NYCFC, Alonso Martinez take aim at Revolution's struggling attack

New York City FC are aiming for an early-season sweep when they visit the New England Revolution on Saturday in Foxborough, Mass.

The Eastern Conference rivals already had their first of two matches back on March 15, when NYCFC (3-3-2, 11 points) recorded a 2-1 home win over the Revolution (2-4-1, 7 points). The result tied the all-time regular-season record between the two clubs at an even 10-10-6.

Alonso Martinez scored the match-winning goal on March 15, and also picked up the only tally in New York's last match, a 1-0 win over the Philadelphia Union last Saturday. After an impressive 16-goal performance last season, Martinez is well on his way to topping that production with five goals in his first seven matches of the 2025 campaign.

"(Martinez's) approach, his mindset, his goal-setting for this season is impressive. He's open to learn, he's working really hard every day in order to improve himself," NYCFC coach Pascal Jansen said. "So those are very important aspects to even go beyond what you've performed in the past season ... It's a huge compliment to Alonso himself."

Martinez has thus far outscored the Revolution, whose four goals are tied for the lowest total in MLS. New England has yet to score in open play -- their scores came from an own goal, and Carles Gil has converted two penalty kicks and a free kick.

Some big reinforcements may have arrived on the attacking front, as forwards Leo Campana and Tomas Chancalay each came off the bench in last Saturday's 1-0 win over Atlanta United. Campana had missed the Revs' last three matches with a hamstring injury, while Chancalay was playing for the first time since undergoing surgery to fix a torn ACL last June.

"We've been defending really well, so there's a strong foundation there ... Obviously without Tomas and Leo, we knew we had to kind of survive a little bit in the attack," Revolution coach Caleb Porter said.

New England is 1-2-0 in home matches this season. NYCFC are winless (0-2-2) in four away matches.

--Field Level Media