The New England Revolution closed out an unforgiving stretch of games with a bad break in a tough house on the other side of the country.

The Revolution’s growing depth issues took another serious hit during warmups prior to Saturday night’s 2-0 loss to the Seattle Sounders in an interconference match at Lumen Field.

Dynamic young forward Dylan Borrero, who had been dealing with a hip injury, never took the pitch against the Sounders. Borrero sustained an unrelated quad injury during pregame warmups. Revolution first year head coach Caleb Porter replaced Borrero with midfielder Jack Panayotou, a 20-year-old homegrown from Cambridge who made his third MLS start.

“Obviously it was a tough week, a long week,” said Porter after the game. “Obviously we are very thin, we have guys out.

“We knew this game was going to be a tough one and on top of that, we lose Dylan in warmups. So, we have to sub on, actually, the only guy we felt could go major minutes.

“The other options were only 20- or 30-minute guys, so he was the only guy that we could actually play major minutes. So, that kind of lets you know what we are dealing with and where we are at.”

The Revolution (7-12-1) went 1-2-0 in their stretch of three games in eight days that included a 5-1 loss to the reigning MLS champion Columbus Crew on June 29 and a 2-1 victory over Atlanta United FC on Wednesday night at Gillette Stadium.

The Revolution have 14 MLS games and two Leagues Cup 2024 Group stage matches remaining and resume Eastern Conference play against Orlando City SC on Saturday night (7:30) at Gillette Stadium.

“They showed again, even though we have a lot of guys out and not much depth, that we are a good team and we are capable of coming on the road in a really tough situation with not a lot of rest,” said Porter. “I though we were right there in the match.”

The Revolution’s front end was already in crisis mode with the loss of forwards Tomas Chancalay and Nacho Gil. Chancalay had two goals and one assist on 45 shots before suffering a partial tear of his right anterior cruciate ligament that required season-ending surgery on June 27. Revolution team captain and leading scorer, midfielder Carles Gil, missed his third straight game with a calf injury.

“I think Carles is doing better,” said Porter. “I’m hoping that he can start training next week and Dylan I don’t know but he’s been struggling with a few little (things).

“In a perfect world, we wouldn’t have played him (Borrero) at all, but we had no one else to rotate into the game.”

If Borrero remains out for any length of time, the Revolution’s chances of claiming the final MLS Cup playoffs spot are severely compromised. The shortage of front-end players could compel Revolution Sporting Director Curt Onalfo to hit the market in search of replacement parts for the stretch run.

The only consistent finisher in the Starting XI is striker Giacomo Vrioni, who leads the team with seven goals and registered a brace in the Revolution’s win over Atlanta United FC.

The players expected to replace Chancalay and Borrero are homegrown midfielders Esmir Bajraktarevic and Noel Buck of Arlington, both of whom have represented the United States and England, respectively, in the international arena in 2024.

Bajraktarevic showed early chemistry with Vrioni against the Sounders when the collaborated on the Revolution’s best scoring opportunity 30 minutes into the match. Bajraktarevic led the team with three key passes, two of which involved Vrioni.
“I thought Esmir found the ball and was dangerous,” said Porter. “We started the game with three homegrown players and I thought Noel and Esmir played very well and even Jack had some decent moments.

“But I don’t think we were dynamic enough in our overall profile.”