Too soon? Never!
The Columbus Crew have already kicked-off the 2015 season with Black and Gold Rebrand 1.0 (Hopefully there will not be a 1.1 or 2.0). We are now CCSC-Columbus Crew Soccer Club. The unveiling of the rebrand was only a couple of weeks ago, and another step in formulating CCSC 2015 and beyond was spotted this week. Large banners with the name of a potential stadium sponsor could be seen hanging from the stadium's south façade. Question of the day: What's a Mapfre?
If Crew owner Anthony Precourt is unabashedly redefining what Columbus Crew SC's branding/marketing will look like in 2015, then it only seems fair to take a look at what the Crew's roster will look like in 2015. So...here's the secret formula.
Current Roster (CR) minus Players Lost in December's Expansion Draft (PLED).
Subtract those players Gregg Berhalter and his staff will let go before the start of next season. Players Abandoned (PA).
50% chance that rumor about smaller MLS rosters in 2015 is true (25 roster slots).
100% chance that salary cap increases after collective bargaining in offseason (4.6 million total).
1000% chance that Columbus Crew add exactly three high priced players. (3)
1,000,000% chance that one or more of the above variables is FOS (FOS)
(CR-PLED)-PA=22 (22+3)/FOS=4.6 million
In order to simplify the incredibly complicated formula above, here's the list of players that will be protected in the expansion draft.
Frederico Higuain: Quality Argentine who can slot into new position when Crew add new players.
Ethan Finlay: Exciting young American player scoring goals and causing opposing teams to lose sleep.
Michael Parkhurst: Veteran defender. Solid building block in back.
Waylon Francis: Versatile outside left back.
Steve Clark: Goalkeeper. Fits Berhalters vision going forward.
Justin Meram: Goal scorer who, like Ethan Finlay, has another five or six years of quality left.
Bernardo Anor: Versatile, young, midfielder who can also play in back.
Tony Tchani: Center mid coming into his own. Another player with 5-6 good years left.
Hector Jimenez: Like Anor, can play multiple positions and has many years left.
Tyson Wahl: Proven center back. Becomes quality depth after roster additions in off-season.
Aaron Schoenfeld: Forward depth after off-season additions.
Second 11 kept after expansion draft (Some are homegrown players exempt from draft).
Will Trapp: Young Central Mid with still more to prove and improve.
Eric Gehrig: Good utility player.
Ben Speas: Central Mid depth and young.
Josh Williams: Hopes to return from injury and add depth at two or three positions.
Ben Swanson: Latest homegrown signing. Very young, but already training with first team.
Matt Walker: Young, unproven homegrown.
Matt Lampson: Back-up goalie with starting experience.
Adam Bedell: Towering forward who saw minutes early in 2014 season.
Kevan George: Sometime central back. Jury still out.
Chad Barson: Young, but with starters experience at marking back.
Kei Kamara: Veteran MLS'er. Could see 2015 minutes at two or three positions.
Three added, high quality, players who will command the lions share of the increase in salary cap space.
???: Forward who likes to combine with his teammates. 16+ goal scorer.
???: Center Mid capable of scoring 6-8 goals.
???: Young Center Back who meshes well with Parkhurst or Wahl.
Major League Soccer's probable switch to 25 man rosters is a good idea. This not only forces teams to start their own USL sides, but helps to put more emphasis on the academy teams. The Crew already have a good handle on promoting academy players. This should only improve.
I'm leaving Emanuel Pogatetz off my roster because he was a stop gap measure after the loss of Giancarlo Gonzalez. He is past his buy-by date and doesn't fit the Crew's personality. I am also leaving Romain Gall off the roster. Gall is a young player and the Crew have many young players in the academy system.
The bulk of the squad being proven players in their mid-twenties is rare in Major League Soccer. The veteran players around thirty, along with some promising young players and the 1000% chance that Anthony Precourt and Gregg Berhalter bring in three high quality players, drastically reduces the FOS factor. The FOS factor should fall from 1,000,000% to about 5000%.
2015's Columbus Crew Soccer Club should be even more exciting to watch than the 2014 version. If Major League Soccer gets the new salary cap right, and teams spend the new found money wisely, fans of MLS could very well see an unprecedented leap in the leagues quality of play.
Sadly, the WFK factor is racing neck and neck with the FOS factor. Only time will tell if the owners of Major League Soccer can stop the WFK/FOS race in its tracks. I believe they can, and will. I'm an optimist. How about you?
Showing posts with label Columbus Crew Soccer Club. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Columbus Crew Soccer Club. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
Friday, October 24, 2014
On the Road with Vidda "JibJab" Grubin
The open plains of Southern Illinois are rolling by outside the driver's side window. They're also rolling by the passenger side window, and under the tires of my Odyssey. (A Honda van, not the crumbling façade of my mind's thinly veiled, ill-chosen path through life).
The open plains, covered in soybeans, corn and wheat, are home to sudden miles of tall white sentries, whose hair spins in the ever present Midwestern breeze. If I don't fall asleep at the wheel while writing this (I'm multitasking. I'm possibly the only writer to ever compose an in-depth analysis of a professional soccer team's style of play while simultaneously navigating the coma-inducing middle of America at 70mph).
Okay, so I'm sitting in McDonalds trying to win a million bucks one Big Mac at a time. But, I am in the heartland and there are many miles, 240,000 to be exact, on the odometer. Travelling the tournament poker circuit in North America is a mysterious fantasy, achingly lonely and eye-opening.
The poker (Mostly cash-game play. Play made-up of staring at total strangers across a couple feet of felt) is not going well of late. Folding winners after the turn, and not getting paid off when value betting the nuts, makes losing hands the primary focus of one's bankroll graph. Unlike the plains, the graph representing money spent versus money earned looks like a downward sloping mountain side.
So, naturally, I've decided to write about the Columbus Crew.
One nice side benefit of playing cards in casinos from Columbus to Las Vegas, and everywhere in between, is the ability to watch almost any sporting event known to man. Simply ask the floor manager to put a certain channel on, and there's the Columbus Crew, beating the NY Red Bull's to every lose ball.
The Black and Gold's maturation in 2014 has been as exciting as it has been surprising. The clues that Gregg Berhalter knows what he's doing were there for all to see during preseason. (Well, for those few who follow the American soccer scene closely. A more ubiquitous presence in the unencumbered media MUST be a priority for Major League Soccer going forward)
In a matter of two or three weeks, Greg Berhalter transformed the stagnant, clearly dissatisfied, roster of Columbus Crew players into a team of creative souls unleashed. While early positive results were followed by a long string of frustrating ties and losses, the trained eye could see the players wanted what their coach was serving on a daily basis.
The spark of excitement displayed on the field never waned. Gregg Berhalter stuck with his core players game after game. Young players meshed with veteran players.
Berhalter wanted his squad to pressure up the field. He wanted his defenders to do their job, with or without cover from the midfield. The midfield was being asked to read the game as they saw it happening in real time. There was/is more freedom of choice being offered by the manager. But, and this is a doozy, Gregg Berhalter has managed to convince his players that with each inch of freedom and creative license comes another inch of personal accountability, for not only self but team.
This is a key difference between the mindset of the players assembled each Saturday in Crew Stadium in 2014 and that of the same players the last 2-3 years. The idea of responsibility and accountability took a front seat to creativity's spot in the trunk of the Odyssey the past couple of years.
Over reliance on stressing responsibility narrows focus. Narrow focus is easily exploitable on a soccer field. The Columbus Crew's focus had narrowed to such a pinpoint between 2010 and 2013 that opposing coaches had little to worry about when it came to preparing their team to play the boys in gold.
The Crew's expanded focus has not only made them more successful, it has created a team that is truly fun to watch. From the chances taken on the back line, moving the ball on the ground through the goalkeeper and central backs, to the overlapping runs of the outside backs and the immediate pressure applied by the mids and forwards when the ball is lost, the Columbus Crew Soccer Club has brought joy, and a love for the game, back to Hudson Street.
Watching the quick interplay in the opposing teams end of the field is inspiring. Seeing players like Tony Tchani, Justin Meram and Ethan Finlay find their voice on the field is what the game is all about.
Bottom Line, Gregg Berhalter gets... IT. IT'S... the players and the combination of equal parts freedom, creativity, inspiration, responsibility and accountability. We as fans have been the big winners this year. Regardless of the outcome of this year's playoffs, we all know, hell, we all feel, the magic of the game is back in Columbus. May it never leave.
The open plains, covered in soybeans, corn and wheat, are home to sudden miles of tall white sentries, whose hair spins in the ever present Midwestern breeze. If I don't fall asleep at the wheel while writing this (I'm multitasking. I'm possibly the only writer to ever compose an in-depth analysis of a professional soccer team's style of play while simultaneously navigating the coma-inducing middle of America at 70mph).
Okay, so I'm sitting in McDonalds trying to win a million bucks one Big Mac at a time. But, I am in the heartland and there are many miles, 240,000 to be exact, on the odometer. Travelling the tournament poker circuit in North America is a mysterious fantasy, achingly lonely and eye-opening.
The poker (Mostly cash-game play. Play made-up of staring at total strangers across a couple feet of felt) is not going well of late. Folding winners after the turn, and not getting paid off when value betting the nuts, makes losing hands the primary focus of one's bankroll graph. Unlike the plains, the graph representing money spent versus money earned looks like a downward sloping mountain side.
So, naturally, I've decided to write about the Columbus Crew.
One nice side benefit of playing cards in casinos from Columbus to Las Vegas, and everywhere in between, is the ability to watch almost any sporting event known to man. Simply ask the floor manager to put a certain channel on, and there's the Columbus Crew, beating the NY Red Bull's to every lose ball.
The Black and Gold's maturation in 2014 has been as exciting as it has been surprising. The clues that Gregg Berhalter knows what he's doing were there for all to see during preseason. (Well, for those few who follow the American soccer scene closely. A more ubiquitous presence in the unencumbered media MUST be a priority for Major League Soccer going forward)
In a matter of two or three weeks, Greg Berhalter transformed the stagnant, clearly dissatisfied, roster of Columbus Crew players into a team of creative souls unleashed. While early positive results were followed by a long string of frustrating ties and losses, the trained eye could see the players wanted what their coach was serving on a daily basis.
The spark of excitement displayed on the field never waned. Gregg Berhalter stuck with his core players game after game. Young players meshed with veteran players.
Berhalter wanted his squad to pressure up the field. He wanted his defenders to do their job, with or without cover from the midfield. The midfield was being asked to read the game as they saw it happening in real time. There was/is more freedom of choice being offered by the manager. But, and this is a doozy, Gregg Berhalter has managed to convince his players that with each inch of freedom and creative license comes another inch of personal accountability, for not only self but team.
This is a key difference between the mindset of the players assembled each Saturday in Crew Stadium in 2014 and that of the same players the last 2-3 years. The idea of responsibility and accountability took a front seat to creativity's spot in the trunk of the Odyssey the past couple of years.
Over reliance on stressing responsibility narrows focus. Narrow focus is easily exploitable on a soccer field. The Columbus Crew's focus had narrowed to such a pinpoint between 2010 and 2013 that opposing coaches had little to worry about when it came to preparing their team to play the boys in gold.
The Crew's expanded focus has not only made them more successful, it has created a team that is truly fun to watch. From the chances taken on the back line, moving the ball on the ground through the goalkeeper and central backs, to the overlapping runs of the outside backs and the immediate pressure applied by the mids and forwards when the ball is lost, the Columbus Crew Soccer Club has brought joy, and a love for the game, back to Hudson Street.
Watching the quick interplay in the opposing teams end of the field is inspiring. Seeing players like Tony Tchani, Justin Meram and Ethan Finlay find their voice on the field is what the game is all about.
Bottom Line, Gregg Berhalter gets... IT. IT'S... the players and the combination of equal parts freedom, creativity, inspiration, responsibility and accountability. We as fans have been the big winners this year. Regardless of the outcome of this year's playoffs, we all know, hell, we all feel, the magic of the game is back in Columbus. May it never leave.
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