The New England Revolution set out to continue their dominant home form when they host the Columbus Crew on Saturday in Foxborough, Mass.
The home/away splits are as stark as they come for New England (3-3-0, 9 points). The Revolution have been outscored 8-2 while going 0-3-0 on the road, but are 3-0-0 with a 10-1 goal differential on their own field.
New England hasn’t allowed a goal in either of its last two home matches, which defender Mamadou Fofana felt was due to a strong effort from the entire lineup.
“We are a team. So it’s (from) the defense up to the striker … To win the game with a clean sheet, it is perfect,” Fofana said.
The offensive credit has also been spread around, as New England’s 12 goals have come from nine different players. Brayan Ceballos, Peyton Miller and Alhassan Yusuf share the team lead with two goals apiece.
By contrast, five of the Crew’s nine goals this season were scored by striker Wessam Abou Ali, who sustained a season-ending torn ACL in last Sunday’s 1-1 draw with Orlando City.
“When you don’t have Wes … we don’t need to change everything, but of course we need to find other ways to get more out of more players,” Columbus coach Henrik Rydstrom said.
Diego Rossi has three goals for Columbus (1-3-3, 6 points), and Max Arfsten is the only other Crew player to score.
Abou Ali’s injury is an unwelcome obstacle for a team that seemed to be finding its form. The Crew were winless (0-3-2) in their first five matches before recording a 3-1 road win over Atlanta United on April 4 and then overcoming the loss of Abou Ali to salvage the draw with Orlando.
Forward Jamal Thiare left Wednesday’s U.S. Open Cup match with an apparent leg injury and is questionable for Saturday.
The Crew are 8-2-6 in their last 16 matches with the Revolution (regular season plus playoffs) and 3-0-2 in their last five trips to Foxborough.
–Field Level Media
