Henrik Rydstrom vowed that the Columbus Crew will put in the work needed to rectify their slow start to the MLS season, after falling to yet another defeat. 

Rydstrom watched on as Columbus were beaten 3-0 by New York City FC at the weekend, with Hannes Wolf's hat-trick dealing the Crew their sixth league loss of 2026. 

Wolf's hat-trick was the first scored against the Crew by somebody other than a Seattle Sounders player since Robbie Findley for Real Salt Lake in 2009.

But even more concerning for Rydstrom were the recurring patterns from the start of the campaign, when they failed to win their first five league games. 

Columbus are 12th in the Eastern Conference ahead of their trip to Sports Illustrated Stadium to take on the New York Red Bulls, and Rydstrom wants his team to respond. 

"For me, it looked a little bit like in the beginning of the season," Rydstrom said. "The last six games, we have been good at erasing those kinds of behaviours.

"The behaviours from the first part of the season repeated [themselves] that game. The good thing is that… If it's good in the second half, we give it a try.

"We were close to scoring the first goal in the second half, but we didn't do it. For me, it's more about the players, the organisation and the coaches.

"We understand the hard work we need to put in every day to change where we are right now, and we will. This was a disappointment, for sure."

But Columbus will come up against a NYRB side that snapped a five-game winless run after putting in an impressive display to beat the Chicago Fire 3-1 away from home. 

Jorge Ruvalcaba, Cade Cowell and Eric Choupo-Moting were all on target at Soldier Field, rendering Hugo Cuypers' 87th-minute strike a mere consolation. 

It also saw NYRB boss Michael Bradley get one over his former boss Gregg Berhalter, with the pair spending time together with the United States national team. 

And Bradley believes his side were deserving of their first league win since April 4, having not had the rub of the green during their recent downturn.

"It was a really important day," Bradley said. "Over this last little period we have been on the wrong end of some different types of results.

"In some games we played well and were unlucky, and other days we weren't at our best and could not find a way to still dig in and take something from the game.

"We have spoken a lot lately about the idea of going along with our football. To go along with our ideas, we still need to make sure on certain days we need a harder edge."

PLAYERS TO WATCH

New York Red Bulls – Cade Cowell

Playing in his 12th competitive match of 2026, Cowell scored his first goal with the Red Bulls in their victory over the Fire.

It was Cowell's first goal against an MLS team since the 2024 Leagues Cup with Chivas, against the LA Galaxy, and his first in an MLS game since 2023 for the San Jose Earthquakes against Minnesota United.

Columbus Crew – Diego Rossi

Despite failing to add to his four league goals this season against NYCFC, Rossi was Columbus' focal point in attack, and he will be key again here.

He finished with team-high totals for shots (three), shots in the box (two) and touches in the opposition's penalty area (eight).

MATCH PREDICTION: DRAW

Columbus have taken 13 points over their last five regular-season matches against NYRB (W4 D1). That is the most points they have ever earned over a five-game span against them and one game shy of equalling their longest unbeaten regular-season run in the matchup (six, 2017-20).  

However, they have lost four of their first six away matches of the regular season (W1 D1), including the last two in a row.

The Crew have just three wins in their last 19 regular-season away matches, dating back to the start of May 2025 (D7 L9).

NYRB, meanwhile, ended their three-match losing streak across all competitions with a victory over Chicago. In 2026, they are unbeaten in all competitions when allowing no more than one goal (W3 D1) while having just one victory across their nine other matches (D2 L6).

OPTA WIN PROBABILITY

New York Red Bulls – 36.6%

Draw – 26.2%

Columbus Crew – 37.2%