The first 135 minutes of the season the Columbus Crew were red hot, up 4-0 on goals forwarded and on the way to two straight wins.
The next 135 minutes they’ve been outscored 2-1.
Yet their one goal in that second stanza was enough to escape/ limp to a home victory against Montreal.
Then Columbus settled for a rather bore tie on the road in Philadelphia.
If Columbus could they would like to regain their previous momentum rather quick.
Yet international friendlies may complicate such a successful effort.
As Columbus captain, midfielder Wil Trapp and goalkeeper Zack Steffen have both been called up to the United States national team for an exhibition next week against Paraguay.
In preparation, Trapp and Steffen will be absent this Saturday against D.C. United.
This ends a stretch of 37 consecutive regular-season games in which both were in the starting lineup.
However, Berhalter says he’s excited that two new guys are going to play.
At goalkeeper, the one new guy is heads or tails between Logan Ketterer and Jon Kempin. At defensive midfield, the second new man up is heads or tails between Ricardo Clark and Mohammed Abu.
Yet based on which players looked better in preseason I would give the nod to Ketterer and Clark.
As Abu’s turnover led to a goal in the Battery vs. Crew preseason contest and the end of Berhalter’s lineup alterations in that game.
The Crew won 2-1.
I would plugin similar substitutions to hopefully gain a similar result this Saturday.
Yet think it could strangely turnout more beneficial for D.C. as they are still experimenting on what works best for them, have not found it yet.
D.C. will be missing two starters in midfield from their last game against Houston, as Zoltan Stieber is with Hungary and Ulises Segura is with Costa Rica.
Nevertheless could lead to a better result through more of a opportunity for players that should perhaps be more of the vocal point.
Paul Arriola, Ian Harkes, and Chris Durkin could all receive starts this week and are all more than capable.
Projected DC LINEUP (4-2-3-1, right to left)
GK – David Ousted — Nick DeLeon, Frederic Brillant, Steve Birnbaum, Joseph Mora — Ian Harkes, Chris Durkin — Paul Arriola, Yamil Asad, Luciano Acosta — Darren Mattocks
Crewture Prediction: I have a weird feeling that the unexpectedness of MLS Soccer bites the Crew this week and somehow D.C.’s one win on the season is against us in Columbus.
Yet being at home I’ll lean more towards sanity and say 2-0 Crew.
Columbus Crew
DC United
