The Columbus Crew is back home on Saturday night, welcoming the New England Revolution to Lower.com Field. It will be an important matchup for two teams playing well and sitting near the top of the Eastern Conference early in the 2023 season.

Coming into this game on the back of three straight wins, the Crew is one of the hottest teams in Major League Soccer. But New England hasn’t lost in four matches, meaning something is likely to give in this contest.

To get a better sense of what the Black & Gold face on Saturday night, we spoke with Jake Catanese of The Blazing Musket.

Massive Report: After a disappointing 10th place finish in the Eastern Conference last year, New England sits in second through seven games this season. What has been the biggest difference in 2023?

TBM: General health and backine stability. 2022 was a nightmare start for New England that saw Matt Turner and Henry Kessler miss lengthy spells at the back and the depth was simply overwhelmed with early CCL fixtures and while the Revs did their best to stabilize the season another wave of injuries late to the attacking group was too much to completely dig themselves out of the early hole.

Dave Romney has been rock solid in the back and will likely partner with Andrew Farrell this week with Kessler picking up a knock and not training this week. Romney also adds an improved aerial element to the Revs backline for a team that has largely struggled on set pieces as a group. Latif Blessing and Noel Buck adding extra midfield cover with Polster as well, a lot of little things have just been going right for New England and they’ve been able to not just stay in games but get late results just like in 2021.

MR: The Revolution has a plethora of attacking options in Gustavo Bau, Carles Gil and now Bobby Wood, and that’s without mentioning Designated Player striker Giacomo Vrioni, who still seems to be finding his footing. Has there been any team that has found a way to hold these attackers in check, and if so, what does the Crew need to do to keep the Revs from scoring on Saturday night?

TBM: Well LAFC absolutely did that a few weeks ago out on the West Coast but the Revs didn’t have Carles Gil at the start of that one (and he left with a knock late as well after coming on as a sub). The Revs have always been a statistically befuddling team that seems to create but not finish their best chances and snipe worldies from outside the box to even out the stats. The best way to deal with the Revs is to keep them out of the transition and counter attack. New England can break you down in possession but they will absolutely make you pay for turnovers in your defensive half. Bobby Wood’s drawn penalty last week is a classic case of this where the Revs very quickly got the ball back into the box and earned a PK from a handball blocked shot. Wood’s movement up top has also been sneaky good, because he makes those great second striker runs but he’s doing so as a lone striker to open up space for Borrero and others to run into.

MR: Bruce Arena has always been an interesting coach for me. He had early success with D.C. United and then the national team but couldn’t make it work with the New York Red Bulls and only got it going again with the LA Galaxy when they assembled arguably the most talented side in MLS history. What are the feelings about Arena in New England?

TBM: I think Bruce’s legacy with the Revs and in MLS as a whole is already well cemented, but a breakthrough Supporter’s Shield in record fashion in 2021 honestly could be one of his best accomplishments in this league. The Revs might not be one of the top spenders, but the culture he’s been able to bring in along with the team’s investment in the new training center have been a boon already especially when you consider the on field success and outgoing transfers. The pivot of the Revs from one of the cheapest teams to one of the league’s most selling teams should have imploded the minds of so many who followed this team over the last decade. If Bruce could lead a squad to New England’s first MLS Cup I think he would ride off into the sunset or at least into a big corner office in Foxboro.

MR: Defensively, the Revolution has been one of the better teams in the East this year. What has been key to that success?

TBM: Consistency. As I mentioned above, this game in Columbus will be the first to not feature Kessler at centerback but Andrew Farrell is back and ready to step in. Fullbacks DeJuan Jones and Brandon Bye are as steady as ever on both ends of the field and New England has really gotten their formations right early on. Polster has been deployed as both a single pivot with two shuttling center mids and as part of a two-man holding midfield and both have been effective depending on how the Revs want or need to deploy their attacking group. The balance and organization the team has had overall has been really good despite a lot of late nervy moments and less than stellar set piece defense. 

Oh and Djordje Petrovic really likes donuts and he gets them every time there’s a shutout, so he likes shutouts a lot. Four of the Revs five wins on the year have been shutouts but only one, the season opener in Charlotte, has come on the road.

MR: How do you see this game playing out in Columbus?

TBM: I always love these two teams playing each other, there’s so many little nuances and similarities with Gil and Zelarayan pulling the strings and Dylan Borrero and Aidan Morris and emerging young stars. I think we’ll have a little bit of everything in a pretty action packed game… I think a 2-2 draw with a late-ish equalizer from someone around the 75th-80th minute.