Get your tea bags ready! Your Loons are headed to New England, land of tiny states and historic tea parties, for their first showdown with the Revolution since 2023. The two clubs have met only five times in 10 seasons, making this fixture a rare but exciting contest. It’s the penultimate matchup before the Loons take a couple of months off, and they’re ready to make the most of it.

Run of Form

Minnesota United FC
Run of Form: L-D-W-L-L (All Competitions)

Wednesday’s match against the Colorado Rapids didn’t turn out the way we all hoped, and with one win in the last five, the Loons are hungrier than ever to put three points away. The Black and Blue continue to play out their balance of disciplined defense and creative midfield combos, never short on opportunities but struggling to complete them of late. This club has shown time and time again that they can hang with the big dogs, but keeping momentum across multiple matches is proving to be a struggle. A big win this weekend could light a fire that carries them into their final match before the break. 

New England Revolution
Run of Form: L-W-W-L-D (All Competitions)

After missing the playoffs for two consecutive seasons, nobody expected all that much from New England this season — and oh, how wrong they were. Marko Mitrović’s Revolution have rocketed to the East’s top three, boasting 22 points and seven wins in 12 matches played. With 11 different goal scorers and only 16 goals against (third-fewest in the East), clearly Carles Gil & Co. are doing something right. Their two-game winning streak was broken against Nashville on Wednesday— New England’s only loss at home this year — and they’ll be looking to make a statement against a Western Conference contender on Saturday.

Keys to the Match:

The Wild West

It’s been a prominent narrative over the last few years that the Eastern Conference is just better than the West, largely driven by Inter Miami’s rise to fame but supplemented by powerhouses like Nashville and defending Supporters’ Shield champs Philadelphia Union. Now, though, Philadelphia and a number of other Eastern Conference contenders have fallen from grace, and the West is jam-packed with winners. The West’s top six sides all have more points than the East’s fourth-place Chicago Fire. What does this mean for this weekend, you ask? Well, the Revs look pretty good up there in third, but they’ve also only played one Western Conference side (and lost, to a struggling St. Louis CITY). Their only truly groundbreaking result so far this year is a draw against Miami. New England is doing well, but it’s also very possible that they’ve just had an easier schedule as a consequence of being in the easier conference. The reign of the East is over. What will the Revs do against a formidable opponent like Minnesota?

The Prodigal Winger

Over the offseason, the Loons acquired forward Tomás Chancalay from the Revs, where he played as a DP. An ACL injury in 2024 had him fighting to work his way back into the squad, and Minnesota got Chancalay in a $100,000 cash-for-player trade that might be one of their best transactions yet. Chancalay has been an absolute monster for the Loons, quickly earning a spot in the starting lineup and leading the club alongside Joaquín Pereyra with four assists (plus a goal). The attacking unit he forms with Pereyra and Kelvin Yeboah has yielded some of the most creative forward motion we’ve seen in several seasons here in Minnesota, and if I were New England, I’d be seriously regretting ever giving this guy up. He’ll take to the pitch donning different colors against the Revs this weekend, likely in the starting role after making a late substitution for James Rodríguez on Wednesday. And he’ll know that field like the back of his hand, which certainly can’t be a disadvantage.

What’s Not Clicking?

Despite the Loons’ strong season so far, the Black and Blue’s goal differential is still sitting at -3. That puts them 17th in the league, despite their 21 points and six wins. A large portion of that stat can be attributed to the 6-0 loss to Vancouver earlier in the year, but it’s worth noting that the Loons haven’t overcome that negative number despite playing nine matches since. They’ve logged just three shutouts this season and have only scored three goals in the same game once. But it’s not like the chances aren’t there. The Loons have taken 67 shots in their last five games, 22 of them on goal, and yet only have five actual goals in that period. Something just isn’t clicking in that final third, whether it’s hesitation, miscommunication, or split-second mistakes. It’s not rocket science that goals change games, but this is important on a long-term level, too —in a league where the standing tiebreaker is GD, those few extra goals could be the difference in securing home-field advantage in the playoffs, or making it in at all. This weekend could be the perfect opportunity to smooth whatever cracks are keeping our balls out of the net and kick that stat up a notch.