NEW DELHI: The New England Revolution are determined to secure home-field advantage as they host the Columbus Crew on Wednesday. With the only unbeaten home record in MLS, the Revolution (14-6-10, 52 points) currently sit in third place in the Eastern Conference. They are just two points behind second-place Orlando City and one point ahead of the Philadelphia Union. Importantly, the Revolution have played one less game than both Orlando City and the Union, as well as the Columbus Crew.
In the MLS playoffs, the top four teams from each conference earn home-field advantage for the first-round, best-of-three series. New England boasts an impressive 11-0-4 home record and recently secured a 2-1 victory over Charlotte FC in front of a crowd of 37,701 fans.
Revolution goalkeeper Earl Edwards Jr. emphasized the challenge of playing at their home stadium, saying, "I know in general it's a nightmare to come and play here. I played at two previous clubs, and coming to New England is not a fun thing to do. To have that type of support, and make our home field a fortress, I think is something we're looking to do."
For the Columbus Crew (14-9-8, 50 points), who are coming off an 8-0-3 unbeaten streak at home but have struggled on the road with a 3-8-4 record, this could be a challenging task, especially with a quick turnaround. However, Crew coach Wilfried Nancy encouraged his team to embrace the challenge and focus on their performance.
"Rest first, and after that, try to have a good performance against New England," Nancy said. "I think this is the only team that haven't lost this year at home so I love it. I love it because this is a really good challenge in front of us, and we are going to try to do something good to have a good performance. This is the idea."
The Columbus Crew needs positive results on the road to have a chance of finishing in the top four and securing home-field advantage. They currently sit in fifth place, one point behind the Philadelphia Union and one point ahead of Atlanta United. After the match against New England, the Crew will face Atlanta United on Saturday.
New England has an impressive unbeaten streak at home, with 16 straight matches without a loss (12-0-4) since October 2022, just one match away from tying the team record.
(With Reuters inputs)
