New England Revolution II's woes continued on Saturday as they suffered a second loss in as many games as goals from Kevin Gbamblé and Zach Zengue led to a 2-1 win for the home team. Here are three thoughts.
1 - Can’t Capitalize
Despite having a firm advantage in several categories, New England struggled in terms of generating chances and also capitalizing on the chances it did create.
Revolution outpossessed Crew 2 57 to 43; both sides managed to put up 13 shots total, with Crew 2 managing to put six on target while New England put up just three. Revs II also had more passes (457 to 356), more touches in the opposing box (23 to 16), and were fouled in their third more (four to one).
Despite that, Revs II managed to generate zero big chances. Something they’re tied for the tenth fewest big chances created with 10. On top of having just 10 chances, Revs II have missed six of them thus far.
It has led to some incredible struggles for this Revs II offense as they’re now tied for 11th in fewest goals with just seven. We’re still incredibly early into this 2026 season, but from an eye test, it feels like this Revolution II offense has regressed game by game, which needs to change ahead of next week’s meeting with CT United FC.
2 - The Little Things
For a second consecutive week, two lapses led to defeat for New England.
The first came in the 43rd minute when an errant touch from Damario McIntosh in their own defensive half led to Zengue getting on the ball and slotting it centrally to Gbamblé using Chris Mbaï-Assem as a human shield before curling the ball to the bottom-right corner and in to give Columbus the lead.
Another error cost Revs II greatly in the opening minutes of stoppage time as an errored touch led to Columbus poking the ball away from Mbaï-Assem and led Crew 2 to slot the ball forward to Gbamblé, who attempted to slot it home but had his shot deflected onto the crossbar by Parisian. Zengue was all over it as he tapped the loose ball in to give Crew 2 the 2-0 lead.
Unlike the loss to RBNY II, these weren’t the only two lapses Revs II had, as there were numerous instances where they were caught off guard thanks to some line-breaking passes from Columbus that nearly led to additional chances and goals.
Losses, especially in MLS NEXT Pro, are inevitable, but it’s been tragic to see New England’s own errors lead to them in the last two outings.
