Schoenfeld to Israel

Aaron Schoenfeld is off to Maccabi Netanya of the Israeli Premier League. Along the way, he'll be collecting a paycheck twice that of what he made here in MLS (60k to 125k). Wrote about this situation last week. He should do well.

Kamara Looking? Schoenfeld in Israel

Transfer windows are opening up all over the world this week and it appears that two Crew players are already involved in the dealings.

First up is an ESPN report that Columbus Crew SC are feeling out Radamel Falcao. A link to an outrageous high-profile player an annual event for Columbus offseason whose lifecycle usually has the following pattern...

1. Joke on Twitter
2. Picked up by unaware small foreign site using Google Translate
3. Big US media outlet cites small site, runs with story

Don't laugh at number two there. That is a two-way street. It happens with MLS media people all the time. Google is a great tool to translate words but it doesn't give you nuance or tone in language or help you understand a culture better. Simple example - "Kamara killed it today! He completely bossed the backline." A non-English speaking person might be wondering why team manager Kei Kamara murdered something.

This particular rumor about Falcao appears to not come from that running winter joke among fans. The report claims that he is talking with both Deigo Valeri and Federico Higuain about MLS. Entirely plausible considering the relationships between players. From there (if we are to continue walking down this street) it's easy to say the Crew front office has likely talked to one of Falcao's people out of simple due diligence. After his knee injury and crossing the 30 mark, he is ripe for a league like MLS. Particularly if he wants a quick shot in the arm to land another big deal before he's done (modern role of MLS, isn't it?).

Where there's smoke... there's a text that some front office person would like back. However, if operator / investor Anthony Precourt and company are looking around for a player of Falcao's stature then it means that they aren't comfortable with Kei Kamara returning. No way the team would keep both players on the roster considering the style Berhalter plays.

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AARON SCHOENFELD

Different story for Schoenfeld. A report out of Israel has him working out with Maccabi Netanya, who are currently last on the Ligat ha'Al table. With 8 goals in 16 matches they appear to be looking for a scorer.

Schoenfeld can be proud of his time here in Columbus. He was selected to be on the senior roster by both Robert Warzycha and Gregg Berhalter. Part of that may be that he's an inexpensive, tall, athletic, hardworking and English-speaking player, but another part of it is that he comes off as a genuinely good person.

He's also one of the quickest and hardest strikers of the ball in recent Crew memory. Give him a half yard of space and he'll rip off a screamer in milliseconds.

Maccabi Netanya is currently ranked 1,171 in the world, accourding to Football Database. MLS teams fall in the 800-900 range, so that seems about right for Aaron Schoenfeld.

All the best to him if he makes it, what a great experience it could be.

Transfer window in Israel opens up January 6th.

The Crew Forward Market

Now that I've looked at Crew Defenders and Midfielders, it's time to take a look at the Crew's attacking group. Just as in the last post I'm going to touch on which players are a hit and which are a miss in regards to contract.

You'd figure that writing about the Forward position might be the most exciting, but it really isn't. Why this is probably has a lot to do with the Columbus Crew switching to a single forward attack over the two that they preferred all of last year and at the start of this year.

The rise of the 4-2-3-1 as Robert Warzycha's primary formation comes from the lack of any target man. The injury to Tommy Heinemann, impatience with Olman Vargas and generally 'rookie-ness' of Aaron Schoenfeld almost forced the oh so mighty hand of Warzycha to go with what was his secondary formation (the: 4-2-3-1) last year.

Since that formation change - the club rode the Jairo Arrieta train from summer on. What that means is that there isn't a whole lot to hang our hats on here at the "forward" position. All is not lost though. How about we look at it from a "attacking" position perspective.

CONTRACT HITS BASED ON VALUE

Federico Higuain
Value: $195k, Contract: $162k
Notes: Contract was cut in half to adjust for MLS rules regarding players starting half way through the season.

Emilio Renteria
Value: $163k, Contract: $134k
Notes: Renteria's Goal p90 rate tanked this year but most of that was due to the change in his role. Renteria took his positional change really well and actually earned three assists.

Jairo Arrieta
Value: $134k, Contract: $113k
Notes: Arrieta is another contract I cut in half due to MLS rules on players coming in halfway through the season.

CONTRACT MISS BASED ON VALUE

Olman Vargas (released)
Value: $79k, Contract: $175k
Notes: Olman contract option was not picked up by the Crew.

...AND ON VARGAS

Turns out that even my modest predictions for him back in February were too lofty. I predicted 3-5 goals, no assists and 1200 minutes of playing time with a scoring rate of 0.12. Turns out I was dead on the scoring rate. In MLS he got 0.13 but only half the 1200 minutes I foresaw. Also, he registered 0 (nowt) assists, just as I thought (mu-hahaha).

On other thing I tried to predict was his salary. I called it at $140k. Turns out it was slightly higher; $175k. What's frustrating to me is that armed with only public information I was able to predict what this player would do and the salary he would make.

Vargas was the only real loss the Crew took at the forward position. In fact, the forward position was the only group that was in the black.

It's surprising to me is that for all the fan discontent with the Crew attacking capabilities the players classified by Stats, Inc as Forwards actually did very well (in terms of value). Much better, in fact, then both Defenders and Midfielders.

-$196k: DEFENDERS
-$186k: MIDFIELD
+$127k: FORWARDS

THE UNDERPAID FORWARDS

Justin Meram and Aaron Schoenfeld are underpaid when comparing what they did to the rest of Major League Soccer. I value Meram at $169k and Schoenfeld at $80k. Both are clear values based on 2012 production. The earned well above their current salaries.

2013 SNEAK PEEK

Robert Warzycha will ride Higuain and Arrieta till the wheels come off. Problem will be - the wheels will inevitably come off. You can't win in this league with just one playmaker and one opportunistic forward. Banking an entire season on that combo is league table suicide. Aaron Schoenfeld and Tommy Heinemann will have to play a role in order for this team to make some noise in 2013. Look at the best teams in this league. Hell. Any league.

Simply put: You cannot survive on a poacher (Arrieta) and an advanced playmaking forward (Higuain) to create all your goals over a 34+ match season.

THE LAST TWO

Of the players that saw time, Ethan Finlay and Ben Speas are the only other players I haven't talked about. I like both of them. It appears that they will be spending time in unnatural spots. Speas seems to be destine for the Left Mid spot and Finlay? Anywhere else under King Warzycha. I like him anywhere that allows him to run.

Crew Game 7: Loss Tactic (VAN)

The Vancouver Whitecaps bunkered down and held out for the win yesterday while the Crew will feel a little hard done by ill timed calls from the referee early in the match.

Yesterdays game felt similar to the last July 2011 meeting between the two, save for one thing: Vancouver is improving and Columbus is not.

Stout defense and sharp organized counters was the 'Caps order for day and Columbus lacked the kind of creativity it takes to win against a club employing those tactics (or any tactics, for that matter). Columbus tuckered themselves out (mentally and physically) and fell flat on their faces.

1ST HALF
Columbus went after the Whitecaps with everything they had, early. The Crew appeared to have one early from a corner off the foot of Josh Williams but the ref blew the whistle on some grab ass in the box.

From there, the Crew continued to pressure and dictated play. As the half wore on, though, you could tell what the 'Caps were doing. Only thing left was to pour a beer, settle in for a long 2nd half and muddle to myself, "Warzycha can crack this safe because he is dressed like Niko Bellic tonight."

2ND HALF
The continued to be the team asking questions but got no answers. Once Crew forward Schoenfeld went down with a ankle injury (57') the game died. You could feel the Crew energy level just drop and drop and drop from there.

In the 74 minuted Lee Young-Pyo dropped in a free kick shot / cross over a befuddled Andy Gruenebaum. The smile on Lee's face afterwards said it all. A 0-0 game just turned into a 3 pt road win for the visitors.

THE END, NOTES
• Aaron Schoenfeld and Josh Williams really lifted the team yesterday. Williams in particular stole the show in the opening stanza. Excellent ball placement on the disallowed goal and a flying over-head kick that clanked off the crossbar.

• Josh looked so impressive early on that I got the feeling a few phones were ringing. His size, build and athletic ability alone will put him on the radar of better teams (both here and abroad). Yesterday he showed skill as well.

• Where are Justin Meram and Bernardo Anor? Ethan Finlay just isn't there yet and I didn't even see Meram and Anor on the bench. It is bizarre.

• Columbus needs a creative Mirosevic to step up, especially games like this one. If he can play in this league, that is.

• Columbus needs to improve on corners. It is always a mess in there. Chad Marshall has a reputation as being somewhat grabby and breakable in corner situations. His petulant complaining after the match only makes things worse. He is at full boil right now, but so are the fans and supporters, he needs to keep his cool. Otherwise this season will completely unravel.