Photo credit: Major League Soccer

The Columbus Crew travel to Gillette Stadium to take on former Crew coach Caleb Porter and the New England Revolution. On this week’s Crossing The Touchline, Jake Catanese from our friends at The Blazing Musket sat down with us to give us a deeper inside scoop on their four-game win streak, Carles Gil and Giacomo Vrioni and our old pal Porter.

Editors note: This article was drafted before the injury reports became public knowledge, showing Carles Gil as ‘Questionable.’

Massive Report: It was announced a few days ago that Tomas Chancalay will miss the remainder of the 2024 campaign with an injury. How detrimental is this injury to Caleb Porter and company, and who can Columbus expect to be in his place? 

The Blazing Musket: Well, the Revs survived the opening months of the year without their other starting winger Dylan Borrero who was recovering from a long term injury suffered last year, so the plan for that was a healthy dose of young Esmir Bajraktarevic, Nacho Gil (currently out injured), Ema Boateng off the bench and maybe Noel Buck getting some minutes cause he can’t get them in central midfield. It stinks that the Revs essentially had their first choice attacking midfield trio (Chancalay-Carles Gil-Borrero) for all of like 10 minutes this year but the Revs have been on the front foot more or less since Chancalay went down with their current four game winning streak but I wouldn’t be surprised if they trade for a winger/striker type for some added depth the rest of the way.

MR: Four game win streak recently, with a huge 2-1 win over FC Cincinnati last weekend. What’s gone right for the Revolution, and how can they continue to get points?

TBM: Okay, the cliff notes version of the winning streak is a combination of the Revs simply playing better, catching teams like Nashville after firing their coach and RBNY while on international break, and the Revs scoring goals in the first half. New England’s offense had been dreadful through the opening months, but their inability to score in the first half meant they were just down a lot and New England usually plays better on the front foot because there’s more counters available and despite Porterball being possession based, the Revs are truly a countering team in my opinion. That being said Dave Romney’s inclusion back into the starting lineup at centerback has been one of the spearheads to the Revs run of form along with Vrioni notching three goals in New England’s last two games. If the Revs can maintain their overall team balance and really hone their transition game, they might be the dangerous team we thought they were halfway through last year.

MR: Carles Gil and Giacomo Vrioni both lead the team with five goals on the season. Columbus have Cucho Hernandez and Diego Rossi. This is a forward heavy matchup, with either set of forwards getting on the scoresheet. Can we expect lots of goals?

TBM: Somehow I feel like this game is going to revert to the usual cagey nonsense these teams do cause the mirroring 4-2-3-1’s always seem to negate each other. I love what Wilfried Nancy has done with the Crew and without Morris I can understand Columbus being slightly out of sorts and/or a little more cautious than normal. Cucho and Carles are ridiculous and I hope they both pull off some highlight reel stuff as always because that’s always fun but something tells me goals will be at a premium in this one with lots of countering. I wonder if New England might opt for Harkes or Buck in the deeper midfield to help mark Cucho and limit his effectiveness if such a thing can be done.

MR: Lastly, Caleb Porter. Former coach of the Columbus Crew, winning the 2020 MLS Cup with the Black & Gold. Now with the Revolution, starting to gain some ground on teams above. What has he done right, to get this team from the bottom of the East to practically in talks of breaking into the top 10?

TBM: So, the obvious point here is that the Revs have gotten healthier to start the year (minus Chancalay’s season ender) and the heavy fixture load with CCC play and being short at fullback didn’t help the Revs consistency issues early on. Combine that with transitioning into Porter’s play out of the back style/focus, the Revs weren’t playing to their strengths early on in the year and the lack of personnel especially defensively didn’t help. I think Porter has relaxed some of his rigidity in this regard, sticking with Romney and getting midfielders Ian Harkes and Noel Buck more minutes due to necessity have given the Revs a more positive/aggressive mindset and it’s resulted in goals. I don’t know if there is a position the Revs can truly upgrade with a high end starter but a depth piece or two possibly via trade wouldn’t surprise me. A month ago it was certainly possible that Vrioni could have been shipped out and a new striker brought in but the Revs current streak and his form make it more likely the Revs might be looking to add more depth level pieces via trade than outright starters. If everything stays the same and the Revs get Brandon Bye and Nacho Gil back into the fold from injury, the Revs being an in-form darkhorse 6-seed in the East is certainly in the realm of possibility. The Revs (and Crew) have games in hand and New England aren’t that far from the playoff line but I expect the Crew to finish no worse than 4th and I don’t know if the Revs can get above that line to host a playoff series in the first round with the hole they’ve dug. But it’s MLS and this league does weird dumb things regularly so who knows.

We thank Jake and The Blazing Musket again for sitting down with us ahead of this MLS original matchup.

You can watch the match for FREE on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV. Kickoff is slated for 7:30 p.m. EDT.