FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — The 1-0 loss on September 20 to the Columbus Crew is about as fresh a memory as the New England Revolution can have, seeing as it happened just two weeks ago.
The sting of that defeat, one that halted a six-game unbeaten streak, has the Revs looking inwardly at what needs to be different this time around when they host the Crew at Gillette Stadium on Saturday night (7:30 pm ET, MLSsoccer.com FREE Stream of the Week).
“We left a performance on the table,” said coach Jay Heaps of New England’s last league loss. “We weren’t good enough overall. Besides leaving points on the table, I thought our guys didn’t play as well as they can. Maybe we didn’t prepare the guys well enough. Going into this game we have to be spot on from a staff down to each player.”
With four games remaining on the schedule, the Revs are looking to control their last of two home matches against a very familiar opponent.
One big aspect of Saturday’s match is that the Revs know they must limit free-kick opportunities that set up the deadly Federico Higuain who has twice struck from just outside the box against New England this season in helping the Crew take the first two matchups between these clubs.
“We’ve played them twice already, so we know what they have,” said Revolution playmaker Lee Nguyen. “We’ve just got to be wary of giving fouls around the area because Higuain is really good at that and he’s cost us a couple of games.”
The Revolution know that the Crew, sitting just two points behind them in fourth place, are in a similar position: hoping to get a strong hold of their postseason destiny.
And with the table in the Eastern Conference catering a near full meal at this point, so to speak, the implications of Saturday's match will go a long way.
“We’re approaching it with a good stiff challenge ahead of us,” said Heaps. “We have to challenge ourselves because last game wasn’t good enough.”
Craig Forde covers the New England Revolution for MLSsoccer.com.
