The Columbus Crew won in stunning fashion, 2-1, on Saturday night against the Chicago Fire. The Crew wasn’t the best team throughout the game but got two goals from the team’s stars, including an MLS Goal of the Year candidate.
After a 0-0 first half, the Black & Gold took the lead midway through the second courtesy of a deflected Cucho Hernandez shot but allowed the hosts to fire back late in the game to tie it up. Lucas Zelarayan’s incredible effort from beyond the halfway line salvaged all three points for the Crew deep into stoppage time.
Tactically, the Black & Gold did not change much, but here’s what they did against Chicago. Let’s dive in.
Different build up approach
Often this season the Crew has had a certain pattern of build up play the team likes to utilize regardless of the opponent. Typically, the Black & Gold try to advance the ball up the wings through the wing backs and then work the ball inside from the flanks.
On Saturday though, this approach changed. Columbus possessed the ball in a 3-2-2-3 formation. Wing backs Mohamed Farsi and Yaw Yeboah played higher up the wings, leaving Zelarayan and Hernandez as the dual attacking midfielders. Darlington Nagbe and Aidan Morris lined up as their typical central midfielders.
Due to the wing backs pushing so high up the field, the Fire spread out and restricted balls out wide. This meant that the vacated space was inside. So, instead of trying to get the ball out to the wing backs out of the back, the Black & Gold had to improvise.
Columbus ended up going forward through the middle channels of the pitch more. Zelarayan and Hernandez dropped deeper to receive the ball frequently, drawing in the defender marking out wide and freeing the wing backs became. Once the attacking midfielders received the ball, they were free to play it out wide.
Because Chicago was so stretched, the space between the pressing attackers and defenders was massive. This allowed the Crerw midfielders to have more time and real estate to create and find passes.
This is also a possible explanation for why the Black & Gold were not as potent in attack on the night. They did get their goals, but the Fire disrupted their typical pattern of play causing Columbus to figure out a new way to attack and get forward. Eventually, this did lead to Hernandez’s goal.
It will be interesting to see if other teams opt to take away the Crew’s width in this manner and force the Black & Gold to rely on other players to build the attack. This is a double-edged sword though, because it puts the ball at the feet of Hernandez, Zelarayan, Morris and Nagbe.
Why the new Columbus backline aides the offense
In recent games, the Crew has playing a back-five system with zero true center backs in the lineup. This was the case on Saturday. And the crazy thing is, the Black & Gold won three straight using that backline.
Nobody could have guessed that a defensive partnership between Steven Moreira, Sean Zwadzki and Malte Amundsen would be successful, but those three players have helped out the Columbus offense.
In the past games that those three have played, the offensive approach has changed. Against the Fire, Zwadzki and Amundsen got higher up the field and formed a cupped backline with Moreira. This means that the Frenchman was deeper for emergency defensive purposes, but the other outside center backs pushed forward to help possess in the opponent’s defensive half.
Basically, Zwadzki and Amundsen played as a pivot position on offense. They step up higher and bridged the gap between Moreira and the wing backs. It helps that these two aren’t true center backs, because they play better with their feet and are able to thread harder passes through the defense.
This benefits the Crew because it means Nagbe and Morris no longer have to slide into the half-pivot position and help their side break out. Instead, the midfielders can roam the middle of the field and find splits to advance the ball.
Granted, there has been some blowback from this defensive lineup. Mistakes have been made that have led to goals. The two goals conceded at home against Charlotte FC, for example, were bad goals given up by a naïve backline. Some can make the case that with Milos Degenek or Gustavo Vallecilla in the lineup, those mishaps wouldn’t happen.
That being said, Wilfried Nancy is banking on one thing: his team outscoring the other. Gone, for now, are the days when Columbus plays for a 1-0 win and racks up nervous clean sheets with a bend-but-don’t-break mentality. Nancy wants to score more goals than the other team because, at the end of the day, a 1-0 and a 2-1 win count the same.
So, for the time being, he is putting his trust in a backline that yields him a better defensive output. At the moment, it is working to the tune of three straight wins.
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