If winning breeds confidence, as Brad Friedel mentioned Tuesday, what does familiarity breed? For Revolution fans, hopefully a better result -- at the very least, a better performance -- the second time around.
It’s been four weeks since the last time we saw the Crew, and the Revolution will get to tangle with them once again this Saturday night (7:30 p.m.). After four weeks, we’re not expecting Caleb Porter’s side to do anything different than they did on March 9, when they came to Gillette and grabbed a 2-0 victory.
The Crew (2nd in East, 3-1-1, 10 points) are coming off a rather soggy 2-0 win over defending champion Atlanta United FC last Saturday, where passing accuracy found itself bogged down by standing water on the MAPFRE Stadium pitch. Both Pedro Santos — who got the first Crew goal started against the Revs — and Gyasi Zardes scored first-half tallies for the Yellow and Black.
Like we said prior to the home opener, expect Columbus to play a rather disciplined 4-4-2 while defending. If you’ll recall, Columbus holds their shape very well and doesn’t necessarily set a high line of contention: the Crew will sit back and wait for you to make a mistake in the middle third, dispossess, and carve you to pieces on the counter.
When on the ball, Columbus will morph into a 4-2-3-1, with the offense centering on Federico Higuain, Justin Meram, Santos, and Zardes. Zardes is already at three goals for the Crew in 2019, plus the goal he scored against Ecuador in a friendly two weeks ago.
Suffice it to say, it’ll be up to the Revs defending to keep the Los Angeles native in check Saturday.
“I think it's important. I think that they have an identity of a really good team,” Revs right back Andrew Farrell said earlier this week. “They’ve got really good players around and (Zardes) has been on-form with both the USA and with Columbus, so denying them service is important, but just being tight to him is really important, because he's been finishing everything. If we can do that, we'll have a really good chance. Obviously, the first game we didn't do well but we're looking forward to make up for that.
“(Zardes) is very mobile as a forward, scoring a lot in the box so if you're not tight on him in the box, he’s going to score. The last goal he had against Atlanta was a great finish, but he had a couple guys around him, but (they were) not tight enough. And if you're not tight enough, he's going to get that shot off and he's been going with left foot, right foot, headers, so just being tight to him and it's whether it's my job, whoever's playing center back, playing outside back being tight to the guy is very important.”
New England enters this weekend’s Buckeye State tilt in 10th overall in the East (1-3-1, 4 points), coming off a big win over Minnesota United FC.
“I think (the win) was huge for the morale,” forward Teal Bunbury said prior to training Tuesday. “I mean, you could tell when we get into the locker room, guys are excited for training — and not that we usually aren't. But when you get three points, and we haven't had that yet this year, it's huge for everybody's confidence, the morale and I mean, not only us, but the fans, as well. So it's a big turning point for us. I know it's only five games into the season. But we got to look forward now and try to build off this momentum.
“We need to go out there and win. That's the mindset going there, and getting three points… I know a lot of times you might want to get a point on the road, but for us, our mindset is going there to win and kind of really focusing on us and not really worry too much about Columbus. We know what they're going to bring, we know that they’re a talented group, and they have some key players, but focusing on our strengths is going to be crucial.”
New England has played fairly well on the road so far in ’19: The Boys In Blue came away with a point in Dallas in the season opener, the first point claimed in Dallas since 2010, and also did plenty of good things against Toronto despite falling, 3-2, two weeks ago.
“The road trips, I think, have been great for us,” Bunbury continued. “I think we've had a good mindset, a good mentality, I think we've worked together as a group. There's still things here and there that we can improve on. And I think the biggest thing is maybe being a full 90-minute match where we're sharp, where we're locked in, and just maintaining that pressure on teams.”
Around the league this weekend:
Vancouver and the Galaxy get us started tonight at BC Place; the rebuilding Whitecaps (0-3-1, 1 points, 10th West) will more than likely see Zlatan Imbrahimovic, given his assurances Thursday that he can play on turf.
“I have no problem with turf fields. Last season was special because of my knee injury.
If I feel like I do today, I’m present so all the fans can enjoy.” - @Ibra_official on #VANvLA ? https://t.co/kCh1q1QCHj
— LA Galaxy (@LAGalaxy) April 1, 2019