The Columbus Crew look to extend their unbeaten streak this weekend when they host the Seattle Sounders. The Crew dropped their first game of the season against D.C. but since then they have kept their form. They have scratched out wins and ties, the same amount of ties as wins (3). The bottom line is the Crew are taking care of business. This is being done through solid play in both the back line and the midfield.
At the start of the season no one knew what to expect from the Crew because of the team overhaul. They lost an on field tactician, Guillermo Barros Schelotto, a back line settler, Frankie Hejduk, and a solid striker, Steven Lenhart, just to name a few. Robert Warzycha says, “No problem. We can be rebuilt. We have the knowhow. I got this.” He did not say this but this is the attitude of the Crew. After losing so much, most teams have a rebuilding year that does not produce the results whereas the Crew has been able to. Just ask Toronto F.C. how easy rebuilding is. Most people thought that this was the case after the ugly loss in D.C. and losing to Real Salt Lake in the Champion’s League. The Crew responded in kind by hunkering down and playing smart tact full soccer. That is why the Crew are the hardest working team in the MLS.
The Sounders look to get their season back on track in Columbus. Looking at the stats in Seattle’s short history they have come to Columbus twice and walked away with wins; in fact the Crew have yet been able to beat Seattle. Not many teams can say that. The Crew have been in bad form for both matches at home giving up five goals. Is this the curse of Sigi Schmid? He wanted a new contract after winning the Championship but the Crew decided to part ways.Schmid moves to Seattle and produces a very tough side.
The Crew have proven resilient this year if nothing else. Here are a couple of things that the Crew need to focus on to win this game. First; in the last game the Crew had a few minutes of sloppy play. Chad Marshall says, “I didn’t like the way the end of the second half went…We need to do better at killing off games. We should have been knocking the ball around and making them run. We gave the ball away cheaply.” The second thing that the Crew needs to do to produce a win is more production from the forward position, including scoring in the first half. All of the Crew’s goals, seven, have been in the second half. Emilio Renteria had a good game last week scoring two goals, however, with five men in the midfield he needs to have more dynamic runs off the ball. If he is able to do this then there could be more goals following a string of seventeen passes like last week.
Eddie Gaven sums it up, “I think we’re starting to hit our stride…I don’t think we’ve played our best soccer yet, but you can see some signs there. At times we were very, very good.”
(image courtesy of Getty Images)
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