St. Louis City SC has never played in Foxborough, Massachusetts, where they face the New England Revolution on Saturday. City SC has also never traveled to the northeastern United States to play against any of the five teams there.

But no matter where City SC goes, the company has already been down this path before.

City SC plays its 14th away game of the season on Saturday against the Revolution at Gillette Stadium (6:30 p.m., Season Pass on Apple TV) and has yet to win any of them. At 0-6-7, City SC is the only team in the league that has yet to win a game on the road, and if that doesn’t change in its last four away games, the team will not only become the 11th team in league history to go a season without a win on the road, but it will certainly not make the playoffs. It’s been almost a year, September 23, 2023 in Minnesota, since City SC won on the road at CityPark.

“I think we’re doing everything right,” said midfielder Indiana Vassilev. “I feel like I say that a lot in my interviews. Maybe people don’t believe me anymore, but I really think we’re doing the right thing. And if we play like we did against Galaxy, in weather that’s not as rough as Sunday, then we’ll definitely give ourselves a chance.”

City SC has had a chance to win other away games, drawing seven times. There was the draw earlier this season against Los Angeles Galaxy when Galaxy equalized in the 95th minute. Or Portland’s 99th minute equalizer two weeks ago. Or an 85th minute goal from Miami. All games where, if City SC had been able to close out the game, it wouldn’t be in the predicament it’s in now, needing to win nearly all of its final seven games to make the playoffs.

Maybe things are changing. One of the things the team did right in its 2-1 win over league leaders Galaxy was to finish the game. In its other away games, City SC has fought for its life in the closing minutes. On Sunday, City SC was able to hold onto the ball and run down the clock.

“We haven’t seen that often,” said interim coach John Hackworth. “It was the other end, we defend like crazy in our penalty area. And thankfully that’s a step in the right direction and we want to get better and better at that.”

“You have to get to a point where you’re not only capable of winning, but you’re doing it. … Basically, the mentality wasn’t, ‘Hey, let’s not lose this game,’ it was, ‘Let’s go out and win.’ And we did that.”

Just over a month ago, on August 2, New England and City SC swapped center backs. Henry Kessler came to St. Louis and Tim Parker went east. Kessler has been in high demand this week and has been pigeonholed by teammates and staff alike with questions about his former team. Kessler has played twice for City SC, while Parker has yet to play for New England, but that will likely change this week.

“I give them all the information I have, and I’m sure Tim does the same for them,” Kessler said, “but I try to be helpful in any way I can. I give them tactical information, personnel information, things like that.”

Both teams are in a tough spot. City SC is nine points out of the final playoff spot in the West and will not only have to catch ninth-place Minnesota but also overtake three other teams in between, and City SC will likely not have the first tiebreaker – wins – on any of them as there are 12 ties. New England is tied with three other teams for last place in the East but is only five points out of the final playoff spot. The loser of this game will not be eliminated but will put themselves in a bad position.

But City SC are in top form and have secured victory over Galaxy, the best team they have beaten this season.

“To get the first big win and to do it against an opponent like LA is the hardest thing,” Hackworth said. “And now the next challenge is whether we can put on a performance like we did here, away from home, in a completely different environment, in New England, but that’s what we have to do. Although the mood is good, to put it this way, and we’re confident, it’s a big challenge because we haven’t done it yet. So now we have to take the next step again. We feel good about the way we’re playing. From the Leagues Cup to the Portland game to now against LA, we’ve been given so many different tactical teams and different formations that we’ve made good adjustments. We just have to keep getting better in the areas where we know we need to improve.”

New England were unbeaten in five games, including the Leagues Cup, before Saturday’s loss to Real Salt Lake, with two wins and three draws.

“It’s a difficult place,” Kessler said. “The (artificial) surface can be difficult. It’s a good team and I think their recent results have shown that. It’s going to take a complete team effort. When we’re ahead, we need to finish the game well. Obviously we need to do a good job around their forwards, they’ve got some dynamic guys up front. So we need to do a good job with them, but it’s going to take a team effort.”

City SC has been playing well all season, with three wins, three draws and one loss in its last seven games in MLS and the Leagues Cup. These results coincide with the arrival of three new attacking players, Marcel Hartel, Cedric Teuchert and Simon Becher. Hartel missed several training sessions this week to recover from an injury sustained in the second Portland game. Hackworth had expected him to play.