The Columbus Crew traveled down Interstate 71 on Saturday, looking to rebound against bitter rivals FC Cincinnati. It was a tightly contested matchup, with both teams generating some looks on goal and controlling portions of the match. Despite the combination of these two highly talented teams, the game ended in a 0-0 draw. Despite the shared points, the Black & Gold clinched a playoff spot with seven games left in the season.
Back to full strength, the Crew did not have to resort to any drastic tactical measures like putting Sean Zawadzki in goal. Wilfried Nancy and his staff did have a few tricks up their sleeve though. Let’s dive into all the tactics and decisions that went into this Hell Is Real scoreless draw.
Columbus’ offensive tactics
From the first kick, fans could tell that Columbus slightly tweaked its offensive philosophy for this game. The Black & Gold were less reliant on building out of the back and instead wanted to try and counter quickly at Cincinnati’s defense.
This did not mean that the Crew abandoned their high-volume possession setup though. When Columbus wanted to slow it down to try and put progressive pressure on Cincinnati’s defense, they could.
There were a few reasons for the Black & Gold going faster and playing on the counter rather than trying to build out of the back. The first reason was due to their opponent’s rotated defense. Cincinnati was without Matt Miazga and Ian Murphy on the backline, so they were forced to start Deandre Yedlin, Chidozie Awaziem, and Alvas Powell.
There were a few weak points with this starting back three. First, Yedlin is not a natural center back. Much like Steven Moreira, he is an outside back that was now converted into a center back. This means if Yedlin wanted to venture higher up the pitch into the attack, there would be space that he vacated in behind.
Second, Powell is not a natural left center back. He is very right foot dominant, which makes it hard to switch the field and play balls out to the left wing. He also is more of a pure centerback, with fewer ball skills than his counterpart Yedlin. This meant that if the Crew was going to press anyone on the backline, it was likely going to be Powell.
Another reason Columbus decided to play more direct was to bypass the Cincinnati press as soon as possible. A lot of the goals the Black & Gold have conceded this season have been due to poor defensive giveaways, so they avoided that by limiting how much they built out from their own territory.
The direct approach did not always work for the Crew though. The final pass in the attacking third or even the final shot was not executed to their normal standard. In this rapid countering pace, they were turning the ball over too often which led them to pull play back a bit more to try and keep possession at times.
In these moments, Columbus opted to play in two different formations. The first was a 3-1-3-3. The backline three centerbacks remained with Darlington Nagbe sitting deeper as the lone no. 6. In front of him, Alex Matan, Diego Rossi and Christian Ramirez dropped in from the frontline to play as three attacking midfielders. Up top, Cucho Hernandez led the line with the two wingbacks outside of him.
This formation gave the Black & Gold options at every depth of the pitch. They had players deep for defensive stability, Nagbe as the split in the middle, three attacking midfielders to find the midfield gap and a front three that could push the line.
Again, this formation was fluid, so they did not always stay in the same spots. Soon enough they morphed into their second formation of the match, a 3-4-3 diamond.
The backline stayed the same, and Nagbe continued his work as the lone defensive midfielder. The big change came in the midfield, with Ramirez and Matan dropping into the wide midfield channels as passing options. Rossi or Hernandez stayed up as a lone no. 10, with the front three still intact.
Ramirez and Matan dropping in was important in the moments when the Crew decided to build out of the back. Cincinnati was pressing with five towards the sideline, plugging up the nearside outside and middle passing lanes. Because of this, Matan and Ramirez dropped into the half-space and gave options to break the lines or switch the play.
This offensive philosophy did not yield a goal for Columbus, but it generated some chances that should have been goals. It was a “nearly” game for the Black & Gold, but they will take a point on the road against tough competition.
Columbus’ defensive tactics
Not much change here from the Crew, but they had a few tweaks that was special for Cincinnati.
Columbus defended in their typical 5-2-3 and pressed with the front three and wingbacks. Matan pushed up to mark the cutoff, but Nagbe did something different. Throughout the game, he sat deeper than Matan, sticking by Lucho Acosta’s side to prevent him from getting the ball.
This worked for a large portion of the first half. Cincinnati was having issues building out and found it hard to get Acosta the ball. In the second half, the reigning MLS MVP began dropping deeper to get the ball to his feet.
The Black & Gold were fine with Acosta doing this because he was being forced back towards his own goal. If they could limit where Acosta could get touches and have possession, they would be doing their job defensively.
Occasionally in the second half, Nagbe began to push up and press alongside Matan. Cincinnati set up with two defensive midfielders, so the Crew tried marking both with Matan and Nagbe to turn their opponents over high up the pitch.
When Nagbe did step up, Rudy Camacho pushed higher out of his usual spot on the backline to be closer to Acosta. This was if the ball was played into Acosta’s feet, Camacho could get there to try and disrupt him.
Cincinnati had a few tweaks for Columbus as well though. On offense, the hosts set up in a 3-2-5, matching the Black & Gold’s 5-2-3 defensive formation. This gave the game a feeling of multiple one-on-one matchups happening all over the pitch.
In the final third, Cincinnati tried to overload the backside of the Crew’s defense. They would attempt to draw out one of the wingbacks, get Columbus’ defense to shift, and then attack the backside with two runners. This is how Kevin Kelsy got a goal in the Hell Is Real matchup in Columbus earlier this summer.
Despite the tweaks from both teams, neither were able to find the net in the end. Both squads clinched a playoff spot, so there is no doubt there will likely be another Hell Is Real clash in the playoffs.
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