Sunday, March 17, 2013

Crew Rd 3 : Draw Home Open

In their first Home match of the season it's Columbus 1:1 San Jose.

1ST HALF
Lots of energy from the players and reported 16k in the stands an a few good chances. Biggest chance of the half came from Josh Williams to Ben Speas when the former found the latter in the six yard box.

"That's magic created by Northeast Ohio!" was the shout I got. Turns out that NE Ohio had some more magic in store, just later in the match.

San Jose played it very safe in the first half and were able to successfully bottle up both Jairo Arrieta and Federico Higuain.

2ND HALF
San Jose came out of their shell a little bit more in the 2nd half after feeling confident they could contain the only goal scoring threats the Crew have. In fact, the did contain them all game save for the one they couldn't do anything about.

Higuain placed a perfect ball to an unmarked and streaking Glauber off a corner to provide the home sides goal.

San Jose continued to keep the game open for then next 10 minutes with really no threat coming from the Crew. They were rewarded with Cleveland's own Justin Morrow put a beautifully weighted and placed ball past Andy Gruenebaum in the 73'.

"That's magic created again by Northeast Ohio," was mumbled.

The final 15 minutes were played open but with little discipline on either side. In fact only one shot on frame was created in the last quarter hour despite the openness.

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GAME THOUGHTS

• Arrieta was gassed by 70th minute. SJ defender Victor Bernárdez will do that to you. Arrieta ended up with only one shot.

• Higuain was having to get creative and pop up in new areas (for him) to find the ball. The gameplan for SJ was clear. Keep him out of dangerous spots. It worked.

• SJ looked better in the outfield than the Crew. SJ are a very banged up club right now, had they had just one or two of their missing pieces this would have been embarrassing for the Crew.

• Ben Speas is giving the Crew almost what Eddie Gaven (injured) can and filling in well.

• What you watched is this year's Crew. This is the club that McCullers is inexplicably hyper hyping and promoting as Cup contenders. It's not fair to the organization, or the players or the fans.

• Robert Warzycha said it last night, this SJ team is a good team. 2012 Supporters' Shield winning team. They are a good team but not really the team that was out there last night. SJ last night is an average MLS team. So are the Crew.

• Dominic Oduro was finally subbed off last night. It will be interesting to see how the coaching staff handles Oduro. Will he get more time? Williams was barking at him throughout the match. The two aren't connecting right now.

• Columbus travels to DC this weekend. Going to be a tough one for the Crew at RFK. The lineup should be interesting.

• Tyson Wahl had the third most touches last night, he was practically playing wing. Wahl is not a winger.

• With Agustin Viana and Danny O'Rourke playing as defensive mids you are playing with six in the backline. Neither are going to give you anything on the offensive side.

• Nearly overlooked in the match was recent USMNT call up Justin Morrow. He is a good player. Hope to see him on the left and Josh Williams on the right one day in Red, White and Blue.

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