Crew locked into playoff position, but aim to grow vs. Revs

The Columbus Crew will try to build momentum toward another potential MLS Cup run on Saturday night when they host the New England Revolution.

Both teams will be without key contributors in one of only two MLS matches played during the October international window, a match rescheduled from late May because of the Crew's run to the CONCACAF Champions Cup final.

That includes Columbus leading scorer and MLS MVP candidate Cucho Hernandez, who has earned a second call-up to the Colombia national team in as many months after scoring or assisting on 32 of the Crew's 65 league goals.

The Crew (17-6-9, 60 points) are already locked into their second-place Eastern Conference finish, meaning the penultimate match of the season could provide a chance for coach Wilfried Nancy to experiment. But that may not be the primary focus of the Frenchman, whose side defeated Philadelphia 3-2 last weekend to set a new club points record.

"This is the idea -- all the time try to grow and seek for improvement," Nancy said after the match. "My players want to get better. They accept all the challenges that my staff and I try to give them. For me, I'm really, really happy with that because this is so difficult."

Columbus will likely lean more heavily on Diego Rossi (12 goals) in Hernandez's absence.

New England (9-19-4, 31 points) will play not only without a quartet of internationals but also 2021 MLS MVP Carles Gil, who sustained a season-ending hamstring injury. The 31-year-old Spaniard has scored or assisted on 17 of New England's 35 goals.

"I think they said maybe three to four weeks, so it's not major, but it will put him out the rest of the year, for sure," Revs coach Caleb Porter said. "In terms of what we do, obviously, he is a key part of what we do, but we have played games without him."

Revs striker Giacomo Vrioni needs one more goal to complete his first double-digit goal MLS campaign, but he hasn't found the net in his last eight appearances. New England won only one of those eight matches in a slide that resulted in the end of its already remote playoff hopes.

--Field Level Media