The reigning Supporters' Shield winners will travel to Gillette Stadium on Sunday to face the current leaders in that race, the New England Revolution.
The Revs are riding a five-game unbeaten run into this weekend, while the Philadelphia Union ended their three-match winless streak with a 3-0 win over Toronto on Wednesday.
Match preview
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For a while now, it has been apparent that New England would be one of the teams to beat this year, and lately, no one has been able to do that.
On Wednesday, though, their normally potent strikers fired blanks, as they failed to score against a stingy Nashville side, despite having the bulk of the possession and firing six of their 12 shots on target.
Keeping the Revs off the scoresheet is rare, as the highest-scoring team in MLS have only been held without a goal on two occasions, and it was against Nashville each time.
The return of Henry Kessler from his brief time at the Gold Cup seemed to solidify their backline versus the Boys in Gold, as the Revs held a team to single-digits in shots for only the fourth time all season.
Bruce Arena knows better than anyone the importance of staying sharp while not getting too ahead of yourselves, and that mentality has served this team well.
New England have not always been spectacular, but they have limited their losses this year, and they have more than enough firepower to turn a game around when trailing.
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The Union looked a lot more like the Supporters' Shield winners of 2020 this week when they handled Toronto FC, winning for the first time since July 17.
Philly came out with their foot firmly on the accelerator on Wednesday, scoring three first-half goals and cruising to one of their more comfortable victories of the year.
A sense of comfort is something that Jim Curtin has rarely felt this season on the Union sidelines, as his team have been made to work for every point, winning only two matches this year by more than one goal.
That is already a significant change from their shortened 2020 regular season campaign in which they won six games by three goals or more.
They scored multiple goals in 14 different matches in 2020, but they have only been able to do that on six occasions so far in 2021, with a lot of their goals coming in the dying minutes.
Philly have had the Revs number over the past few years, going unbeaten in their previous 10 match ups against them, including a 1-1 draw at Subaru Park in May.
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Team News
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The Revs will still be missing Luis Caicedo and Jon Bell, who have lower-body injuries, while Carles Gil, who leads the league in assists and key passes, could miss the next couple of weeks with a sports hernia.
Canadian winger Tajon Buchanan is still with the team, but all indications are that he will be on his way out soon, with Belgian giants Club Brugge and Bundesliga side Augsburg expressing interest in the youngster.
Buchanan and Gil were both selected for the MLS All-Star game later this month, along with goalkeeper Matt Turner and striker Gustavo Bou, who is tied for second in MLS in goals with 10.
The Union will not have Alvas Powell available because of a hamstring issue, while Jack de Vries and Anthony Fontana are questionable due to concussion protocol.
Kai Wagner was the only player on the team chosen for the All-Star game, while Daniel Gazdag scored his first goal of the season on Wednesday and added an assist, his second of the year.
Their leading goalscorer Kacper Przybylko is without a goal in his last two fixtures, while Sergio Santos replaced Cory Burke in the starting 11 versus Toronto, scoring his fourth goal of the season.
New England Revolution possible starting lineup:
Turner; Bye, Mafla, Kessler, DeLaGarza; Boateng, Polster, Traustason; Buchanan, Bou, Buksa
Philadelphia Union possible starting lineup:
Blake; Findlay, Glesnes, Elliot, Wagner; Ilsinho, Martinez, Flach, Sullivan; Santos, Przybylko
We say: New England Revolution 1-1 Philadelphia Union
The Revs had a lot of the ball in their match on Wednesday, but without the presence of Gil in the middle of the park, they did not have as many clear-cut scoring opportunities as they usually do.
Philly are winless in their last six road games, starting slow in every one of those matches and having to find a way back in the latter stages of many of those encounters.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a New England Revolution win with a probability of 53.18%. A draw had a probability of 24.3% and a win for Philadelphia Union had a probability of 22.53%.
The most likely scoreline for a New England Revolution win was 1-0 with a probability of 11.56%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-0 (9.68%) and 2-1 (9.66%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (11.55%), while for a Philadelphia Union win it was 0-1 (6.9%). The actual scoreline of 2-1 was predicted with a 9.7% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that New England Revolution would win this match.
