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The Crew played out a 4-0 win over Vancouver this past Saturday on the first weekend of MLS action to start the 2022 season out extremely strong. The Black and Gold were on top of the Whitecaps right from the kickoff until the breakthrough came in the 8th minute courtesy of Miguel Berry. After that the home side never looked back, adding three more before the clock struck 90’. It was a dominant performance overall, largely due to the tactics employed by head coach Caleb Porter. Here’s three takeaways about Porter’s opening day tactical setup that willed the Crew to a comfortable victory. Overloading one side of the field to free up wingers This was a huge part of the game Saturday. Porter expressed in preseason through signings that he wanted more production out his wingers. Last season the goals and assist total was very low from wingers, so Porter went out and signed Yaw Yeboah to reinforce his depth at the position. The second thing he did was adjust his team tactically to free up his wingers and put them in scoring positions. The best example of this was Derrick Etienne’s goal in the 25th minute to put the Crew up 2-0. The Black and Gold passed the ball to Yaw Yeboah on the right wing, and at that moment shifted Zelarayan, Nagbe, Artur, and even Pedro Santos toward the ball while Miguel Berry ran through the defense to pull the opposing defender away from the left flank. The ball was then switched to Derrick Etienne who was left alone on the left side for an easy opening to his season’s goal account. Dropping Nagbe or Artur into defense to free up Fullbacks This is a classic part of Caleb Porter’s system, but it has evolved. Last season the Crew would typically drop in a defensive midfielder to play between to center-backs so Columbus could keep possession and switch the play easier. Now, with either Nagbe or Artur dropping in, Pedro Santos and Steven Moreira can go higher up the pitch and the Crew’s formation can evolve from a 4-2-3-1 to a 3-4-3. This is a more direct attacking approach and give Santos and Moreira the opportunity to create in midfield. This also pushes wingers Derrick Etienne and Yaw Yeboah higher up the field, hoping to get them in more goal scoring areas. Miguel Berry getting the starting nod This is not so much a tactical move, but it made a difference in the game. Miguel Berry was on fire near the end of last season, so out of that respect Porter decided to give him the nod over Gyasi Zardes. This could be just because of Berry’s good play at the end of last year or because Zardes missed bits of the preseason, but the choice seemed to pay off. Berry opened the scoring in the 8th minute but that wasn’t the brightest spot of his play. His passing was sublime. The combinations between him, Zelarayan, Etienne, and Yeboah looked beautiful and created loads of attacking chances for the Black and Gold. The nagging question is now who is the Crew’s starting striker going forward? Will we see Zardes return, or will we see Berry take his sport? Or will Porter find a way to incorporate the pair into the same starting XI? Only time will tell.

On December 2nd, 2018 the USMNT announced that Gregg Berhalter would leave the Crew after 5 seasons to take on the challenge of rebuilding an aging United States soccer squad. He left the Crew after leading them to four playoff appearances in five seasons, and a berth in the MLS Cup Final in 2015. In his wake the Crew hired highly touted Caleb Porter, who had bested the Crew in the 2015 final, but his luck had run out with the Portland Timbers in 2018. The Berhalter era of Crew soccer began in 2013 after he took over for Robert Warzycha. Immediately he began installing his system centered around controlling the ball and pace of play mixed with a defensive style to try and make opponents “predictable”. Berhalter’s offensive emphasis was creating positional overloads mostly for his fullbacks to get up and add another element to the Columbus attack. He accomplished this by cheating the forwards to one side of the field and sending the fullbacks high up the pitch to make a numerical advantage against each side of the opposing defense. He also made an emphasis in controlling the ball until the opportune time to attack. This was most successful when using “pivot players” such as Wil Trapp, Artur, and later Darlington Nagbe as well as the cernterbacks to switch the ball. The downfall of this offensive style was the ability for the defense to be exploited in transition after a turnover. A turnover during the Crew attack could lead to 1v1 defending situations for Crew defenders and could create numerical disadvantages for them on their own side of the pitch. Berhalter’s defensive scheme was to make opponents predictable by limiting the number of passing options to the player on the ball. He also instituted a medium style of pressing when the ball was able to be won. This tactical system was usually used with a 4-2-3-1 or 4-4-2 formation Berhalter’s system led him to a 67-55-49 regular season record with Columbus, scoring 256 goals while conceding 247. His consistency was what made Columbus so threatening, making the playoffs 4 out of the 5 seasons he was at the helm. Over those 5 years he accumulated 1.446 points per match (PPM) and was MLS Cup runner up in 2015. While many may think the Crew preformed and won more games while having more of the ball, a look into the statistics show that in games where Berhalter won or tied, the average possession was 53.77%. On the other side of the coin, average possession was 53.24% in a loss for the Black and Gold during his tenure. While other factors such as injuries and international duty can have effect on the results of some of the games, ultimately controlling the ball and keeping possession was not a deciding factor during Berhalter’s tenure with the Crew. When Caleb Porter was introduced as head coach of the Crew, many fans thought no major changes would come to the on-pitch structure of the team, and in some ways they were correct. Porter preferred playing a similar offensive style to Gregg Berhalter but tweaked a few aspects on both sides of the ball. Offensively, Porter’s first order of business was to push Wil Trapp closer to goal. Porter felt the want to control play, but he wanted his best passer higher up the pitch. This duty fell to Wil Trapp but has now be transferred to Darlington Nagbe. Another tweak to the system was to put the emphasis on vertical passing rather than the possessive based horizontal balls. Porter was keen to attack off the bat, rather than draw opponents in and the breakout. He still valued controlling the game, but instead of controlling in the back, he pushed that responsibility up the field to the attacking midfielders and strikers. This is a technical way to say get Lucas Zelarayan the ball. Porter wanted to push the tempo more than Berhalter did, so he entrusted that job to Zelarayan. Defensively the only big change Porter made was to press as soon as the Crew lost possession to win the ball high up the pitch. This would usually happen near the sidelines so the Crew attackers could trap the other team in and get a turnover high up the pitch. Porter’s 3-year campaign has yielded a regular season record of 35-35-21, with 121 goals scored compared to 113 conceded. He averaged 1.42 points per match, while scoring 1.36 goals per game. The average possession stats show Porter’s adjustments to Gregg Berhalter’s system working for him, having 50.27% possession in wins and ties. The flip side is that when the Crew lose, the average possession over Porter’s tenure is 52.73%. This shows that the Crew are better off when they are pushing tempo with Lucas Zelarayan, rather than possessing the ball too much. Porter’s accomplishments with the Crew are monumental, winning the club’s second MLS Cup title in 2020 with a 3-1 win over the Seattle Sounders, and winning the club’s first international trophy with a win in the Champeones Cup. Overall these two coaches have made life very enjoyable for Crew fans over the past 8 seasons, but fans will always have opinions on who is the better coach. Columbus kicks off the 2022 season at Lower.Com Field against the Vancouver Whitecaps on February 26th. Kickoff is slated to be at 3:30 local time.