Thursday, August 23, 2012

The Optimist's Guide to Next 6 Crew Games

The Columbus Crew need to get to at least 53 points by the end of the season to have a realistic chance at the playoffs. They have a total of eleven games left but the next six are the most critical. Why?

Five of them are against teams currently earning less points per game then them (further down the "true table"). In other words, even had the Crew not had fancy new signing Federico Higuain, these games would be winnable.

But the Crew do have him. So... Higuain's mission, should he choose to accept it, is to help this club get to 46 points by the Chicago Fire match on September 29th.

To do so the Crew are going to have to go 4 Wins, 1 Draw, 1 Loss over the next 6. Easy right?

Saturday, August 25, 2012, 7:30 ET
Columbus v New England • Columbus Crew Stadium
Player Speech: Crush their hope, Must Win.
Likely Result: Win. 3 Pts
Total Points = 36
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Wednesday, August 29, 2012 8:00 ET
Philadelphia Union v Columbus • PPL Park
Player Speech: Weaker Opponent, Must Win.
Likely Result: Draw
Total Points = 37
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Saturday, September 01, 2012 7:30 ET
Columbus v Montreal Impact • Columbus Crew Stadium
Player Speech: Massive Match, Must Win.
Likely Result: Tight Win
Total Points = 40
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Wednesday, September 05, 2012 8:00 ET
New England v Columbus • Gillette Stadium
Player Speech: Weaker Opponent, Must Win.
Likely Result: Solid Win
Total Points = 43
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Saturday, September 15, 2012 7:00 ET
New York Red Bulls v Columbus • Red Bull Arena
Player Speech: Draw on Road
Likely Result: Loss
Total Points = 43
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Wednesday, September 19, 2012 7:30 ET
Columbus v Chivas USA • Columbus Crew Stadium
Player Speech: Take 'em down!
Likely Result: Win
Total Points = 46

Not so bad, really. If they can do this then they can focus on getting 7 points out of the remaining five tougher games against better better competition (CHI, KC, DC among them).

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