MLS Eastern Conference leaders New England Revolution will look to get back to winning ways when they travel to Columbus Crew.
Bruce Arena's side have a two-point lead over Orlando City at the top of the table but have played one game more, while the Crew sit in fifth.
Match preview
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Revolution suffered a surprise 2-1 defeat to strugglers FC Dallas in their last outing, beaten by a brace from Ricardo Pepi.
They had gone into the game on a five-match winning streak but lost for just the second time in 11 matches in the 2021 campaign; it was their third game in the space of nine days and tiredness was evident in Arena's men.
While they have a 100% record on home turf this season, New England have only won two of their six away matches so far and kept just one clean sheet on the road.
After travelling to Ohio, their following four matches are all against sides currently in the bottom half of the Eastern Conference.
Adam Buksa scored an 86th-minute winning goal in a 1-0 victory for New England Revolution when the two teams met earlier this season in May, which was the first time Revs had beaten the Crew in six matches since 2017.
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That was one of only three defeats that Caleb Porter's side have suffered in 10 games so far this season, and they remain unbeaten at home; winning three and drawing one of their four games at the Historic Crew Stadium.
However, Saturday's fixture will be the first game at their new home stadium, the Lower.com Field, which has been nearly two years in the making.
The Crew made their first visit to Austin last time out and drew 0-0 with the MLS newcomers, their third goalless stalemate of the campaign.
It is therefore no surprise that while the Ohio outfit have the joint-best defence across both East and West conferences having conceded just seven goals, only Chicago Fire and Austin have scored fewer than their tally of nine.
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Team News
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Columbus Crew are struggling with a number of injuries, with Josh Williams, Luis Diaz, Bradley Wright-Phillips and Artur all currently sidelined.
Kevin Molino has only recently returned from a hamstring problem but is now away on international duty with Trinidad and Tobago in the Gold Cup qualifiers.
The tournament itself kicks off next week, with the Crew set to lose four more players after Saturday's game, including first choice goalkeeper Eloy Room and striker Gyasi Zardes.
New England Revolution will also lose their shot-stopper, Matt Turner, to the USA squad after the match as well as Canada's Tajon Buchanan.
Striker Gustavo Bou is aiming to score for the fifth consecutive appearance and net his sixth goal of the campaign.
Luis Caicedo and Christian Mafla are both unavailable through injury.
Columbus Crew possible starting lineup:
Room; Afful, Wormgoor, Mensah, Valenzuela; Nagbe, Parente; Santos, Zelarayan, Molino; Zardes
New England Revolution possible starting lineup:
Turner; Bye, Kessler, Farrell, Jones; McNamara, Polster; Buchanan, Gil, Traustason; Bou
We say: Columbus Crew 1-1 New England Revolution
There will be plenty of anticipation for this game with Columbus Crew in their new stadium for the first time, but New England Revolution will be aiming to be the party crashers. The visitors certainly look the stronger side, but we think the occasion will help the Crew and it will end level.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a New England Revolution win with a probability of 38.41%. A win for Columbus Crew had a probability of 34.68% and a draw had a probability of 26.9%.
The most likely scoreline for a New England Revolution win was 0-1 with a probability of 10.5%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-2 (8.28%) and 0-2 (6.8%). The likeliest Columbus Crew win was 1-0 (9.87%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (12.78%). The actual scoreline of 2-2 was predicted with a 5% likelihood.
