The Columbus Crew pulled off a dramatic come from behind victory in the Windy City Saturday night, with a 3-2 win over the Chicago Fire. After conceding two goals in the first half the Black & Gold stormed back with a brace from winger Derrick Etienne and the late winner from new signing Cucho Hernandez. Columbus captured a much needed three road points that will help put the Black & Gold back in contention for a playoff spot. It was second half tactical adjustments by Caleb Porter that flipped the game on its head to give the Crew the advantage they need to spark a comeback and secure the win. Let’s dive in.
Pushing the Wingbacks Higher Up the Pitch
This was an emphasis in practice this week for Columbus. With this relatively new three center back formation that Caleb Porter has installed, he wants Pedro Santos and Steven Moreira to get higher up the pitch to provide another attacking threat for the Crew. Moreira and Santos have been doing this pretty regularly, the caveat is that Porter wants them both to get high up at the same time. The Black & Gold feel comfortable with their experienced center backs holding the line defensively, so for a Crew team that has struggled to score goals, Porter is taking a calculated risk by throwing more men into the attack. Not only does this get more bodies forward for Columbus, it also allows the team to have more width, which accomplishes two main things. Firstly, it frees up some space in the middle for the midfielders to create and run at the defense. This is personally catered towards Lucas Zelarayan and Darlington Nagbe. The more space they have, the more dangerous with the ball they can be. Secondly, it gives Columbus more crossing and switching options. We all know Pedro Santos can whip in a mean ball, and Steven Moreira has three assists on the year. Porter wants his most dynamic attacking playmakers to be working in harmony higher up the pitch where they can make an impact. This is something to watch out for in the coming weeks, especially as Cucho Hernandez starts to play more minutes and gain more chemistry with the rest of the squad.
Quicker Tempo
A huge difference from the first half of this game to the second half was the way Columbus used their possessions. The first half was, to be quite blunt, a train wreck. The Crew couldn’t move the ball without turning it over, the defense was in a daze, no one was being energetic and positive, and they were sent to the locker room down two goals and looking hopelessly out of the match. The tempo was the biggest thing to me that stood out. When positive splits or line breaking balls could be played, the Black & Gold were lackadaisical and instead decided to pass the ball around the back or into a marked player only for it to be stolen and turned into a counterattack. After halftime, that narrative quickly changed. From the whistle the Crew were pushing forward more men and combining much better than in the first half. There were significantly less square or backwards balls. Granted, the Chicago Fire press was immense in the first half, and in the second half they scaled it back a little bit, but that mistake would prove to be costly. Porter is continually urging his players to attack the opposition as much as they can to prevent them from getting set up. If you can go at a team and catch them off guard quickly it is much better than waiting for them to be ready for you. That’s why on both of Derrick Etienne’s goals on the night, Columbus capitalized off of Chicago not paying attention on restarts. Those quick restarts put the defense on their heels and gave the Black & Gold the opening they needed to get back in the game. Columbus needs to keep up this tempo in the coming games to keep building on these positive results.
Second Half Formational Changes
Saturday’s match was a chess match between Caleb Porter and Chicago Fire head coach Ezra Hendrickson. Hendrickson bested Porter in the first 45 by pushing his press so high that Columbus couldn’t get out of their own half. The brilliance of soccer though, is that games are 90 minutes, not 45. Porter later responded after halftime by switching to a 4-3-3 and subbing in playmakers Derrick Etienne and Luis Diaz to replace Jahlil Anibaba and Sean Zwadzki. Porter opted to go for speed down the wings and then later decided to go for more speed up top by switching Cucho Hernandez for Jacen Russel-Rowe. With Hernandez coming onto the field, Porter decided to change formations again, this time reverting to a 4-4-2 with Lucas Zelarayan and Cucho Hernandez at the striker positions. Zelarayan would typically roam free, finding pockets of space where he thought he could get the ball and make an impact. With the wingers drawing Chicago’s attention out wide, Zelarayan had more space to turn and play make all over the field. Pedro Santos and Steven Moreira under Caleb Porter’s instruction to get higher up the field, overlapped the wingers, providing more width and stretching the defense. This gave Diaz and Etienne the opportunity to pinch in toward the center of the field and make diagonal runs for Lucas Zelarayan to find them, which is exactly what happened on Etienne’s first goal. Because the Crew have played many different formations over the past few months, Caleb Porter now has an ace up his sleeve. His team is now smart enough and trained enough to be able to switch into any of the formations they have used in an instant. This could prove valuable down the stretch, as it did on Saturday night.
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