, plus a further two back in February during Champions League play.

For the Revs, they will be without Andrew Farrell, suspended this week for yellow card accumulation. It will lead fans to wonder how Bruce Arena will set up in the back: will he maintain a four-man backline with Edgar Castillo, Jalil Anibaba, Michael Mancienne, and Brandon Bye, or will Antonio Delamea be healthy enough to return to the XI? Will DeJuan Jones work his way into the XI, or the squad, period?

Offensively, New York can score, with Daniel Royer scoring quite a few of his goals left of center, as he does play out on the left. Kaku played 90 against LA in the No. 10 role. Remember that Royer is a liability defensively. Brian White has emerged as a star striker with nine goals this season, and he has pace up top.

And long balls, long balls, long balls. The Red Bulls can’t keep up with them, and can lead to scoring chances.

Elsewhere in the league this weekend

With five league matches, plus the Canadian Championship semis and the Campeones Cup Final at midweek, this weekend should be pretty interesting when it comes to lineups on the short turnaround. Will also be interesting to note how some clubs line up this weekend with a short turnaround to next midweek, as well.

On Saturday, FC Cincinnati will host NYCFC — a reminder that NYCFC has two matches in hand on the Revs, and three matches in hand on other teams in the Eastern Conference race — while Columbus hosts Toronto FC. Montreal hosts FC Dallas, Chicago hosts Philadelphia, Minnesota United hosts Orlando City, Sporting Kansas City hosts San Jose, Houston hosts Colorado, LA Galaxy hosts Seattle (10 p.m., ESPN2), Real Salt Lake hosts LAFC, and Vancouver hosts DC United.

On Sunday, Portland hosts Atlanta United (10 p.m., FS1).

Across the pond

In the best league in the world, Arsenal opens up the home campaign at the Emirates when it takes on Burnley (7:30 a.m., NBCSN) before five 10 a.m. fixtures sees Aston Villa take on Bournemouth (CNBC), Brighton Hove & Albion plays host to West Ham, Everton takes on Watford, Norwich City plays Newcastle United, and Southampton plays hosts to Liverpool. At 12:30 p.m., Manchester City hosts Tottenham in a top four matchup.

On Sunday, Sheffield United plays Crystal Palace, Chelsea hosts Leicester City, and on Monday, Wolverhampton plays host to Manchester United.

Some extraneous thoughts from the week that was in soccer

Congrats to Atlanta United on winning the Campeones Cup with a 3-2 come-from-behind win over Club América of Liga MX on Wednesday night, thanks to Josef Martinez and Big Red Jeff Larentowicz, the former Revolution midfielder who was the first to raise the trophy as team captain. The Revs are no longer the lone MLS side to beat a Mexican side for a trophy (the SuperLiga is dead; long live the SuperLiga!). AUFC can win the US Open Cup on Aug. 27, which would be its third trophy in nine months. Not bad when you think about it. … St. Louis as Club 28 in MLS? Saw that coming. … BeIN Sports, which hardly anyone in the United States gets any longer, will continue its relationship with Spain’s La Liga. OK… let me know how that works for you. … Excellent news out in Portland, where the NWSL brought in 25,213 to see the Thorns take on the North Carolina Courage last Sunday. Just goes to show there is a market for good women’s soccer, and that you just have to market it properly. Doesn’t hurt that Providence Park went through that massive renovation during the offseason/first half of the MLS season, and that they love soccer in the Pacific Northwest. … Sad to see Mike Petke and Wilmer Cabrera lose their jobs with Real Salt Lake and Houston, respectively, within 48 hours of each other earlier this week. Of course, in Petke’s case, he brought that on himself. … What does make me scratch my head, though? What does Petke’s firing do for Kelyn Rowe’s situation with RSL, seeing as SKC traded him to Utah at the end of the transfer window, with Petke still in charge? Two matches with RSL, and he hasn’t made either match day squads. It’s like he’s on a milk carton. … Boston was the seventh-highest market to watch Manchester United and Chelsea on Sunday, according to The Washington Post’s Steven Goff. But oh silly me, no one in Boston likes soccer … DC United coach Ben Olsen used absolutely no subs during Sunday’s 2-1 win over the Galaxy. So does that mean Olsen went to the Brad Friedel School of Subbing. … Locally, a good night of soccer on Wednesday when Fall River FC hosted the Fall River Marksmen at Durfee High. FRFC won the first leg of the Derby, 1-0, with the second leg slated for Aug. 28. I watched on the Fall River FC Twitter stream, so Marksmen: you’re up. … And one last thing: last weekend I wrote a piece for the good ol’ S&E about Alex Al-Zaibak of Hingham; he attended Fitchburg State University, played on the men’s soccer team, and is now living his soccer dream in Sweden. Hope you’ll give it a read.