Crew foes focus on Zardes, Higuain

Atlanta United goalkeeper Brad Guzan offered a window into his team’s game plan after Atlanta’s 2-0 victory over the Crew at Mapfre Stadium this month.

He said it was important that his team “got to” both forward Gyasi Zardes and midfielder Federico Higuain, who lead the Crew in goals and assists, respectively.

“I think as the game went on, we almost kind of said to ourselves … ‘If we’re going to lose, someone else is going to have to beat us,’” Guzan said. “I don’t think I had much to do. One or two saves, couple crosses — guys dealt with things in a fantastic way.”

The strategy has been mimicked in other games, with some success. Zardes has 10 goals in 18 games but is the only Crew player to have scored more than once from the run of play this season. Higuain has seven assists — 35 percent of the team’s total — with Pedro Santos’ three the next-highest total. Focus on stopping Higuain and Zardes and it becomes easier to shut down the Crew’s offense.

In a 2-0 loss to Los Angeles FC on Saturday, for example, midfielder Eduard Atuesta’s defense made things difficult for Higuain while a handful of LAFC players did their part to take Zardes out of the game.

“I think that was more on us,” Crew coach Gregg Berhalter said of getting Zardes involved. “He was in position where we just didn’t look to him enough, so that’s on us.”

Zardes said his touches were limited in part because of the Crew’s early deficit. LAFC had a 2-0 lead by the eighth minute.

In addition to LAFC’s tactics against Higuain and Zardes, the production of other Crew SC players was limited. A Higuain header goal off an Artur cross in the 69th minute was ruled offside, leaving a Pedro Santos shot directly at keeper Tyler Miller in the first half as the Crew’s only shot on target.

“Anyone who’s playing wide attacking (midfield) needs to be aggressive, needs to run behind the line, needs to want to score goals,” Berhalter said. “Central midfielders need to shoot from distance, need to look to make final passes; fullbacks need to be aggressive getting into the penalty area.”

To that end, right back Harrison Afful and left back Milton Valenzuela have been effective at joining the attack when needed this season. The group of wide attacking midfielders, Berhalter indicated, has not done enough on a regular basis to lessen the burden and focus placed on Higuain and Zardes.

Crew SC announced that goalkeeper Zack Steffen underwent a meniscectomy on his left knee Friday and is expected to miss Saturday’s game against Real Salt Lake.

Steffen did not travel to a Saturday game against LAFC after suffering an injury in practice on Thursday.

Berhalter said it’s “TBD” whether Steffen recovers in time to play next Saturday at the Los Angeles Galaxy.