Crew tactical review: Columbus scrapes by Montreal

The Columbus Crew continued their unbeaten streak to open up the 2025 MLS season with a 2-1 win over CF Montreal on Saturday. The first 30 minutes were a dream for the Black & Gold, netting two goals courtesy of Jacen Russell-Rowe and AZ Jackson to jump out to an early lead. From there though, Montreal showed fight to get back into the game. Prince Owusu bagged a tap in off a shot from Caden Clark that careened off the post and back into his path to get back within a goal. In the end, the Crew weathered the storm and saw out the game to claim a 2-1 victory and add three points.

The way Columbus looked was night and day from the first half hour compared to the rest of the game. Part of that was how Montreal adjusted, but the Black & Gold also shot themselves in the foot multiple times in this match.

Let’s dive into all the tactics that went into this 2-1 win for the Crew.

Dominant first half-hour

The opening chunk of this game could not have gone better for Wilfried Nancy’s side. Jackson opened the scoring within 12 minutes and Russell-Rowe doubled the advantage just 14 minutes later, looking like Columbus would cruise to an easy victory.

This first half hour of the Black & Gold onslaught was due to how Nancy set up his team and some crucial mistakes from Montreal.

Let’s dive into the mishaps from the visitors first. Montreal came into this game lined up in a 4-3-3 after firing former Crew 2 head coach Laurent Courtois only five games into the season. Marco Donadel stepped into the interim role, opting for a four-back traditional 4-3-3 formation.

Teams do not tend to play in four-back formations against the Crew due to Columbus’ immense width. The Black & Gold use their wingbacks to stretch the opposition, leaving the middle undermanned if the outside backs in a back four need to go outside.

That is exactly what sunk Montreal early on in this game. The fullbacks had to decide to stay narrow and allow the Crew to take the wide areas or go out and meet them – risking an internal overload.

There is a quick fix if Montreal was set on pushing their fullbacks wider to mark Columbus’ wingbacks. If the visitors dropped their defensive midfielders deeper – bolstering and adding manpower to the backline – Montreal could have gotten wide coverage and defensive stability in the midfield at the cost of numbers up top.

Instead, Montreal decided to gamble. The visitors did not drop their defensive midfielders into the backline and actually pushed them up to attempt to press the Black & Gold. This gave Max Arfsten and Mo Farsi acres of space out wide to go one-on-one with the opposing fullbacks.

The second mistake for Montreal was how much they overcommitted to the press without buying into their backline. The reason Nancy’s press for the Crew works so well is because the entire team pressures, not just an allotment of attackers with the defense sitting back conservatively.

Montreal learned this lesson the hard way. The pressure from the opposing attackers and midfielders pushed Columbus back, but the defense did not follow the Black & Gold’s dropping attackers. This meant that Diego Rossi, Jackson, and Russell-Rowe had a major gap in the midfield to run into, get the ball, and turn upfield.

When this easy release happened, Arfsten and Faris were flying up the wings with the Crew holding a five-on-four advantage against Montreal’s recovering defense. Sucking the opposition into overcommitting and attacking their weakness is what caused Columbus to have the dominant opening half that they did.

Now, what did the Black & Gold do that was so potent? Simple – they took what Montreal gave them and played clean, smart soccer. The buildup play out of the back in the first 30 minutes is some of the best combinations the Crew have done all season. Yes, Montreal’s pressure was not very well-thought-out, but it was still up to Columbus to exploit the weaknesses.

The Black & Gold recognized early on that they had opportunities to break the opposition’s broken press, wide mismatch opportunities, and a numerical advantage against a recovering defense. They saw these chances and they took them, to the tune of two goals in the opening 30 minutes of the game.

How did Montreal get back into the game?

After the opening phase of the game resulted in a lot of Crew possession and offensive changes, Montreal started to show signs of life. The visitors made a few key changes that changed the game and forced Columbus to really compete and see the game out.

The first thing Montreal did was slow down the game. If they could keep possession and get more comfortable on the ball, they could try to break down the Black & Gold defense while keeping possession away from the Crew.

This also allowed Montreal to get into Columbus’ attacking third and actually engage their repress, which in the first 30 minutes was broken. Luckily for the Canadian side, they adjusted that press to make the Black & Gold uncomfortable.

The primary thing Montreal had to do to fix their press was take care of the Crew’s dropping attackers. Cutting off the droppers would force Columbus to build out of the back without a long-release option. Instead of pressing all-out with six to seven players like they did in the first half, Montreal pressed with four to five and dropped two players to take care of the dropping attackers.

That may seem easier to break given that the Black & Gold could still create overloads, but Montreal only pressed on certain cues. When the Crew possessed the ball in the middle of the pitch, the visitors employed a resisted press and aimed to keep Columbus in front of them. When the point of possession switched to a side of the field though, Montreal would cut off switch options and force the Black & Gold towards the sideline.

With the droppers covered and the switch points virtually taken out of play, the Crew’s only options were to go long and hope the attackers could hold up the play or combine through the pressure.

Combining through the pressure was not a problem for Columbus in the first half, but in the second half, the Black & Gold were sloppy. Misplaced passes, poor touches, and uncharacteristic turnovers high up the field gave Montreal ample opportunity to bear down on Patrick Shulte. In making the press less aggressive and more intentional, Montreal’s pressure became incredibly effective in getting back into the game.

Despite Montreal’s efforts to get back into the game, Nancy’s savvy side saw out the three points at home. In the last ten minutes, the Crew slowed the game down, kept possession, and milked the clock to get the victory. It was not an emphatic win, but three points is three points. Columbus remains unbeaten in MLS competition for at least another week.