Revolution II vs Crew 2: Three Thoughts
Three thoughts following Revolution II's season finale against Columbus.
New England Revolution II’s overall underwhelming 2024 season came to a disappointing end on Sunday as they suffered a 3-1 defeat at home in New Hampshire to Columbus Crew 2. Here are three thoughts.
1 - Horrible History
Sunday’s defeat marked the 15th consecutive match New England Revolution II has failed to pick up a win in regulation. Since their last win on June 14, Revs II went an abysmal 0-11-4 with two shootout victories. That’s six of 45 points. Simply unacceptable.
In addition to their horrid record in their final 15 matches, they also ended the stretch with a -15 goal differential.
Their 15-game winless run to end the 2024 season set the record for the longest single-season winless run. The previous record was held by Whitecaps 2, who went winless in 14 matches to end their 2023 campaign.
It also ties the all-time MLS NEXT Pro winless record, which is co-held by Whitecaps 2 and Huntsville, who went winless in 15 straight matches in 2023 and into 2024.
Revolution II would set the all-time winless record with a loss or draw on the opening day of 2025.
2 - Outright Overwhelmed
Revolution II was simply overrun by Crew 2 on Sunday. Revs II ended the match with 41% possession, which ties the second-lowest percentage of possession Revs II had in 2024.
Crew 2 executed almost 200 more accurate passes than Revs II, ending the day with 537 compared to Revolution II’s. Columbus also put double the amount of shots on target compared to Revs II (eight to four).
Defense between both sides was mostly even, but Columbus’ dominance in attack was the deciding factor and it showed with their three goals.
3 - Butts Goes Back-to-Back-to-Back
Sort of a repeat from last match’s three thoughts, but Liam Butts came up huge for Revolution II for a third match in a row.
His 34th-minute goal was a work of art. After receiving the ball from Malcolm Fry, Butts did a good job holding off the Columbus defender before executing a series of give-and-go passes between himself and Cristiano Oliveira that resulted in Butts getting the ball alone atop the 6-yard box and slotting the ball past the keeper to net Revolution II’s final goal of the 2024 season.
It’s been an incredibly tough debut season for Butts, who saw three injury spells keep him out for extended periods. Despite the adversity, Butts has stood tall and put the work in when on the pitch.
Butts ended his debut campaign with five goals in 11 appearances. Considering three of his five came in his last three appearances, I think Butts deserves another opportunity to come back and show what he can do with a healthy season.