Crew Coverage pres. by Medical Mutual | Arfsten: We’re trying to ‘flip the script’

The Columbus Crew’s three-game unbeaten streak across all competitions snapped on Saturday night, when the club lost, 2-1, to the New England Revolution at Gillette Stadium.

The Black & Goal were lively offensively in the first half. Max Arfsten put the visitors ahead in the 24th minute when he finished a swift Columbus build up. The Crew played through the Rev lines quickly, before Diego Rossi found space on the right flank. From there, he played a ball across to Arfsten, who collected the ball with a clever touch, then tucked in a shot toward the near post.

The goal, which arrived the night before Arfsten’s 25th birthday, was his second of the campaign. The U.S. Men’s National Team midfielder – and 2026 FIFA World Cup hopeful – has two goals and two assists across eight appearances in 2026. 

“The first half, I think it was good,” head coach Henrick Rydström said after the match. “We controlled the game. We pushed them down. We had a lot of situations around their box. Hugo missed a big chance. Max had some other situations, and Dani. I think we compensated the loss from Wes in the first half.”

In the second half, however, the Crew played on the backfoot, absorbing New England’s chances. Rydström and his players said it wasn’t that the Revolution were dangerous – the Black & Gold simply played more to hold the lead than to grow it. 

Eventually, the home side equalized in the 54th minute before converting a penalty in the 85th. 

“Yeah, it's tough right now,” Arfsten said. “We just, once again, got the lead and then stopped playing as aggressively, offensively and defensively, and then you saw what happened. It's very frustrating. That's what my feeling was.” 

Arfsten said there’s no secret to turn things around: just hard work and continuous improvement.  

“It doesn't sound super amazing to say, but I mean, we just have to take it one day at a time,” he added. “Train hard, like I said, just get on the same page as players on the field and really just take more accountability, myself of course included. 

“I think we all just need to be more accountable in terms of, we know what we're doing right now is not working, so we have to do something to change and it's on the players. It's on us. So, we just have to figure it out and it begins every day in training.” 

There’s no time to dwell on the loss, though. 

On Wednesday night, the Crew welcome LA Galaxy to the Ohio capital for a midweek matchup at ScottsMiracle-Gro Field. After that, the Crew host the Philadelphia Union on Saturday.