The Columbus Crew tied yet another game on Wednesday, conceding in stoppage time to tie Charlotte FC 2-2. The Black & Gold went up by two goals before Charlotte stormed back in the second half to give each team a point to take home. This result moves Columbus into 7th place after Orlando City SC lost to Inter Miami on Wednesday night. Despite the disappointing result, the Black & Gold showed some real promise for stretches of the match but struggled to consistently get a hold of the game. Let’s dive in.
Lucas Zelarayan drifting out to the wing
Lucas Zelarayan has been doing this on and off throughout the season, but tonight Columbus saw the benefits of him taking his talents out wide.
Before, Zelarayan would receive the ball on the wing and be isolated, sometimes losing the ball or other times making the defender look silly. In the game against Charlotte, however. the game plan came together.
In this particular game when Zelarayan would float toward the touchline, he would have help. It was in these pockets that Crew players would come short and then link up with the Armenian international to break through Charlotte’s lines.
Typically, it would be Pedro Santos, Darlington Nagbe, Derrick Etienne and Cucho Hernandez helping Zelarayan out to combine and break through. The best-case scenario is that they can combine and get in a good cross to a late arriving Hernandez for him to put in the back of the net. The other option though is to find Luis Diaz on the other side for a back-post tap in and use Hernandez as a decoy.
By drawing Hernandez out from playing between the opposing center backs, this gives the Crew different attacking run options going forward and the chance to confuse Charlotte’s defense by making them find marks while the Black & Gold are attacking. It didn’t result in a goal tonight, but it created some good chances going forward for the Crew, and I think that’s something that fans can get behind late in a season where chances have been hard to come by.
Differences in attacking strategy in both halves
I hate clichés, but it really was a tale of two halves offensively for the Black & Gold. The differences from the strategy in the first half and second half were night and day for the away side as they tried to put Charlotte away to claim three points.
In the first half, Columbus controlled the game from back to front. Despite a few chances the Charlotte may have got, the Crew went in during halftime feeling really good about the performance they put in. The central idea in the first half was to control the ball and attack the wide backs of the home side.
When I say control the ball, I don’t mean the longs spells of possession and side to side passing from the Gregg Berhalter era, I mean the type of possession that is all about making safe passes, but also trying to move up the pitch and combine. Columbus wanted to move up the field and then find themselves in a positive numerical situation, then they would go wide.
One thing Charlotte tended to do a lot throughout the first half was shift their outside backs a little too far towards the middle of the pitch. This would sometimes leave wingers Derrick Etienne or Luis Diaz in a nice pocket of space for the ball to be played to them and allow them to create and attack.
The problem for Charlotte was if their outside backs didn’t recover in time, they could be forced to watch Diaz or Etienne blaze past their defense and put the ball in the back of the net. Only a minute into the game (tonight’s game) Etienne had a chance down the left side because Charlotte had over shifted towards the center of the pitch.
In the second half, the Crew decided to press their luck attacking on the counter. Especially after Charlotte got their first goal and Columbus was backed up, the Black & Gold soaked in the pressure and then broke with pace. Leading the line was typically Hernandez, Zelarayan and one of the wingers, and they got into some good spaces and scoring situations.
I think all Crew fans would have preferred that the squad would have controlled the whole game like the first half, but credit to Charlotte for battling back into the game and forcing Columbus to change the way they wanted to play.
Tactically breaking down Charlotte’s second goal
There’s nothing like breaking down the moment that three points suddenly turned into one. There are multiple players at fault for Columbus conceding in stoppage time, so let’s break it down.
The first problem happened when Charlotte got the ball on the wing in the 93rd minute. Kamil Jozwiak for Charlotte was being marked by Josh Williams, but then curved his run towards the end line behind unsuspecting Will Sands. Williams doesn’t communicate with Sands quick enough, which allows Jozwiak to receive the ball on the edge of the box with time to pick out a cross. Defending is all about communicating, and Williams and Sands miss the mark this time.
The second mistake came when Williams was on his recovery run and decided to slide to the end line to prevent a ground pass to be played in the six-yard box in front of Eloy Room. Some may argue this is good defending, I would argue that this is Williams panicking as he recovers and trying to make the extra effort. I applaud him for it, but it was the wrong decision. If that ball was played across the six, Williams has to trust that either Room can corral it, or Moreira is marking up at the back post. If he stays on his feet and checks where runners are in the box as he’s recovering, he might have a better chance at intercepting the ball and clearing it.
Finally mistake number three was a Crew team classic, lazy defending. Once the ball is crossed and the initial shot is blocked by Degenek, Charlotte forward Daniel Rios had the ball at his feet in front of goal. It was a good play by Degenek, but it was the aftermath that will drive Caleb Porter mad in training this week.
Rios then loads up to cross the ball in, and all seven Crew defenders have their eyes locked on the ball. Not one is looking up to find marks or cover, they were like a deer in the headlights. Sure enough, Rios crossed the ball in to be finished by one of his unmarked Charlotte teammates and that secured the draw.
Every team will make mistakes defending in late game situations because the stakes are so high, but this has been a reoccurring theme for Columbus. This is not strictly a coaching issue, because Caleb Porter can’t go out there and clear the ball himself, but the blame is equal between the coaches and the players. Simple communication and calmness of nerves could have saved a win for the Crew in Charlotte on Wednesday, but yet again they settled for a draw.
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