The Columbus Crew’s playoff hopes came to an end on Sunday afternoon in Orlando, losing 2-1 in a game that required a win or a tie to get into the playoffs. Derrick Etienne scored the first goal for Columbus, but Orlando stormed back with two of their own to knock the Black & Gold out of the postseason. The tactics employed by Caleb Porter weren’t much different from the rest of the season, and neither was the result in what ended up being a disappointing day for Crew fans.
Tempo and playstyle in the first half vs the second half
The game got off to a promising start for the Black & Gold in the first 45 minutes, as the Crew looked completely and utterly in control and on top of Orlando. It seemed as if Columbus controlled the flow of the game for the entire half, never allowing the home side to get a foothold and opening up a lead via Derrick Etienne.
The tempo that the Crew played with was a little more relaxed and laid back than what fans are used to seeing. We know Porter wants his side to keep possession and create chances at optimal times, but when Columbus was dominating it looked like the days when Gregg Berhalter was the head coach.
The Crew kept the ball for long spells of time, stringing passes together and moving the ball from side to side until they found an avenue of attack. Often, they would push high up the pitch, so they were keeping possession inside Orlando’s half, pressuring the Lion’s defense to break.
Eventually, they did. Lucas Zelarayan and Derrick Etienne combined on a cheeky one-two and the Haitian winger dispatched the ball into the back of the net. This was the way that Porter wanted to control the game, in what was a seemingly perfect half of soccer for the Black & Gold.
Of course, in typical 2022 Crew fashion, the team folded like a cheap lawn chair in the second half. Orlando gained a foothold back into the game because Columbus was pushing the ball down the field too hastily. Once the first goal went in for Orlando, the Black & Gold just could not get back to the dominance they had displayed in the first half and ended up losing the game.
The first half was a picturesque example of how Porter wanted his team to play all year. Controlling the game, the ball, and the opponent while playing disciplined, technical soccer. Unfortunately for Columbus, they could not seem to play that style for all 90 minutes, resulting in another disappointing season.
Columbus’ pressing style to keep Orlando in front of them
It’s only fitting for the last tactical review of the season to talk about one of the most prominent topics covered in these articles over the past year: pressing. Columbus and Porter have employed a few different forms of pressing over the expanse of the season, but the game in Orlando was another example of a unique pressing style from the Crew.
The key for the Black & Gold’s press was keeping Orlando’s players in front of you. This means that the Crew didn’t want to lose track of runners or gamble by throwing too many men forward to win the ball, they simply wanted to apply soft pressure to let the home side know there were there and force them to make bad passes.
Columbus accomplished this by sitting in a 2-4 pressing block and working together to turn Orlando over. Firstly, the four-up front (Cucho Hernandez, Lucas Zelarayan, Derrick Etienne and Luis Diaz) applied a soft press to the Orlando backline.
A soft press is where the defensive players press up on the backline, but just slowly creep up until the lack of space becomes suffocating to the team in possession. It’s the equivalent of face guarding in basketball, the Crew players were not going on an all-out press at the Lion’s backline, but they were letting them know that they were there and close to nicking the ball.
Secondly, Darlington Nagbe and Artur cut off any split passes to Orlando’s midfielders. This means that the only way the home side could play out of the back was if Columbus made a mistake or if Orlando played the ball long.
This style of pressing was incredibly potent in the first half for the Crew, but the team went away from it in the second half, opting to drop back and defend deep instead which ended up spelling doom for the Black & Gold’s playoff chances down the stretch.
What went wrong
Up to par with the rest of the season, Columbus did what Columbus does best: shoot themselves in the foot over and over again. This is why the team was maddening to watch from a tactical perspective in this game, because they had it all figured out in the first half, but the team got in their own way in the second period.
On the first goal, Jonathan Mensah, who has been solid all year, made the mistake of being a tad too aggressive going after the ball. Columbus’ defensive plan for the second half was to defend their lead by playing a deep defensive line and keeping Orlando in front of them. Mensah saw the ball being passed to Junior Urso and jumped up to intercept but got left in the dust on Urso’s turn and the forward put the ball past Eloy Room into the back of the net to tie the game.
It’s these individual mental mistakes that had cost the Crew all year, but unfortunately for Columbus fans, the misery wasn’t over.
The Black & Gold would later concede a throw in that seemed to confuse the Columbus defense, and when the throw was taken quickly the away side was not ready for it. Orlando would get a shot off which forced Eloy Room to make an outstanding save. On the ensuing corner, Columbus failed to clear the ball and a shot by Orlando deflected off of Milos Degenek, gifting Orlando the second goal they needed from the penalty spot.
The handball isn’t a problem, as Degenek was trying to block the ball and sometimes stuff like that happens, but this all starts from the Crew being lazy and lackadaisical on a throw in that forces Eloy Room to concede a corner. The focus, passion, grit, and intensity has been missing from this team for a long time, and it came back to bite them one final time when Orlando go their crucial second goal off of that sequence.
The story of the 2022 Columbus Crew is a wild one. Some ups, but lots of downs for a team that underachieved on the year. The Black & Gold need to look at themselves in the mirror before 2023 and figure out how to get that fire back, because it was missing in 2022 and in the end cost them a playoff spot.
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