Columbus Crew vs New England Revolution Prediction: Never in doubt for Columbus

The match between Columbus Crew and New England Revolution on 13th October 2024 would be a contest worth watching. Second-placed Columbus Crew in the Eastern Conference have been battling hard for their stay near the top, while the New England Revolution have secured 14th place and could look only to the clash to redeem some pride from an otherwise disappointing season. Therefore, Columbus has been consistent at home, whereas New England's road struggles, along with their overall form, indicate the tough challenge ahead for them.

Columbus Crew enter this match with 17 wins, 9 draws, and 6 losses but is on a spotty run of form as of late, 2W, 1D, 2L despite that electrifying 3-2 win against Philadelphia. They have shown an exciting, flowing 3-4-2-1 formation with active possession and created multiple chances. However, their backline is still something to be improved upon, as they've conceded in each of the last five matches.

Columbus Crew will most likely move with their 3-4-2-1 system, which gives them a solid base defensively while offering flexibility in attack. Their recent stats underline their dominance in possession-62% of the ball-and their ability to create high-quality chances. Indeed, they created four big chances against Philadelphia. Expect them to use wide areas through crosses, where success has been achieved 27% of the time, while exploiting defensive gaps in New England's backline. Defensively, Columbus have been leaky, but with high defensive tackle success-83% in his words-they'll be looking to press high and win it back quickly.

New England Revolution have had a pretty disastrous campaign with 9 wins, 4 draws, and 19 losses. Their recent form goes 1W 1D 3L, and the serious attacking inefficiencies were shown in their last game while getting defeated 2-1 to DC United with only one shot on target.

New England Revolution are likely to retain their 4-2-3-1 setup from the last week; however, what they badly need to do in order to stand a chance to win here is to increase their attacking threat. The attacking play has been far from convincing lately, given that they attempted just one shot on target in the last game. Forward play has been possession-oriented, but less effective in creating clear cut chances of goals as they managed to create just 1 big chance against DC. The team is pretty vulnerable at the back this season, especially when it comes to defending against set pieces and quick transitions, making fewer tackles in the build-up with a tackle success rate of only 77% compared to Columbus.

Columbus holds a fair advantage in this matchup, having won 10 of their last 20 meetings to New England's 4 wins. The other six matches ended in draws. The last seven meetings have seen Columbus unbeaten, and the most recent one finished with the Crew thrashing New England 5-1 away, so they surely have the tactical and psychological edge coming into the match. Both teams tend to see goals in their matchups as 6 of the last 7 games resulted in seeing both sides find the back of the net.

The gulf between the two sides comes into sharp focus here. Though not in the best of form, Columbus Crew has been pretty consistent at home and have the attacking potency to breach the fragile backline of New England. More than 2.5 goals were registered in four of their last five matches, with both teams scoring in all those matches, and Columbus will be expected to push for another high-scoring affair. Meanwhile, New England haven't stopped conceding early and often, allowing the first goal in 6 of their last 8. Failure to cope with teams above them in the table coupled with their poor attacking form places them at a disadvantage.

• Home Win + Over 2.5 Goals @ 1.79 Odds
• GG (yes) @ 1.61 Odds
• Correct Score 3:1. @ 10.00