Columbus Crew SC vs. New England Revolution | 2018 MLS Match Preview

Columbus Crew SC vs. New England Revolution
2018 MLS Regular Season – Week 8
MAPFRE Stadium — Columbus
April 21 – 7:30 pm ET
WATCH: ESPN+, MLS LIVE on DAZN (Canada)

There’s no panic for Columbus Crew SC, but there is an urgency to snuff out their losing streak before it gets any further. To do that, they will hope that history repeats itself Saturday night. Crew SC has won each of their last four home game against the New England Revolution, outscoring New England, 7-1 over that span.

The Revs, meanwhile, are hoping to put a rare home loss behind them and win away on the road for the second time this season, which would match their road point total from last year when they went 1-13-3.

Columbus Crew SC

Another week when Columbus Crew SC (3-3-1) dominated in most statistical categories, yet they dropped their third straight game Saturday, losing 1-0 to D.C. United.

And for a second straight week, Crew SC conceded early with Ulises Segura scoring the game’s lone goal in the first minute for D.C. United, which finished the match with 10 men after Paul Arriola was sent off in the 51st minute.

It was a third straight defeat for a Columbus team that started the year unbeaten in their first four games and second straight 1-0 loss.

“You don’t lose three games in a row and stay 100 percent confident,” Columbus coach Gregg Berhalter said. “So our job next week is to build that back up. We know we have a couple home games coming up and they’re going to be big games for us.”

• Suspended: None
• Suspended after next caution: None
• International duty: None
• Injury Report: OUT: M – Mike Grella (left knee), D – Gaston Sauro (left knee), M – Eduardo Sosa (right ankle), GK – Ben Lundgaard (left thumb surgery), M – Luis Argudo (left knee)

Projected Starting XI
(4-2–3-1, right to left)
GK: Zack Steffen — Harrison Afful, Jonathan Mensah, Josh Williams, Milton Valenzuela — Artur, Wil Trapp — Pedro Santos, Federico Higuain, Cristian Martinez — Gyasi Zardes

• Notes: Columbus lost 1-0 to D.C. United last weekend despite outshooting the opposition by 19 (24-5). This was the largest shot advantage that Crew SC has had in any of their 100 regular season losses since the start of the 2010 season. The week before, they lost to Chicago with a +16 shot total, their fifth highest shot advantage in a loss. … Crew SC’s 2-1 loss to Vancouver on March 31 snapped an 11-game home unbeaten run (inc. playoffs). They have not dropped consecutive league home games since losing the 2015 MLS Cup Final and 2016 home opener (span of 38 games, inc. playoffs).

New England Revolution        

A four-match unbeaten streak, and 11 in a row without defeat at Gillette Stadium, was snapped when undefeated FC Dallas knocked off the Revs, 1-0, Saturday night.

There were chances, plenty of them, but the Revs were unable to cash in on their 21 shots, six on frame, and suffered their first defeat since their nine-man squad lost at Philadelphia, 2-0, in Week 1.

The late goal by Jacori Hayes in the 76th minute snapped an MLS-best record of 270 minutes without conceding.

“We had a lot of chances,” New England coach Brad Friedel said. “Some different days, like against Montreal, we scored four of them. Today we scored zero. We’ll watch again and see if there’s something else that we can do. We do a lot of finishing in training, and we’re going to continue to do so.”

• Suspended: None
• Suspended after next caution: None
• International duty: None
• Injury Report: OUT: M – Isaac Angking (illness), M – Kelyn Rowe (knee)

Projected Starting XI
(4-1-4-1, right to left)
GK: Matt Turner — Andrew Farrell, Jalil Anibaba, Claude Dielna, Gabriel Somi — Wilfried Zahibo — Cristian Penilla, Scott Caldwell, Diego Fagundez, Luis Caicedo — Teal Bunbury

• Notes: Cristian Penilla had four shots and four key passes against FC Dallas last weekend, just the fifth time a Revolution player has had four shots and four key passes in the same regular season game since the start of the 2017 season. … New England has won two of their last three road games (1L), scoring multiple goals in both wins. They had two wins in their previous 33 road league games (23L-8D).

All-Time Series

• Overall: Columbus Crew SC 35 wins, 107 goals … New England Revolution 23 wins, 86 goals … 12 ties
• At Columbus: Crew SC 20 wins, 64 goals … Revolution 8 wins, 37 goals … 6 ties
• Last meeting at Columbus: Columbus Crew SC 2, New England Revolution 0 (May 6, 2017)

Officials

Referee: Christopher Penso
Assistant Referees: Jeff Hosking, Jeremy Kieso
4th Official: Marcos Deoliveira
VAR: Silviu Petrescu