The Columbus Crew continued its poor stretch of form in MLS play, this time falling to rivals FC Cincinnati 2-1 on Saturday evening. This is the first loss for Columbus at home against their noisy neighbors, in what was arguably their worst performance of this young season. The Black & Gold battled back and forth with Cincinnati until Kevin Kelsy broke the deadlock in the second half, jumping over Alex Matan and heading the ball into the net. Luciano Acosta would double the visitors’ lead just two minutes later. Max Arfsten pulled a goal back in the 89th minute, but it was too little, too late.
It was an uninspiring performance by the Crew after having a week off. The team looked stagnant and on the back foot for most of the match. Wilfried Nancy did not have his best game either, making questionable decisions about the starting lineup and substitutions. Let’s dive into what sunk Columbus in this edition of Hell is Real.
Initial lineup and attacking issues
When the lineups were released, the question around this game became about how the Black & Gold would line up. They listed three center backs in the starting eleven but presumably had Matan and Sean Zawadzki listed as the starting wingbacks.
True to the rumors, Zawadzki lined up as the left wingback, while Matan would be his counterpart on the right side. Neither of them a true wingback, the tactical choice by Nancy became a focal point early.
Zawadzki’s role on the left side was not to fly up the wing like Yaw Yeboah or Will Sands might do. The young American often pinched towards the inside of the field, joining Darlington Nagbe and Aidan Morris in midfield. He often checked into a central midfield space, trying to connect the backline and attack through the middle.
On the other side, Matan generally stayed wider. At times he would come inside to combine with other players, but he was more of a true winger than Zawadzki was. The Crew seemed to be reliant on trying to get the Romanian the ball on the wing to cross inside to Cucho Hernandez, Diego Rossi, and Jacen Russell-Rowe.
The other interesting decision with the starting lineup was putting Russell-Rowe instead of Christian Ramirez. The Canadian has been hit or miss for Columbus this season. He has had huge game and scored massive goals, but in other contests, he has disappeared.
In the matchup against Cincinnati, it was the latter.
The reason for including Russell-Rowe in the lineup was for him to be the holdup No. 9. FC Cincinnati likes to press high up the field, but their backline would stay deeper in numbers to stifle any Black & Gold counterattack. This left the attacking midfield area open, a space Russell-Rowe has exploited multiple times this season.
For the most part, it worked. Russell-Rowe and Hernandez received the ball into their feet and then were able to play a pass to another attacking player. This took the heat off the Crew defenders who were just in possession, but Columbus was not able to do anything with the forward attacks they had. A huge part of this had to do with Cincinnati’s back three. Matt Miazga, Ian Murphy, and Miles Robinson had an amazing game, stifling the Black & Gold counterattack repeatedly.
Cincinnati’s ability to do this was because of two things: their quality and the numbers they had back. The visitors always kept all three center backs deeper to deal with the Crew’s trident up top, and it worked tremendously. Columbus was limited in their promising attacking chances thanks to Cincinnati’s immense backline.
These choices were interesting to say the least by Nancy. The decision to start Matan, Zawadzki, and Jacen Russell-Rowe did not lose the Black & Gold this game, the Crew’s demeanor and urgency were the bigger issues on the night.
Where did the wheels fall off?
In the second half, Columbus went back to a more traditional look. Matan started going into the attacking midfield space much more and the Black & Gold got back into their 3-2-5 on offense. Even Steven Moreira was heading forward in attack, and the Crew looked more balanced.
Then, Morris was substituted for Yeboah. This pushed Zawadzki inside to partner with Nagbe while the Ghanian took his place. This switch changed not only the personnel for Columbus but their playstyle as well.
Now on the left side, Yeboah was more of a winger which allowed Rossi to pinch inside next to Russell-Rowe. Nancy was hoping that by pushing the attackers closer together in the middle, they could overload the center backs and find the breakthrough.
On the defensive side, the Black & Gold stayed pretty much the same. Exact same defensive formation and structure, just with Zawadzki in midfield and Yeboah out wide. The problem arose when Cincinnati got overloads together while the Crew defense started over-shifting and ball-watching. Also, the substitution of Kelsy into the game caused nightmares for the Columbus backline.
Kelsy’s implementation into the game gave Cincinnati a true No. 9 and a target to find up top. He tended to suck Black & Gold defenders towards him, creating space for other teammates.
On the first goal, the Crew defense over-shifted toward the backside where Kelsy was hanging around. Malte Amundsen pinched in too far which allowed Pavel Bucha to receive and play the ball to Acosta in an overload situation. Acosta cut a scrambling Amundsen and a stagnant Rudy Camacho, clipping the ball to the back post where 6-foot-4-inch Kelsy jumped over 5-foot-6-inch Matan for the opener.
Those are the situations that the Columbus defense must be better in, but that situation also calls for the talents of Morris. The American is one of the best in MLS at re-pressing and making one-on-one tackles, especially in scrambling and transition situations. Taking him off seemed to be a mistake after the first goal.
Then, two minutes later, Acosta netted the second of the match. Camacho was pulled out to the left wing to cover for Matan, and when Matan did not go back inside to cover the vacated defensive position, Acosta found the space. Camacho was not fast enough to get back, which allowed FC Cincinnati to go 2-0 up with 15 minutes remaining off two disastrous defensive possessions by Columbus.
There is no single player on the Black & Gold to blame for this loss. The entire team seemed lethargic and on the back foot for the entire match, something we are not used to seeing for Nancy-led teams. For a squad that will play their next home game for a month, they need to start picking up wins.
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