Columbus.- The winless drought is over for Columbus SC. Ola Kamara scored his first hat trick in MLS without any penalty kick drama/controversy. But this is not about the seven goals that poured into Mapfre Stadium after a rain delay or the penalty kick saved by Steve Clark. Tonight, the home team showed a true sign of evolution into a different era, it wasn’t flawless but it was a step forward. A solid one.
“I was real happy with the offensive output of this game. We were creating a lot of good goal scoring chances I think is important. Looking at some of the discrepancies between last year and this year is been getting shots on goal and we had enough of them today to make a lot of goals.” Berhalter said at the post game press conference “Judging the defensive performance in a way isn’t necessarily fair in a way with some new guys on the back line and dealing with that, having said that I think we battled and to win games in this league you have to battle, and we did that tonight”
It was like a Deja Vu. Another three-goal lead about to be blown, no drama on the field this time. Real Salt Lake was coming after them and when it seemed that hey were falling apart like a house of cards, they held their composure and sustained a lead, by one goal but in the end, they came on top.
“They brought in some quality players, let’s not forget that. When you bringing in [Javier] Morales, [Juan Manuel] Martinez, [Yura] Movsisyan.It was interesting what they did, to have that much firepower ready to come in the game. We knew it was going to be difficult, they are a good team, but to me, I think it was the will in this game. I think we controlled the ladders of part of the game and I think we handled it pretty well.”
It is undeniable that scoring the first hat trick in twelve years for the club gives Ola Kamara an incredible confidence boost and you could easily give him the man of the match award. But the brain of this offensive explosion was Justin Meram. He is controlling the rhythm of this offense, even when the ball still goes through Higuaín is Meram the one that generates more danger, he is releasing the ball quicker and his drives are articulated, they make sense and opens a wider spectrum of possibilities.
The adjustments to the Kamara 2.0 era started to work tonight. A team that used to throw 20+ open play crosses is evolving and adapting to a new center forward. The ball rotates more in the final third and the outbacks still join the offensive side but they are making more educated decisions when is time to feed their forwards. They are not at the level they wanted to be but the chemistry is pretty much on point.
“I felt really good today, before the game I felt like I was going to score. Since the last game with Toronto it was a little bit better, I feel like the chemistry is better with all the players, So I felt today was the day. I got a hat trick so it is a good feeling of course.” Ola Kamara explained at the post-game press conference.
Three points. Four Goals. A hat trick. No drama.
