Mensah, Williams linchpins of improved defense
The buildup for a goal can start on many places on a soccer field, but typically a goaltender and center backs are in the television camera shot when the ball goes in.
“It starts from somewhere, but it ends always with us,” Crew SC center back Jonathan Mensah said.
Lately, Mensah and fellow center back Josh Williams have had less camera time, a good sign for the Crew defense.
With only a game Sunday at New York City FC left in the regular season, the Crew has allowed 47 goals, down 11 from last season, when it finished 8-14-12. The Crew has allowed just two goals in 4 p.m. Sunday Ch. 53, Spectrum Sports WWCD-FM (102.5), WVKO-FM (103.1, in Spanish) its past three games and has not allowed more than two in a game since a 3-0 loss to the Philadelphia Union on July 26.
Williams and Mensah have anchored the improved defense and have recently established continuity in the middle of the back line, something that might have been difficult to imagine a few months ago. The center back pair has been together on the field for six of the past seven games during a nine-game unbeaten streak for the Crew (16-12-5), with Mensah missing one game, a tie at Vancouver, because of a yellow-card suspension.
“The guy next to us knows that whoever is behind them has their back, and I think that speaks so loudly in this league,” Williams said of team chemistry. “If you get a string of games where the same guys are playing and it’s the same guy next to you day in and day out, week in and week out, you start to build that comfort, you start to build that relationship, and that’s so important in the grand scheme of things.”
From July 4 to Aug. 19, the Crew played with three center backs. The formation switch was made for the dual purposes of accommodating for the absence of central attacking midfielder Federico Higuain and improving the defense’s performance. Now back in a 4-2-3-1 formation, the team appears to be playing with a pair of confident center backs in Mensah, a 27-yearold designated player, and Williams, a 29-year-old veteran.
“I think in the developmental process, you got to see the strengths and weaknesses of the individuals involved. … The center backs have been working hard on their game and working hard to fit with each other,” coach Gregg Berhalter said. “Now I think you see the good structure there, the good communication between them and it’s certainly improved.”
Williams has found his rhythm over nine consecutive starts, his longest running stretch in the starting lineup since Aug. 15-Oct. 25, 2015, when he was still with Toronto FC.
For Mensah, the recent defensive improvement is the culmination of a months-long adjustment to his first year in MLS.
“It’s not easy being a center back coming into a new league, and I didn’t actually know the league,” Mensah said. “I was ready for (MLS), but it was more than I expected, so I had to work my way through.”