Sunday, May 11, 2014

Changes Not Made, Crew Drop 3rd Straight

Crew opt to put there head down and try to power through bad stretch of games with worn out lineup, come away with another loss.


1ST HALF (0-1)
Vancouver was running circles around the defensive side of the Columbus midfield and left 'keeper Steve Clark basically on his own to fend for himself. Thankfully for the home side, Clark benefited by some horrid finishing. Fans could tell one was coming though, and did it when Erik Hurtado made amends with a upper 90 shot in the 37th.

2ND HALF (0-0)
The chances for the Whitecaps never really stopped and the Crew struggled working the ball around after midfielders Hector Jimenez and Bernardo Anor were taken out again for Dominic Oduro and Justin Meram.

This one looked very similar to the Houston match in the 2nd half. Lots of intercepted passes and some easy missed chances for the opponents who, had they needed it, would have gotten another.

FINAL (0-1)
Surprising not to see some fresh legs out there this match. On top of most of the players playing a three match week (with a Sunday game, mind you) the regular group is stuck in a bad rut. Gregg Berhalter admitted making a mistake in playing his normal starters during the post game press conference but it's one of those things that you have to note in red. 

I'm sure if the Crew coaching staff could go back they would have opted for a few new faces on Wednesday to face Houston (a very winnable game) then returned to a regular, full strength lineup against an average MLS side in Vancouver at home. This isn't 20/20 hindsight stuff..

While I don't think the Crew are a top 5 type team, I do know they are much better than this seven game winless streak that they are on. A couple or three points in over the last week would have gone a long way but zero points in the last three falls on the coaches in this situation. 

Not the end of the world but at this point in the season on a bad run of form like this you have do things to get back on track very soon. This isn't Columbus 2007. There was some stability there. This group has been through a lot from the practice pitch all the way to ownership. Results need to come soon or the team risks poisoning the water supply.

Columbus travels to Portland next week to take on the Timbers in a difficult 10:30 PM match.

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