FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – The New England Revolution and Columbus Crew are two sides that know each other extremely well, and they’re both ready to match up in a heated showdown over the Fourth of July weekend, which could result in fireworks.
The Revs and Crew have squared off once already this year at Gillette Stadium, where the hosts gained a small measure of revenge with a 1-0 win over the team that beat them in last year's Eastern Conference Final.
“The nice thing in soccer is that you can get an opportunity for revenge quickly,” Gustavo Bou said via translator. “Obviously, the circumstances aren’t the same, but we remember that loss. Hopefully we can do things well in this game and get [another] three points.”
New England aim to repeat their most recent victory over this Eastern rival, but this test will be slightly more challenging, as Columbus is opening their brand-new stadium, Lower.com Field.
“There’s going to be a lot of emotions,” said Teal Bunbury. “They’re going to be flying. They’re opening up a brand-new stadium that looks beautiful, their fans are going to be going crazy, so it’s going to be about us tempering kind of their excitement level and making sure that we’re locked in from the first minute.
“I think that’s kind of been our downfall this season is not starting games strong. This one’s going to be very important for us to start strong.”
Starting strong has been a huge point of emphasis ahead of the squad’s trip to Ohio. The Revs have gone 2-1-0 through their latest three games to take six points, but they’ve also conceded six goals in that span. Against a hungry Columbus side, they will need to be tighter defensively.
“I think two of the six goals we conceded were from set pieces, and then pretty much every other goal was from some pretty direct play so they are very avoidable goals to give up,” said Matt Turner. "We’ll look at ourselves in the mirror and have the tough conversations when we go through the film together. Hopefully we come out better on the other side.”
With the defending champions opening their new home venue, it will be another reason the Revs will need to stay locked in for a full 90 minutes.
“It will certainly be a hectic day for our team,” said head coach Bruce Arena. “There will be a lot of excitement in Columbus – their players will be excited; their fans will be excited. So, it'll be a great challenge against a good team.”
This match will also act as a test for New England, as they aim to bounce back from only their second loss of the season in a really difficult setting.
"[It’s] a huge game for us coming off a loss,” said Tajon Buchanan. “We all want to regroup and put in a good performance. Obviously, [Columbus is] opening up their stadium, so that's going to be a tough environment to go in and play. They're going to come out very strong, but we've just got to play our game and hopefully try and get three points.”
The Revs will kick off at Columbus on Saturday at 5 p.m. ET in a nationally-televised game on ESPN and ESPN Deportes.
