The New England Revolution returned to the pitch on Saturday evening and were unable to maintain its winning streak as the Columbus Crew defeated the Revs 5-1.
Caleb Porter was faced with the worst type of selection headache as Carles Gil and Dylan Borrero missed the match along with the likes of Tomas Chancalay, Nacho Gil, and Peyton Miller.
Aljaz Ivacic was in net with DeJuan Jones, Dave Romney, Xavier Arreaga, and Nick Lima making up the back line. Matt Polster, Ian Harkes, and Noel Buck made up the midfield trio as Ema Boateng, Esmir Bajraktarevic, and Giacomo Vrioni were the men up front.
Saturday’s match was Porter’s first against the Crew since being fired after the 2022 season. It was also Romney’s 200th start of his MLS career.
But what do you need to know about Saturday’s match? Here are three thoughts.
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1 - Ema Chipateng
Ema Boateng pounced on an early mistake from the Crew and made Columbus pay.
A poor touch and a giveaway from Steven Moreira saw Boateng get on the ball and burst towards goal. Instead of launching a shot, the MLS veteran calmly chipped the ball over Patrick Schulte to give New England a lead in the 10th minute.
Boateng has been great as the Revs have dealt with injuries. With Chancalay out for the rest of the season, the 30-year-old could be a crucial depth piece; especially when New England needs to rotate its squad.
Far too many times this season, the Revolution have been gifted opportunities and failed to take advantage. Boateng made the absolute most of his chance, hopefully more of his teammates will follow suit.
2 -Arreaga’s Errors
Unfortunately for New England, the lead would only last eight minutes as Columbus struck on the counter.
Christian Ramirez launched a ball upfield to Cucho Hernandez and Arreaga completely misread the ball. Hernandez took one touch and was all alone on goal with Arreaga left in his wake. Cucho curled his shot past Ivacic and the game was tied up.
Arreaga simply has to be smarter. If he even just ran straight instead of misreading the ball he would have stopped Hernandez.
But on Columbus’ second goal, Arreaga would make another mistake. He gave Max Arfsten way too much space at the top of the box and the midfielder curled a shot into the far corner of the net.
Arreaga was far and away the worst defender on the night. While he had to deal with one of the best strikers in the league, his performance was still poor taking that fact into consideration.
3 - The Tale Of Two Vrioni’s
Vrioni was riding a hot streak heading into Saturday’s match. In his previous two matches, he had netted three goals.
Against the Crew, Vrioni regressed to what unfortunately has become the mean for the striker. He wasted the chances he was given and struggled to even hit the net.
These are the performances that make Revolution fans want the club to move on from the striker. Vrioni simply doesn’t live up to the designated player tag. If he was on TAM or just took up a normal senior roster spot, there wouldn’t be as much consternation about the striker’s play.
So once again the discussion around this upcoming transfer window will revolve around the future of Vrioni. If he continues to perform as he did against the Crew, his time in New England could reach its end.
But alas it is only one game so similar to when he scored, let’s not take too much stock into a single performance over 90 minutes. The question is what Vrioni will fans see in the coming flurry of matches? The goalscorer or the goalwaster.
