The Columbus Crew came from dropping behind early to winning against Toronto FC 2-1. The Black & Gold persevered through a part-time blizzard after conceding a header in the 14th minute to Jesus Jimenez courtesy of goals by the fantastic Lucas Zelarayan and Derrick Etienne. This raised the Crew’s record to 2 wins and a tie, bringing the season point total to 7, up to 1st place in the Eastern Conference for the time being. The home team struggled early, but a change in tactics at halftime spurred Columbus to victory.
A More Aggressive Style of Pressing
The press was a game changing factor for the Crew. Caleb Porter typically likes to press at opportune times. This means the team will instantly press when the opposition takes a bad touch, makes a bad pass, get near the sideline in their own half, or if the Crew have a numerical advantage on defense. In the second half after being down 1-0, Porter decided to shift to a more aggressive approach and create numerical advantages to cut the field in half for the opposing offense. When Toronto was possessing the ball in their own half early in the second half, the Crew shifted Miguel Berry, Lucas Zelarayan, Yaw Yeboah, and then both Artur and Nagbe to isolate the left side of Toronto’s defense. This cuts down the number of passing options for TFC and creates turnover opportunity for the Crew to break out and strike on the counter. To help ensure that Toronto couldn’t switch the ball, Derrick Etienne shifted up to play to the left of Miguel Berry in a left striker position. Now the only way to get out of this press would be for Michael Bradley or whoever else was on the ball to send a long ball up top to their striker. Now the problem would be the aerial beast that is Jonathan Mensah. This was the key for the Crew getting back into the game, and ultimately changed the game. Brilliant adjustment by Caleb Porter and the coaching staff.
Getting More Numbers in Attack
This is the main way that Columbus’ offensive game plan changed in the 2nd half. In the first 45 minutes the Crew struggled to create and finish offensive opportunities, so Caleb Porter made the change at halftime to push Darlington Nagbe and Artur higher up the pitch. Instead of having either Nagbe or Artur dropping in between the center backs to better keep possession, the center midfielders fought to get higher up the pitch to get into goalscoring opportunities. Not only did this get two of the Black & Gold’s most effective long shot specialists closer to the opposing goal, it creates mismatches against Toronto’s defense. By adding two more pieces into the attack that takes attention away from Lucas Zelarayan and both wingers, allowing them to create and go into one on one situations. I don’t expect the Crew to come out of the gate pushing both Artur and Nagbe up the field because the drawback is that it leaves Columbus vulnerable in defense. All in all, it was a gamble that was worth taking and it paid off i
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