Crew’s strength may be its weakness
Vancouver looks to exploit Columbus’ knack for an attacking style in clash of conference No. 1s
The prospect of a Whitecaps win in Columbus Saturday is a 50-50 proposition. Key No. 1 to victory is controlling Crew midfielder Federico Higuain, who became just the sixth player in MLS history to join the 50-goal, 50-assist club last weekend, contributing two assists in their 3-1 win over D.C. United.
“I know not too many players get these numbers, but I want more,” Higuain said earlier this week. “That is what we are. We want more. We have a dream and we want to be a good team game by game and we’ll see what happens.”
The Argentine playmaker has been instrumental in the Crew’s undefeated start, scoring goals in back-to-back games and helping Columbus rocket to the top of the MLS power rankings.
Only Sporting Kansas City (nine) has scored more goals than Columbus (eight), but Kansas City has lost once. The Crew and New York City FC are both 3-0-1 and tied on goals for. A fourth straight win or a draw to start the season would be the best start for Columbus since 2010, when the Crew began 6-0-2.
Whitecaps coach Carl Robinson has a stiff test ahead in Saturday’s game (noon, CTV, TSN 4/5, TSN 1040), but his team has played well on the road so far this short season. While they couldn’t break down a defensively minded L.A. Galaxy side that parked the bus at B.C. Place Stadium, they did score against Atlanta FC despite being down a man — and could have had more.
“They (Columbus) attack. They’re a good attacking team. But sometimes your strength can be your weakness as well,” Robinson said of Columbus. “They’re pretty open in their play. When they have the ball, they’re very good. When they don’t, they’re vulnerable to transitions at certain times. We’ve got to make sure our shape is compact, nice and organized and we don’t let too many gaps appear.
“But we believe we can take advantage of their weaknesses. Because of their expansive play, they do leave themselves a little bit vulnerable.”
Right-back Jake Nerwinski is ready for the usual Caps road game with possession ceded to the home team
while they wait for their chance to counter. But it’s a tough ask to keep players like Higuain and striker Gyasi Zardes, the Crew’s leading scorer with three goals, contained.
“They like to keep possession,” Nerwinski said. “Sometimes they
overplay to a point where they can’t play anymore, but they’ve put up three goals a game ... so we know they have a lot of firepower. We’re just going to have to try to lock that down.”
“It’s a group effort,” added midfielder
Felipe. “If everyone does their job on the day … we can eliminate those players. It’s not about the defence or midfielders, it’s about the 11 players on the field.”
The Whitecaps’ scoreless draw against L.A. last week — their first
0-0 regular-season result since the 2017 season opener at home against Philadelphia — has sparked plenty of conversation about the team’s ability to create offence from something other than set pieces. The team has yet to score a goal from the run of play in the first half this season with Kei Kamara’s penalty kick against Houston the only opening-frame tally this year.
Overshadowed a bit by the optics of failing to score at home was just how defensive-minded the Galaxy were in the game, putting eight players behind the ball at times, but Robinson didn’t mince words this week.
“I think we should take the positive out of it, that they decided to come here and play five — seven with two midfielders — at the back,” he said. “(But) we weren’t good enough to break them down. We should take responsibility for that. Our final third play wasn’t good enough. They came here to not get beaten. We tried to win the game, but we weren’t good enough to.”
The past two seasons, the Caps have started slowly. Last year, they lost three of their first five and were shut out three times. In 2016, they had four losses and three shutouts, including a scoreless draw at home to — you guessed it — the Galaxy. But they’ve had a better start to 2018 with seven points from four games and sit tied with Kansas City for first place in the West.
Felipe is confident that the offence — and wins — will be coming once they’ve had a chance to jell.
“It takes time to practise together. If I (use) my example, it’s only been a month that I’ve been here. Not even a month,” said Felipe, who joined the team in a trade from the New York Red Bulls at the start of March. “But we have a lot of quality. We have a good mix of experienced players and young players that can make a difference ... We have huge potential — and we’re going to hit that potential. The quality we have here, if you go through other teams in the league, they don’t have it. Alphonso Davies, Kei Kamara, Yordy Reyna, we have (Cristian) Techera; that’s only four players I’ve named who could make a difference to any team. It’s just being patient.
“This team can go anywhere and beat anyone. It’s just going to take time for all the pieces to come together.”