Both teams ready to have ball tonight
Ball possession will be a high priority tonight at Mapfre Stadium.
Crew SC and New York City FC are teams that possess the ball as the primary means to impose their will on other teams. They will attempt to do so against each other.
“There is going to be value on the ball,” Crew coach Gregg Berhalter said. “I could imagine when one team gets it, it’s going to be hard to get it back.”
Through seven games, NYCFC (3-3-1) leads Major League Soccer with 58.2 percent possession, holding a wide margin over the No. 2 team, the Seattle Sounders (54.1 percent). Crew SC’s possession percentage, 53.4 percent, ranks fourth among 22 teams.
The game sets up as a 90-minute clinic in on-theground passing and building out of the back. The stats slightly favor Crew SC (4-31) in passing accuracy — the Crew leads the league at 82 percent and is closely trailed by NYCFC at 81.7 percent — but Berhalter views NYCFC, a team he watched in person at Yankee Stadium last Sunday, as a cut above.
“I think they are a better passing team than we are, to be honest,” Berhalter said. “I think they are one notch better than us in that. We’ve got to keep working because that’s a big part of our game and we want to be better than them in that, and right now they’re ahead.
“I think the game on Saturday is going to be two styles that want to have the ball, so it’s going to be interesting how that plays out.”
Even in a 2-1 loss last Sunday against Orlando City, NYCFC still managed to pepper the Lions with eight on-target shots. NYCFC enters the game third in MLS in with 13.7 shots per game, but the danger in its attack has as much to do with variety as it does with volume.
“New York City, you have to really watch all different aspects because they can hurt you with the long ball, combinations out of the box and the wing play,” midfielder Justin Meram said. “It’s just preparing differently.”
Defender Jukka Raitala noted that NYCFC plays a style at times similar to Crew SC’s but has moments when it can deviate from that setup.
“I think they also come sometimes with more direct balls from (midfielder Andrea) Pirlo behind the (back) line to (forward David) Villa running,” Raitala said. “We have analyzed them well so I think we’ll be ready.”
A key part of tonight’s game will be staying ready. Orlando City had a comfortable 2-0 lead on Sunday until the 74th minute, when Villa scored a one-touch, tightangle shot off a free kick by Maxi Moralez, making it a nervy finish for the Lions.
Standard practice for Berhalter in discussing Eastern Conference teams is complimenting its striker. This week, he doubled down, calling Villa the best striker in the league, one who is made better by a talented group of wingers as well as midfielders Moralez, Pirlo and Alexander Ring.
“It’s gonna be one of those things where we bend but don’t break,” Berhalter said. “They’re gonna have some opportunities, it’s just about being strong in those moments.”
Defender Jonathan Mensah, who has missed the last four games with a right hamstring injury, could make his return this week. … Midfielder Federico Higuain’s next assist will make him a member of the Crew’s 40 goals-40 assists club. … Goalkeeper Zack Steffen is second in MLS with 26 saves. He made five in the Crew’s 2-0 loss to the New York Red Bulls last Saturday.
Crew SC once again will look to reestablish its momentum at home after the loss to the Red Bulls in which midfielder Artur and defender Alex Crognale suffered injuries. The game against NYCFC kicks off a three-game homestand for the Crew, which has struggled on the road and gone 3-0-1 at home. Will that same Crew team show up tonight?