|
Columbus (6-3-3) is tied for second place in
the Eastern Conference with 21 points, four behind Atlanta
United, with three wins and two ties in its past five games.
The Crew have won two straight, and coupled with a 0-0 draw at
the Seattle Sounders on May 5, have recorded three consecutive
shutouts for the first time since four in a row from March 26 to
April 17 in 2011.
The stretch of 315 minutes without allowing a goal is the
third-longest in franchise history.
New England (5-3-2) will try to put an end to that streak by
exploiting the Crew's strength. Columbus loves to get its
defenders involved in the attack and play the ball wide.
"They're very stubborn in the way they play. They want to play
out as much as they can, sometimes to a fault. Hopefully we can
take advantage of that," Revolution midfielder Kelyn Rowe said.
"We obviously want to do the same in the sense that we want to
play the way we play. We're at home, so we want to press a
little bit."
New England likes to force turnovers and run off the
counterattack. The Revolution, though, will have to do so
without midfielder Diego Fagundez because of yellow-card
accumulation.
The teams played to an entertaining 2-2 tie in Columbus on April
21.
"They're an excellent home team," Crew coach Gregg Berhalter
said of the Revolution's 4-1-1 mark at Gillette. "They've been
generating a number of chances through their pressing, and we
need to be prepared. We have a style of play and it's very
important to us, but we need to be sharp."
--Field Level Media
[© 2018 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2018 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
 |
|
