The Columbus Crew squandered a one goal lead to lose 2-1 in stoppage time against CF Montreal on Wednesday night after a questionable change of tactics left the Black & Gold without points when the final whistle blew. In a game that was interrupted by lightning, the Crew seemed to fold in the last 15 minutes under Montreal’s pressure. Today the focus will be on the tactical changes that head coach Caleb Porter made that let Montreal get back into the game late. Let’s dive in.
The Substitution of Lucas Zelarayan
A huge topic in the Crew Twitterverse last night was the questionable decision to sub Lucas Zelarayan out for a more defensive style midfielder Artur. With this substitution Columbus switched from pushing toward Montreal’s goal, to now sitting back and defending a one goal lead. This is actually a common substitution that managers around the world make, taking off an attack heavy playmaker for a more defensively sound player to shore up the defense, but the timing of the substitution was what killed the Black & Gold. Columbus made the change in the 73rd minute, which was too early to start parking the bus. Up until this point the Crew had the away side on their heels, and Columbus was playing positively. This substitution just took the attacking fight out of the team and forced Cucho Hernandez to play up top by himself. Another huge component of this substitution is that it affects Cucho Hernandez too. Now Hernandez was forced to take on the entire Montreal defense alone with minimal help. If Zelarayan stays on the pitch, then the opposing team has two problems that they have to deal with instead of just one. This is not a critique on Artur either, it was great to see him back on the field and healthy. In the moment though, the Crew committed to parking the bus too early. Granted, there is no way to know if Zelarayan was too tired to continue or if he had picked up some kind of knock, but this change influenced the game mightily, and not in the way that Caleb Porter wants.
Switching to a 4-5-1
This is something that the Crew have played around with throughout the season. When Artur came in as a substitute in the 73rd minute Columbus switched their shape to resemble more of a 4-5-1 rather than the 4-2-3-1 that the team started the game in. The huge component of this formation was the wingers being pulled back to play more defensive. In a 4-2-3-1, the wingers play alongside the attacking midfielder and get forward to support the striker and provide width, like the Crew was doing throughout the first half and beginning of the second half. With the change to a 4-5-1, these wingers are no longer able to support the striker because they have to be back and defend. This is a change that managers should and usually make around the 80-85-minute mark to close down shop and not give the other team chances to figure out how to break down the formation. When the Crew switched to this more defensive formation in the 73rd minute, that gave Montreal 17 minutes plus stoppage time to figure out how to break down the defense and get quality chances to slot one past Eloy Room. Again, the changes Caleb Porter made are routine changes that happen in games, but he made them too quickly and allowed Montreal to figure out how to find an equalizer and then a winner.
Defending Ariel Balls and Marking Opponents
This isn’t really a tactic, it’s more just an observation of what undid the Crew on Wednesday night. Both goals Montreal scored came off of looping balls that Columbus failed to deal with, and it cost them 3 points. The first goal by Kei Kamara was a great header, with Kamara outjumping Jonathan Mensah to get to the ball first. The mistake that allowed Kamara to get the upper hand was that Mensah lost sight of him for a split second while the ball was in the air. While many players crashed towards the net, Kamara waited to see where the flight of the ball would end up. Mensah on the other hand, followed the crowd and was jumping vertically to clear the ball, while Kamara was getting a running start. If Mensah had stayed tight to Kamara and followed his man instead of the ball, we might have a different result. The second goal was the fault of Yaw Yeboah and Steven Moreira. Yeboah sees Joel Waterman begin to run in Moreira’s blind spot and doesn’t communicate quick enough that Moreira’s mark is running in. This allows Waterman to get a step on Moreira, and the perfect ball loops over Moreira’s head right into Waterman’s path. If Yeboah wasn’t going to communicate, he also could have marked Waterman easier than Moreira could have. Yeboah’s man who he was marking was over on the right side of the field outside of the box and posed no immediate threat to the play. This lack of communication and poor marking cost the Crew the game on Wednesday, and will leave the Black & Gold coaching staff scratching their heads.
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