The Columbus Crew travels to Foxborough, Massachusetts to take on the New England Revolution on Wednesday night. The Revolution pulled into third place in the Eastern Conference and ahead of the Crew over the weekend due to Columbus’ draw to Philadelphia and New England’s victory against Charlotte FC.

New England will hope that the team’s recent victory will pull it out of a dreary run of form going four games winless (0-1-3) in September. The Crew will be disappointed to not capitalize on home-field advantage against the Union as the battle for seeding in the MLS Cup playoffs continues. 

The Revolutions have not lost a match at home and hope to keep it that way against a Black & Gold side that struggles on the road. New England is 2-3-2 in MLS play since their former head coach Bruce Arena resigned under controversy. Unfortunately, that middling form is against six opponents struggling under the playoff line, and one of the losses was to a CF Montreal side who is free falling out of a playoff spot. The Crew is their strongest MLS opponent since the resignation of Arena and the controversy that followed. 

Let’s take a look at how we expect the Black & Gold to line up in this match.

Columbus will continue to be without defender Will Sands as he recovers from his ACL injury, but defender/midfielder Sean Zawadzki returns from his yellow card accumulation suspension. The Black & Gold will likely be without first-team defender Philip Quinton, who sustained a head injury this past weekend in a Columbus Crew 2 playoff victory. Quinton was likely not going to be selected for this match if healthy. 

Goalkeeper Patrick Schulte and his defense only have a couple games left to clean up the set piece defending woes. The Crew is tied for fifth-worst at defending set pieces, giving up 10 goals, while the Revolution are sixth best at scoring set piece goals with nine.

Defenders Steven Moreira and Malte Amundsen will flank Zawadzki as Columbus looks to keep the Homegrown product involved as a potential starter if needed come playoff time. New England has weathered a few devastating injuries this season, but forward Gustavo Bou and the midfield brothers Carles and Nacho Gil are both healthy and likely to test the Black & Gold defense. 

Wing back Julian Gressel will continue to start on the right while Yaw Yeboah will start as the left wing back. 

In the last midweek match, Columbus rested midfielder and captain Darlington Nagbe. This time, Nagbe cannot be afforded that rest as the Crew looks to overtake New England. Alongside Nagbe will be his typical companion, midfielder Aidan Morris. Morris struggled with turnovers against Philadelphia and will need to protect the ball better if the Black & Gold are to win their fourth road victory in the MLS this year. 

The Crew may need to change the attacking trio of forwards Cucho Hernandez and Diego Rossi alongside midfielder Alexandru Matan. Forward Christian Ramirez significantly increases the odds of the Crew winning. Columbus is 5-1-0 when Ramirez starts over Matan and 2-6-4 when the lineup is the other way around.

While it is unfair to compare those completely, it is clear the Black & Gold operates differently when Ramirez is on the field. Ramirez will occupy center backs as he plays a more traditional striker. This allows for more room to operate for Hernandez, Rossi, and Matan. To note Columbus is 5-1-0 when Matan and Ramirez start together. Ramirez and Matan starting together is unlikely due to the team working in Rossi.