Crew tactical review: Columbus makes San Jose quake

The Columbus Crew got back to winning ways at their real home in downtown Columbus, defeating their geographic rivals San Jose Earthquakes 2-1. Sean Zawadzki opened the scoring for the Black & Gold in the first half on a whipped in freekick, but the Earthquakes equalized before halftime to send both teams to the locker room deadlocked. Max Arfsten found the winner for the Crew in the second half, dazzling the defense with a few stepovers before roofing the ball into the back of the net. From there, Columbus defended its lead and ended up taking all three points.

It was another game of adjustments with the Black & Gold having to change their offensive philosophy depending on what San Jose’s defense did. Let’s dive into all the tactics that went into Wilfried Nancy’s side racking up three points.

Attacking the Quakes’ press with dropping attackers

In the opening minutes of this match, it was apparent what San Jose’s defensive strategy was. The Quakes wanted to make the Crew uncomfortable by instituting a man-to-man pressure high up the pitch.

Unlike Columbus’ press – which is a bit resisted and focuses on cutting off passing options instead of attacking the player with the ball – San Jose put effort into putting the ballhandler under pressure.

This caused some high turnovers by the Black & Gold, but the Crew quickly learned how to pick the Earthquakes apart with a few simple tactics. The first thing Columbus did had their attackers and wingbacks drop into the midfield more often than they usually do.

The Black & Gold typically have two droppers during a routine game – Diego Rossi and Daniel Gazdag. Those two are the creative fulcrums of the Crew, dropping into the midfield to receive the ball to their feet and spray it out to another player.

On Saturday, Columbus had Rossi, Gazdag, Arfsten and Mo Farsi drop deeper in search of the ball. Not only did this relieve the pressure on the backline by giving them passing options, but it also dragged-out San Jose’s defenders who followed the droppers.

Now, the Black & Gold opened up space in behind for Jacen Russell-Rowe and others who did not have the ball to run into. By using simple passages of play like the up-back-through technique, the Crew unlocked the San Jose backline and press in one sequence.

This option was not always open though as the Earthquakes made their press more compartmental. Now the visitors were cheating pressers over to one side, trying to overload Columbus and force bad turnovers.

This change posed a problem, but it also opened up another avenue to attack through. Now the non-ball side of the pitch was wide open due to San Jose’s overshift. If the wingback on that backside stayed wide, the Black & Gold had an easy outlet and overloaded the far-side defender with the wingback and Russell-Rowe.

Yet again, San Jose adjusted to try and stump the Crew. This time, the Earthquakes kept pressing with their frontline and midfielders but told the defenders to stay deeper. With this change, the droppers now had time to get the ball into their feet and turn, essentially eliminating the midfield battle and making it a transition game.

The Quakes might have felt safer with a stagnant and deep defensive line, but there was so much space in the midfield that Columbus was now able to bear down on that defense. Regardless of how San Jose changed their defensive structure, the Black & Gold found a way to get around it. The final tweak that the Earthquakes made not only opened up the midfield, but it gave a certain player off the Crew’s bench an opportunity to further open the game.

AZ Jackson coming on for Russell-Rowe – opening up the game

AZ Jackson has been on the receiving end of some fair criticism in recent weeks for his play. The young midfielder tends to lose the ball too much and struggles at times to be consistent in that fluid front three. While the critics have been loud and decently fair, Jackson showed his quality in the second half against San Jose.

Substituting Jackson in for Russell-Rowe gave the Crew a different dynamic on offense. Taking out Russell-Rowe – the only true no. 9 on the field – allowed Rossi and Gazdag to pursue different roles.

Now, both Rossi and Gazdag were given a free license to go and hunt as dueling strikers. Both players are hybrid midfielders/forwards, but they both are still Columbus’ best attacking options.

So, bringing on Jackson to carry the burden of the attacking midfield role, allowing Rossi and Gazdag to push higher and letting them be the main attacking threats gave the Black & Gold a different look on offense.

With the San Jose backline dropping off later in the game and essentially refusing to follow droppers, Jackson now had loads of space to operate in the midfield. His job was simple – get the ball to his feet and then play it out wide to the wingbacks.

The wingbacks then would have an opportunity to run at the retreating defense and find the Crew’s two killers in the box, with Jackson and other midfielders trailing the play as secondary runners.

This substitution opened up the game for Columbus and also played to Jackson’s strengths. In that moment, a pure strike like Russell-Rowe was not offering much to the Black & Gold by pushing against the backline. Instead, Nancy opted to bring on his talented, twitchy attacking midfielder to push his more versatile threats higher up the pitch.

While this change did not directly result in a goal, it did give the Crew more of a chokehold on offense and some dangerous attacking opportunities. The coaching staff has been searching for Jackson’s role as he has often struggled, but using his as a creative fulcrum off the bench to spring Rossi and Gazdag might be the move going forward.

Every season is about finding which players fit the best in certain positions and roles. Nancy and the coaching staff might have unlocked Jackson’s role against San Jose.