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New England Revolution welcome Columbus Crew to Sunday morning’s MLS meeting with both sides still trying to put a shaky start to the season behind them. The Revolution sit 17th in the overall standings with nine points from their opening six league games, while Columbus are down in 23rd on six points from seven. That’s not where either club expected to be, and this one already carries early-season weight. A win would steady the nerves. A loss would drag the pressure right back in.
For New England, the home form is the obvious reason for optimism. Marko Mitrovic’s side have been perfect at their own ground in league play so far, winning all three without conceding a single goal. Columbus, managed by Henrik Rydstrom, arrive with a more uneven profile, but they did at least snap a poor run by winning comfortably in the US Open Cup in midweek. The bigger picture still isn’t pretty, though. They’ve dropped points too often, and they’ve been too easy to play against on the road.
There’s also a useful bit of narrative from this fixture. These two have been giving each other proper games for a while now, and the recent head-to-heads have had goals in them. New England won this meeting 2-1 in Columbus last August, while Columbus ripped through the Revolution 5-1 in June 2024. That sort of swing tells you one thing straight away: neither side has fully solved the other. Not even close.
New England’s last few matches have had a bit of everything. They came through a tricky home tie against DC United on 12 April with a narrow 1-0 win, and that result mattered because it followed a rough spell on the road. Before that, they were beaten 3-1 at St. Louis City and had already lost away to New York Red Bulls and Nashville SC. The big outlier was the 6-1 thrashing of FC Cincinnati at home on 15 March, which still looks like the kind of result that tells you there’s real attacking punch in this squad when things click.
The most recent outing, a 1-1 home draw with Rhode Island FC in the US Open Cup on 15 April, was less convincing. Diego Fagúndez gave them the lead in the 51st minute, but they couldn’t finish the job and needed a very late equaliser from Jerome Williams to avoid embarrassment. They managed only seven shots and just one on target. That won’t thrill Mitrovic. Still, the broader trend at home remains excellent: three wins from three in MLS, 10 goals scored and only one conceded. That’s the kind of record that changes the mood around a club fast.
What stands out is how much stronger New England look at home than away. They’ve scored freely at Gillette Stadium, and they’ve been ruthless once they get the first goal. There’s been a clean edge to them in front of their own crowd, and they’ve kept that rare home defensive discipline too. The flip side is that away from home they’ve looked open and vulnerable, shipping goals in defeat at Nashville, New York and St. Louis. That split matters here because Columbus are exactly the sort of side who can punish even brief lapses.
Columbus’ recent run has been messy rather than disastrous, and there’s a difference. They’ve drawn too often, lost games they’d expect to compete in, and generally struggled to turn decent spells into wins. Their last MLS outing was a 1-1 draw at home to Orlando City on 13 April, which followed a 2-1 defeat at Toronto and a 1-0 home loss to Nashville. Earlier, they were held 0-0 by Chicago Fire, and before that they went down 3-2 at Portland. It’s the sort of sequence that leaves you asking the same question every week: where’s the cutting edge?
The midweek trip to Richmond Kickers in the US Open Cup at least brought some release. Columbus won 3-0 away on 16 April, and it was a game they controlled from early on. Hugo Picard scored twice, with Jamal Thiare adding the third, and the numbers were one-sided enough to suggest they didn’t merely scrape through. They had 26 shots, 11 on target and six big chances. That’s a proper attacking performance. Mind you, Richmond offered little resistance, so it doesn’t erase the bigger league concerns.
Away from home, Columbus have been inconsistent but not hopeless. Their league away record reads one win, one draw and two defeats, with eight goals scored and eight conceded. That’s a noisy profile. They can score on the road, and that’s the point that keeps them in BTTS territory here, but they also give opponents too many looks at their own goal. There’s a softness about them at the back, especially once games start opening up. If they allow New England to start fast, they’ll be chasing.
The issue for Rydstrom is balance. Columbus can create enough to hurt teams, yet they’ve only got one league win all season and they’ve repeatedly failed to hold on when matches turn into a scrap. You can’t keep playing catch-up football and expect clean results. Not in MLS. Not away from home.
This fixture has rarely been short on drama. New England’s 2-1 win in Columbus last August was a sharp reminder that they’re capable of landing a punch in this matchup, but Columbus have also delivered some heavy blows of their own. The 5-1 away win for the Crew in June 2024 was the standout result in the recent series, and it showed just how badly things can go wrong for New England when they lose defensive control.
The pattern is clear enough: goals tend to come, and neither side has built a long-term hold over the other. Four of the last five meetings have gone over 2.5 goals, which fits the mood around this one. It’s rarely a sleepy affair when these two meet. Far from it.
We’re backing Both Teams To Score at 4/6 here. The price is short enough for a reason. New England have scored in every home league game this season and have already shown they can get into high-scoring territory at Gillette, while Columbus have found the net away from home and should fancy their chances against a Revolution side that’s much less secure once it’s out on the road. These two also tend to trade blows when they meet. That history matters.
The projected 2-1 scoreline fits the shape of the game nicely. New England’s home record gives them the edge, and Columbus’ away numbers are good enough to keep them alive in the contest. But the Crew’s defence hasn’t looked solid enough to bank on a clean sheet, and New England’s attacking pace at home should force the issue. If you wanted a smaller secondary angle, New England to score first is worth a look given their strong start at home and the way Columbus have often had to chase games.
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