Challenging Crew Schedule Could Benefit Revolution

This Saturday, the New England Revolution welcome Columbus Crew SC, who didn’t play last weekend. Usually facing a team that’s coming off a bye week can be dangerous but due to a weird scheduling quirk, Crew SC could actually be exhausted by kickoff.

The Crew played the first two weeks of the season, losing to the Houston Dynamo before beating Toronto FC. The club would then have a bye week before being handed a defeat by the New York Red Bulls. The Crew rested again in week five.

What does this week bring? Two away games on opposite sides of North America.

On Wednesday, the Crew are set to play the Vancouver Whitecaps at BC Place. After this midweek affair, the Crew will be heading to Foxborough for a Saturday afternoon tilt. Less than 72 hours will expire between the two games. In sum, the Crew will travel upwards of 4,500 miles this week.

Another oddity of the schedule is that both of the Crew’s games will be played on turf. The coaching staff will certainly take this into consideration since players will already have tired legs due to the travel.

So, how are the Crew approaching this daunting schedule? They’re simply focusing on the things that they can control.

"We’ve got the toughest stretch you could probably possibly play [this] week with two turf games in three games cross-country, but we have to deal with it," Michael Parkhurst told MLSSoccer.com. "We have to get points. We’re sitting at 1-2-0 and we need points. So we have to get past it mentally."