The Crew fell to Nashville 1-0 on Saturday at home after the Black & Gold fell behind and was never able to answer back. On a day that honored a Crew legend, Columbus lacked a signature Pipa finish to get on the board at Lower.Com Field. Nashville came into Columbus with a game plan to shut the Crew down and succeeded by walking away with all three points. While the goal that Nashville scored could be attributed to Pedro Santos losing footing and not being able to challenge the header, the Black & Gold knew they should have capitalized on some of their chances in the match. Here’s what the Crew did with their game plan for Nashville.
Wingers pinching on the attacking half
One way that Caleb Porter decided to attack the stout Nashville defense was by pulling his two wingers closer inside so that they could possess the ball better in the attacking third. We saw this mostly with Derrick Etienne coming inside almost alongside Lucas Zelarayan to give another option to gash through the opponent’s defense. I think Porter’s cause behind this switch was to try and unlock the away side’s defense by quick passing and give and goes. Combinations between Zelarayan, Zardes, and one of the wingers provided a few glimpses of promise, but never panned out in a goal. The hard thing about playing Nashville is dealing with their low block defensive structure. They were content with just putting 9 guys behind the ball, clogging passing lanes, and forcing the Crew to make absolute magic happen for a goal. Then, once the ball would be turned over, Nashville would outlet to Mukhtar or Sapong and go off to the races. By pulling the wingers in, Porter was trying to find little pockets where he could have numerical advantages and combine, but the spaces just weren’t there. When you put 95% of your team back on defense, it’s going to be hard for the other team to score, and that’s what Columbus ran into on Saturday.
Artur dropping into defense to send the wingbacks up
Another change was in the Crew’s defensive structure while Columbus possessed the ball. With the wingers up top pinching in toward the middle of the field, the space they left was now occupied by Pedro Santos and Stephen Moreira. This allowed to Crew to have some creativity and width, as well as numbers inside to combine and get on the end of crosses. Now Caleb Porter knew he didn’t want Jonathan Mensah and Milos Degenek to be forced to deal with Mukhtar, Leal, and Sapong alone on the break, so Artur dropped in sometimes to play a 3 back defensive formation whole the wingbacks were up high. So, in case the Black & Gold did turn the ball over, it would be an even 3 vs 3 transition instead of the pacey Nashville attack running past the two Crew center backs. This also pushed possession higher up the field so Columbus wouldn’t turn the ball over in their own half. Most of time the ball was higher up the field being possessed by the Columbus midfield, but occasionally when the ball would make its way back to the defense, the wingbacks would drop back to help push the ball higher. The emphasis was getting the ball through the chunk of nine Nashville defenders to Lucas Zelarayan’s feet and letting him make magic. He had a few chances in the game, but none that he could add to his goal tally with.
Playing a “Ball Heavy” Formation
I’ve touched on this a little bit in the last two points, but this was very important for Saturday. Caleb Porter’s whole system revolves around creating numerical advantages and combining. Many times, the Crew tried to accomplish this by shifting the whole midfield and even the opposite side winger over to the half of the field where the ball was. From there, the opposite side’s wingback would move up into the space that the winger had once possessed. Now Nashville would have to make a choice to either shift all their players over to defend the numbers or stay in place and risk Columbus combining and getting through on goal. The only downside to this tactical change is when you shift all these players into one area, there’s not much space to work with and exploit. It gets congested, and the only way out is by all the players being on the same page and quickly combining to go forward in attack. Not to restate my earlier point, but the Black & Gold had some good combination play, but it just didn’t result in a goal. The idea and tactical setup was all there, but it was just the stubbornness of Nashville’s defense and a Pedro Santos slip that sent the away team back to Tennessee with all 3 point
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