Crew tactical review: Columbus' first half landslide washes away Atlanta United

The Columbus Crew grabbed a second consecutive win on Wednesday, downing Atlanta United 3-1. Columbus’ offense exploded in the first half, netting three goals courtesy of Andres Herrera and Jacen Russell-Rowe. Atlanta’s defense was lacking in the first 45, allowing the Black & Gold to run rampant and pepper Brad Guzan’s goalmouth with shots. In the second half though, the Five Stripes fought back. Brooks Lennon netted a goal that was nearly cleared off the line by Yevhen Cheberko in the first 15 minutes of the second half, allowing Atlanta back into the contest. Luckily for the home fans, the Crew eventually prevailed and came away with all three points.

This was one of the best performances of Columbus’ season to date. Let’s dive into all the tactics that saw Wilfried Nancy’s men claim a victory.

Offensive dominance and Atlanta’s leaky defense

The first half of this matchup was nothing short of a dream for the Black & Gold. The Crew produced three goals and could have bagged more if not for the heroics of Guzan.

Herrera opened up the scoring with a ball over the top from Dylan Chambost that he brought down under pressure and calmly dispatched into the back of the net. Russell-Rowe doubled the lead a short time later, sneaking a low shot past Guzan’s foot at the front post. The Canadian striker would then grab his brace off a sublime Diego Rossi dish just minutes before halftime to put the Crew up 3-0 heading into the break.

There have been many criticisms of Columbus in recent weeks when the Black & Gold struggled to generate a victory. One of those blights was the fact that the Crew’s offense has looked stagnant and unimaginative at times, but that was not the case in this game.

For starters, Columbus utilized a host of formations in this match that put immense pressure on Atlanta’s backline. In buildups coming out of their own half, the Black & Gold morphed into a 2-3-5 with Steven Moreira joining the midfield alongside Darlington Nagbe and Chambost.

When the Crew advanced into Atlanta’s half, Cheberko moved up to aid in the buildup on a shortened pitch, changing Columbus’ shape into a 1-4-5. In that 1-4-5, Rossi and Daniel Gazdag often dropped into the midfield to exploit a gap in between Atlanta’s defense and midfielders, essentially shifting the Black & Gold into a 1-4-2-3.

Finally, at the end of the first half, the Crew changed yet again. This time, Moreira joined Herrera up high as a double winger tandem, giving Columbus a 2-2-6 look.

All these formation shifts are nothing new, but it did put an insane amount of pressure on Atlanta’s inexperienced defense. The Black & Gold’s main plan of attack was to overload the right side with Moreira, Herrera and Chambost. Often those three would be able to combine and unlock the defense, sending the Five Stripes scrambling to cover all the Crew attackers running into the box.

From that standpoint, Columbus’ offense looked more dynamic than they had been this season. It was a welcome sight for fans that were craving wins at home after a horrid stretch in May and early June.

On the other side of the ball, Atlanta also contributed to this dominance by putting forth one of the worst defensive performances they possibly could muster. Teams have bad games, but there were a few specific things that the Five Stripes got horribly wrong which led to the Black & Gold capitalizing.

The first issue was Atlanta’s spacing. After the first flurry of Crew attacks came, the visitors’ backline began to drop further and further back towards their goal. Miguel Almiron and Emmanuel Latte Lath did not want to drop deeper, so they stayed high up the pitch. This meant that Atlanta’s midfielders had to cover a massive amount of ground, which was not feasible.

This mistake gave Rossi and Gazdag room to drop in behind the midfielders and run at the defense, or Nagbe and Chambost space to drive the ball forward towards a deep midfield.

The second big issue rests squarely on the shoulders of Atlanta’s attacking duo. When the Five Stripes won the ball, Almiron and Latte Lath were not in a position to retrieve a pass from their teammates. This allowed Columbus to regain possession on a turnover or by winning a long ball.

The last and possibly most glaring issue for Atlanta was the turnovers. The visitors were extremely slopping in possession and gifted the Black & Gold a lot of great chances. Guzan bailed them out of a few, but the most glaring turnover gave the Crew their third goal of the night.

The combination of Columbus finding their offensive footing and Atlanta self-destructing in the first half decided the outcome of this game. Fans of the Black & Gold will want to see more of the same at the weekend.

Daniel Gazdag’s best game in the Black & Gold kit

Critics have been extremely loud about the play of Gazdag since he came over from the Philadelphia Union earlier in the summer. Gazdag – Philadelphia’s club record goal scorer – has managed zero goals in 11 appearances with the Crew this season.

Touted as the, or one of, the solutions to the departure of Cucho Hernandez, Gazdag has not hit the ground running. He has often looked lost and has not been able to get the goal to start off his account in Columbus.

That being said, although he did not score on Wednesday against Atlanta, the Hungarian was much improved. Gazdag challenged Guzan to make a couple world-class saves throughout the first half, with great attacking play that could have netted him a brace.

Outside of the shots though, Gazdag was extremely involved in the buildup and got into the right spaces. On Herrera’s goal, Gazdag was there in the middle of the box as an option for the wingback to pass to if he opted to. In the buildup, Gazdag was crafty and found good spaces to facilitate attacking play.

Now, an attacker of Gazdag’s quality will always be measured in statistics. How many goals and assists can he provide the Black & Gold will be the question going forward. That being said, he has come a long way from what he looked like in his first few games with the Crew.

We have seen this type of struggle before out of high-profile DP’s coming to the club. Fans do not need to think back too far to remember Rossi first coming to the club as Lucas Zelarayan’s replacement. Those first few games during that 2023 season that Rossi was put into were tough for him to fit in, but eventually he found his form and has been an invaluable player for the Black & Gold ever since.

So, what is the point of saying all this? There is a proven track record that players who are brought into Nancy’s system have an adjustment period. Only Cucho Hernandez – regarded as one of the best players in club history – was able to hit the ground relatively running. Chambost, Rossi and even Christian Ramirez too time to settle into Nancy’s system.

Gazdag has had time to do so, and you can see him beginning to mesh with the squad and understand more of the tactical system Nancy wants to play. Do not be surprised if he bags a goal or two on Sunday against Philadelphia. Once he gets one, the floodgates will be open and the rest of MLS will need to be on watch.