Columbus.- What if I told you that you have to face a team at home, a team that never beat you in your stadium. How would you feel? I’m sure your confidence would be at an all time high, almost touching the cockiness, right? Streaks have a duration; there are not eternal, and this Philadelphia Union just punched in the face the defending Eastern Conference Champions at Mapfre Stadium to end their seven game win-less cycle with discipline and accuracy.
For the first time under Gregg Berhalter era, the Columbus Crew SC starts 0-2 and the first time the team loses a home opener since 2004. Putting statistics and history aside what this game represents for this team is the need of a tune up, their soccer engine is not running smoothly yet. The technical staff and the players know they can drive this high octane machine, but they are not shifting the gears properly.
A good sample of what the Crew SC is capable of were the last twenty minutes of the game. Columbus played at a very fast pace, vertical with all their front court players generating offensive situations and getting shots on goal. Especially Cedric Mabwati, who in his first seven or eight minutes on the field (he subbed for Hector Jimenez in the 59th minute) didn’t even touch the ball, after that “lapsus disappearing” he became the most dangerous attacker on the pitch. The question is why did they wait seventy plus minutes and to be 0-2 down on the scoreboard to put a sense of urgency in the game?
The word complacency resurfaced again during the press conference as a possible explanation for the negative result, but Berhalter was emphatic about it:“I don’t think so, this is a tough League, You guys see the results today, you see whats happening in this League? You can’t predict any results right now. Part of our job is to play our game, and what’s most disappointing that in the second half we didn’t do that, at all.” and he praised the rival “I think Jim Curtin deserves a lot of credit, they did an excellent job on Will Trapp, an excellent job in the midfield and they talked about trying to sneak a goal, and they did exactly that”
The Union forced Columbus to commit turnovers, and during the first half, they not only came from Trapp, at every member of their back line got, at least, one in the first fifteen minutes of the game. They still managed to reach a 58% of possession but when they got to the final third they didn’t do any damage.
The talk of the week was about keep doing what you are doing well, and the results will come. They are keeping their passing accuracy numbers high (82.4%) and their possession dances around the 60%. The identity of the team it seems to be intact except for the way they are routing their offense, they still do their overlapping, but Higuaín can’t be the primary target, for some reason Kamara is drifting to the wings, and Pipa is entering the box with Finlay and Jiménez. Once Mabwati and Meram jumped on the field, Kei went back to be the focal point of this offense.
The Crew SC hasn’t started the season the way they expected it. 0 and two for the first time under Berhalter. They are not content, they need to improve how to defend set pieces (two consecutive games that concede a goal in that way) knowing there is a higher level of performance in their DNA, they will bring it to life, soon.
