Crew tactical review: Columbus' comeback sends Cincinnati to burn in hell

The Columbus Crew enjoyed a typical trip to Cincinnati on Saturday evening, coming from behind a 2-0 deficit to win 4-2 in Ohio’s southern city. After two goals in the opening five minutes by Pavel Bucha and Evander gave Cincinnati a lead, the Black & Gold responded by rattling off four unanswered goals to seal all three points and claim the state. Diego Rossi, Max Arfsten, and Taha Habroune all got onto the scoresheet, with Miles Robinson contributing to the score as well with an own goal.

Cincinnati controlled the pace of the game at the beginning of both halves, but other than those times the Crew were threatening. Wilfried Nancy gets the best of Pat Noonan yet again on Cincinnati’s home patch, pulling Columbus within two points of the top of the Eastern Conference. Let’s dive into all the tactics that helped the Black & Gold land a Hell is Real victory in Cincinnati.

A nightmare beginning

For any Crew fan watching this game, the first five minutes had a feeling of dread attached to it. Bucha laced a first-time shot into the back of the net in the opening minute of the contest, followed by Evander finding the far corner on a half-volley outside the box.

Both goals were gut punches to Columbus early in the match, but it is not uncommon to see the Black & Gold concede these goals.

The first goal for example. Ibrahim Aliyu, who started at right wing-back in place of Mo Farsi, was caught waiting for a pass and had his pocket quickly picked by the Cincinnati defense. Aliyu’s complacent behavior left Steven Moreira in no-man’s land with a quick decision to make.

The reigning MLS Defender of the Year was in between dropping off and committing to challenge the streaking Cincinnati ballcarrier. Moreira jumped up to try and halt the attack right there, but the opposing player got a touch before him, skipping down the sideline relatively unmarked.

These two mistakes forced the Crew into a situation that no manager likes to see: overextension.

Now the entire defense had to shift over to that right side with Aliyu too high up the pitch to defend and Moreira trailing the play. Columbus shifted over and were not correctly marked, leaving Bucha open at the top of the box on a late-arriving run.

While the first two mistakes by Aliyu and Moreira gave Cincinnati an attacking chance, the marking for Bucha actually falls on the Black & Gold’s recovering midfielders. Looking at the Crew defense, many of the defenders and recovering midfielders were marking pockets of space rather than players. Dylan Chambost drops too deep, allowing Bucha to run into that open space and dispatch the goal.

While this goal may look bad due to the immediacy of it in the match, it does tend to happen. With Columbus’ tendency to commit numbers forward comes times when pockets of space will be open and exploited. The first goal is a prime example of a turnover leading to a negative chain reaction.

Cincinnati’s second goal is more on the raw attacking skill of Evander than anything the Black & Gold did wrong. The home side does well to switch the point of attack to the far side, giving Robinson a long-range look at goal which was blocked by Yevhen Cheberko. The follow-up shot by Evander is world-class. Bouncing across his body to the far corner is a ridiculous strike that would be difficult for any team to counter.

If there were any points to learn about from this goal, it would be how the Crew’s midfield is caught standing. Chambost moves over to put pressure on Robinson, but Daniel Gazdag jogs behind the play, seemingly ready to sprint into the attack when Columbus wins the ball back.

Again, not an egregious goal to concede due to the absurd strike from Evander, but there are small things the Black & Gold can work on to make sure it does not happen again.

The opening five minutes might have been hell for the Crew, but Columbus was about to inflict some fire and brimstone on Cincinnati throughout the course of the next 85 minutes.

Columbus’ response

If there is one thing the Black & Gold love doing, it is coming back from 2-0 deficits in Cincinnati. The prospect of a comeback looked bleak in the opening minutes, but never count out Nancy’s men.

After the first two goals went in, the Crew showed a direct intent to put pressure on Cincinnati on both sides of the ball.

Let’s start defensively. True to form, Columbus pressed the home side constantly to try and turn the ball over. The Black & Gold defenders often pressed on Cincinnati’s first touch, looking to dislodge the ball the moment an attacker received it.

The interesting tweak Nancy made was to have the Crew backline man-mark Cincinnati’s front three. Evander, Kevin Denkey, and former Columbus striker Kei Kamara were all man-marked constantly by Sean Zawadzki, Moreira, and Cheberko.

Oddly enough, this did not mean that the Black & Gold were pulled out of position. The Crew backline did an amazing job at filling in and passing off marks, making it hard for Denkey and Kamara to get touches on the ball. Evander often dropped into the midfield deeper, allowing the defensive line to pass of his mark to the midfielders.

This was key when Cincinnati opted to possess the ball rather than play on the counter. After going up two goals, the home side often decided to slow play down and possess around the Columbus repress. The pressure did not stop, but it was evident that Cincinnati was trying to take the sting out of the game and eliminate any foothold the Black & Gold might find.

When Cincinnati possessed, they controlled the game. After a while though, the home team decided to play more on the counter as the Crew had more of the ball. Instead of trying to possess against Columbus when they gave away the ball, Cincinnati changed game plans to see if they could strike fast much like they did in the opening five minutes.

That is where the game changed. Cincinnati started turning the ball over and could not hold play up – much due to the Black & Gold man-marking their attackers – allowing the Crew to have more of the ball going forward.

As Cincinnati tried to counter and press, they also threw numbers forward and left the midfield wide open. This mistake gave Columbus acres of space to exploit and run into at a recovering Cincinnati backline. We saw this firsthand on the Black & Gold’s first goal. Darlington Nagbe breaks the initial line of pressure and runs for 50 yards into open space before offloading the ball to Aliyu.

Much of this openness in the middle was due to Cincinnati’s pressure. Noonan’s side pressed with five, leaving only five players on a deep backline. The Crew took this space and used it to their advantage, bagging three goals until the Cincinnati coaching staff made a change.

As soon as the home team began clogging up the middle, Columbus had to change their attacking focus yet again. Arfsten and Aliyu became more valuable on the flanks as Cincinnati contributed numbers to the middle, showcasing the Black & Gold’s multifaceted attack plan.

In the end, Cincinnati may have inspired their own downfall with the reckless combination of a deep line and a high press. The Crew will not mind though, as they worked for every single goal they scored. It was another fairytale night in Cincinnati for the Black & Gold, but the home side was yet again haunted by the flames.