Crew tactical review: Columbus folds again to give Toluca a win from the penalty spot

The Columbus Crew kicked off their Leagues Cup title defense on Tuesday night, taking on Mexican side Toluca at Lower.com Field. The contest got off to a dream start for the hosts, with Diego Rossi converting a penalty to put Columbus up 1-0. In the second half, Max Arfsten doubled the lead merely five minutes after halftime. The Black & Gold looked in control from the standpoint of the scoreline, but Toluca began fighting back. The visitors got a goal back after Patrick Schulte spilled a seemingly routine shot at the feet of a Toluca attacker, gifting Toluca a goal. The news got worse before it got better for the Crew, with a towering header slipping by Schulte’s hands a short time later to even the game at 2-2. Columbus had a chance for redemption from the penalty spot though, but Rossi’s second penalty of the evening was saved. From there, the Black & Gold went on to lose on penalties and claim only a point from this contest.

In another disappointing collapse for the Crew, let’s dive into all the tactics.

Columbus’ early dominance

The first 15-20 minutes of the game were a dream for the Black & Gold. The Crew got on the board from the penalty spot and created a number of other scoring chances that should have been converted.

Much of this early attacking prowess was actually due to the way Toluca was pressing, which played right into Columbus’ hands.

Toluca came out of the gates pressing in a 5-5 but not pushing up their backline to supplement the press. This pressure left a huge gap in the midfield for Rossi, Daniel Gazdag and Dylan Chambost to exploit. When those dropping attackers received the ball, they could simply turn and run at the retreating defensive line.

From there, the game became smaller. It was five Toluca defenders against however many attackers the Black & Gold mustered. Often, Toluca’s problem was when they collapsed or narrowed the defense in response to the driving attackers. This vice of the backline gave the Crew wingbacks more space to receive the ball and then take on their defender.

Columbus achieved these overloads by building out of the back in a 1-3-1-5. Both outside centerbacks moved up alongside Darlington Nagbe in midfield, with Chambost moving higher as a roaming attacking midfielder. Jacen Russell-Rowe remained up top as the target man, with Rossi and Gazdag freely roaming underneath.

The outside centerbacks also had the freedom to move up the field and overload the wings with the wingbacks. Once the first block of five pressers was broken, the Black & Gold wanted to get as many numbers forward as possible to overload the Toluca defense. With Steven Moreira and sometimes even Yevhen Cheberko moving into the attack, they were able to accomplish just that.

It was a great start for the Crew, but the home side will be wishing they took advantage of more of their chances off the bat. It could have easily been 3-0 in favor of Columbus heading into halftime, but slight miscues in the execution limited the Black & Gold to one goal.

Toluca’s resurgence

The entire match changed a little bit after the Crew scored the first goal of the game. Toluca saw that their pressure in the 5-5 was not working, so they opted to make a change.

The visitors instead doubled down and decided to apply more pressure, now going after Columbus with seven to eight players. Toluca’s new press actually looks much like the Black & Gold’s.

This change sacrificed Toluca’s defensive stability for a more robust pressing strategy, but it also flipped the emphasis of the game. In the 5-5 press, Toluca put the pressure on themselves to turn the Crew over and win the ball. Pressing with five players is not easy by any stretch of the imagination, especially against Columbus. More turnovers were going to need to come from Toluca making a great play, rather than forcing the Black & Gold to make a poor one.

Now, with seven or eight players sent to press the Crew, the home side began to make mistakes. Passes were sloppy, touches were not in control and the turnover numbers began going up more and more. By forcing Columbus into mistakes rather than banking on their press to generate them, Toluca got back into the game.

Of course, the press was a significant part of Toluca’s comeback, but it was not the only reason they got back into the game.

The Black & Gold’s inconsistencies reared their ugly heads again. Poor goalkeeping on multiple occasions from Schulte did more harm than good. The Crew’s defense is still aerially inept, the offense tends to struggle connecting passes and finishing “can’t miss” chances. These constant screw ups continue to sink Columbus in games where they have a good start, but fall over the finish line.

For the second straight game, the Black & Gold blow a lead in the second half. Wilfried Nancy is all about building habits, but this certain trend is not one he will want to see continue.