Nothing to the Tin Man

America.

Crew SC Protect, Expose, Make Moves Ahead of Expansion Draft

This draft is strange animal. The purpose of it is to help along new teams without having to field an existing team before entering the league (even though Orlando City SC did have a team). In theory, it's suppose to help maintain the level playing field that the league wants - while behind the scenes it helps control cost of starting up a fully professional "top division" team from scratch (more at bottom).

Whether this mechanism works on the competitive level is up for serious debate. Recent expansion teams in Toronto, Vancouver, Philadelphia, Montreal and even Portland (save for one year) have been mid to bottom half teams since they joined. In fact, one could make the argument that the expansion draft dilutes a limited pool of players and drags the overall quality in the league down... is probably a topic worth exploring further, in another post.

On the financial front, it's been a cost saver for expansion teams because they don't have to give up anything for MLS level players. There are league granted "allocation funds" given to teams that have players plucked but it costs little else. With the next two waiver drafts coming up along with a number of picks in the college draft, new teams can have full rosters in no time for basically nothing. They don't even have to flip the bill for developing any players. Magic.

Every existing Major League Soccer team had to submit their "protected" list of 11 players yesterday as required by the expansion draft rules. Both Orlando City SC and New York City FC get to pick ten players each from every exposed list of players from each team.

Before the draft even started, Gregg Berhalter and Company got to work trying to get something in return for valuable players that they were not going to protect. That ended up coming by way of to of the longest tenured guys in Josh Williams (sent to NYCFC for reported more than the would have received from the draft) and Bernardo Anor (to Sporting KC, no word on what the Crew got in return).

PROTECTED ELEVEN
GK Steve Clark
D Waylon Francis
D Michael Parkhurst
D Emanuel Pogatetz
MF Tony Tchani
MF Hector Jimenez
MF Romain Gall
MF Ethan Finlay
MF Justin Meram
MF Federico Higuaín
F Kei Kamara

Exempt: GK Matt Lampson (HGP), D *Ross Friedman (HGP), D *Matt Wiet (HGP), D Chad Barson (HGP), CDM Wil Trapp (HGP), MF *Matt Walker (HGP), D Ben Swanson (HGP) and MF Mohammed Saied (new signing)

A couple notes: First off, it gives you an idea of what the starting line up might look like. Second off; this draft blows your 18 to smithereens (where Williams and Anor would have been).

Next up is who the MLS Columbus did not protect, along with a quick player rating (out of stars ✪) and some notes by yours truly:

Ben Sweat, 23 (LB) ✪✪✪
Admittedly didn't see as much as I should have (Crew closed scrimmages save for the one in Dayton) but I liked what I saw when I did. He's better with the ball than your average college left back, confident and makes good decisions. You can tell when a player knows what he's doing, and he's one. Too early to tell if he is starter quality but I think an expansion side is just what the doctor ordered with a player like Sweat. He needs game time.

Ben Speas, 23 (CM) ✪✪✪
In three years in Columbus, Ben has proven he can play in MLS. In fact, I should probably put him above Sweat, but I'm leaving it as is. He could easily be a four star guy. Maybe he is. There is something about him that keeps him right on the fringe of starting under two coaching staffs now. I've seen two sides of the player. One fully engaged in the action and another, towards the end of this season, where he was letting the game happen around him. In my heart of hearts, I want him to get picked up by NYCFC so he can start along side Josh Williams. Don't care what the scouts or advanced stats might say about the two. If you have both of them starting you will finish in the top half or they will die trying to get you there. What more should you ask for in MLS.

*Agustin Viana, 31 (LB, CDM) ✪✪✪
There is enough MLS footage out there to tell you that Viana is league ready. What he lacks in speed he makes up with in skill. Too often MLS teams look at speed. Viana didn't fit Berhalter's wing back role and was overlooked as a central defensive mid off the bench behind Tony Tchani and Wil Trapp. Also had a couple injuries. He's out of contract with the Crew and not likely back either way but would be a solid pick up for anyone.

Brad Stuver, 23 (GK) ✪✪
I'd give Stuver two and a half stars if I could figure out the alt-code. I think a lot of the same things about him as I do with Sweat. These guys need game time. Stuver's performance against Indy Eleven this year (in a blowout loss, but that's were you get the best looks at GKs) was inspiring. He also played well with Wilmington Hammerheads to close out the USL Pro season, including two late season shutouts against league leaders Sacramento and Orlando.

*Eric Gehrig, 26 (CB, RB) ✪✪
Playing or not, Gehrig is the quintessential team guy. That's, by far, his number one attribute. In all honesty, I hesitate to put something like that down as a label for a player this day and age. Not a sports show (especially on the MLS site) goes by without pundits mentioning how much heart and grit a guy plays with. It annoying and used so much that it minimizes the meaning when a someone actually has those things. Gehrig has mostly been role player in his four years with the Crew with the exception of the back end of 2014, where he helped propel the team into 3rd place in the East.

Tyson Wahl, 30 (CB, LB) ✪✪
Like Gehrig, contributed greatly towards the end of 2014. Even, it appeared, kept a major team signing in Emanuel Pogatetz on the bench. Plenty on Wahl. Durable, probably the first word that springs to mind. He seems to find good teams, good coaches. Something to be said for that.

*Jairo Arrieta, 31 (F) ✪✪+
Before last season, Arrieta was a four or even a five star player. Something happened along the way and I'm not quite sure what. I do believe there is another couple productive years for Jairo but I feel sort of bad for him this year as Berhalter decided to go with Adam Bedell and Aaron Schoenfeld over him. I put a little + up there because he's the perfect player for a team to pick up (expansion or otherwise). He's still on the outer fringes of the Costa Rican national team and looking to impress.

The rest:
Kevan George, 24 (CDM, CB) ✪✪
Aaron Schoenfeld, 24 (CF) ✪✪
Adam Bedell, 23 (CF) ✪
*Daniel Paladini, 30 (CDM, RM)
*Kingsley "Fifi" Baiden, 23 (CDM)

*Currently out of contract with the Crew SC.

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To fully understand why something like this exists in the world of soccer means you have to accept that a team can buy their way directly into the highest tier vs starting from the lowest tier and working their way up. Some might say that the top divisions buy their way in via best players, which is true, but those players still have to perform and you are also talking about a very small percentage of teams. The other 99% of clubs are grinding their way.

Crew Re-Sign Meram, Anor

Today's announcement that the Columbus Crew (SC*) have re-signed Justin Meram and Bernardo Anor means that the roster is now up to 26 players. One more than the rumored 25 (--) that the new 2015 CBA will allow and 14 more than can be protected in the upcoming MLS Expansion Draft** (**a bunch of rules may apply).

Anor and Meram putting pen to paper gives some of the longer, near term fans of the team warm fuzzies. Partly because they are familiar names but also because they are what's become known as "old heads." With that, here is when everybody joined the team.

2010 - 1
Josh Williams

2011 - 4
Bernardo Anor
Eric Gehrig (--being worked on)
Justin Meram
Tony Tchani

2012 - 6
Ethan Finlay
Kevan George
Federico Higuain
Matt Lampson
Aaron Schoenfeld
Ben Speas

2013 - 3
Chad Barson
Waylon Francis
Wil Trapp
Tyson Wahl

2014 - 10
Waylon Francis
Adam Bedell
Steve Clark
Romain Gall
Hector Jimenez
Michael Parkhurst
Emanuel Pogatetz
Brad Stuver
Ben Swanson
Ben Sweat

2015 - 2
Mohammed Saeid
Kei Kamara

*Trying to get use to adding SC. Also; Anor is the one of the true footballers on the team. He should always be on the roster.

Anor, 2014

May 17, 2014; Portland, OR, USA; Columbus Crew midfielder Bernardo Anor (7) goes up for a corner kick and land on Portland Timbers forward Frederic Piquionne (9) along with Portland Timbers midfielder Diego Valeri (8), midfielder Jack Jewsbury (13) and forward Gaston Fernandez (10) during the second half of the game at Providence Park. The game ended in a 3-3 draw. Mandatory Credit: Steve Dykes-USA TODAY Sports

Crew Top Philly in Home Opener

After going up by two Bernardo Anor goals in the first half, the Columbus Crew withstand a barrage of shots in the second en route to earning three points.

1ST HALF (2-0)
This one started fairly evenly but the Crew wrestled control of this match away from the Union by way of an expertly taken corner that found the head of Bernardo Anor for a goal in the 24th minute. From there the Crew successfully and impressively applied clamps to any fevered response the Union could muster, earning three more corner kicks in the next few minutes.

Philly eventually regained some footing shortly before half but it Anor scored again just before half with a screaming shot from 30 yards out.

2ND HALF (0-1)
You could tell that Columbus started the half well because a few of the Union players were getting visibly frustrated in the opening minutes. Most notably was new signing Cristián Maidana, who was having a poor match. John Hackworth didn't wait long to pull the new Argentinian #10 and did so in the 55th minute.

Things completely changed for the Union then as they pounced on the Crew with big chance after big chance. In fact the ripped off nearly ten shots in the next 15 minutes, however, only converting one.

GAME THOUGHTS, NOTES (2-1)
• Wil Trapp, more than any player on the Crew so far, is looking every bit of the part. There were a number of times were he battled US International Maurice Edu last night and looked the part.

• With Bernardo Anor there are some games when it looks like he's in his own world out there. Not above or below, just separate. Drifting between different planes of game reality. Yesterday was one of those games.

• Midway through the second half Philly found out how to unlock the Crew outside backs in Waylon Francis and Josh Williams. Very easily. If they could finish, this one might have looked completely different.

• Teams will expose if the Crew are going to be pushing fullbacks up all game, with the lead or not. Most of the Union chances come once they figured it out. Berhalter mentioned he wanted to continue pressure in the 2nd half but so much of that depends on backs making 50 yard run after run.

• Crew start the season with six points out of the first two, first time in team history. Believe it... or not.

• Three great halfs to start the year for the Crew, this 2nd half one is a little worrisome. Is this start for real or it a case of new coach, new era, great start that we seemingly always see in sports? I don't have a definitive answer yet. We'll see.

• A lot going on off the pitch for this home opener. Can't say enough about the hard work Justin Bell and his group have put in to help create a great atmosphere at Crew Stadium yesterday. Also much credit to the Crew Union and Hudson Street Hooligans for that. I know there are many more but speaking for the fans on hand on a chilly Ohio night, y'all warmed it up nicely.

Bernardo Añor, Columbus Crew

Crew v Fire Reserve Match

Chicago traveled a small group of players down to Columbus to take on the Crew. The game was originally scheduled to be at Crew Stadium but had to be moved due to a snow storm the day before.

CREW STARTERS : QUICK NOTE
Matt Lampson : Didn't see a whole lot, Chicago chances off target
Drew Beckie : Played very well, got up and down right side
Eric Gehrig : Feisty, did well with blocks / headed clearances
Kevan George : Solid, Gehrig seemed to do heavy lifting though
Chad Barson : Impressive on the left side
Matias Sanchez : Not bad, neutral performance for me
Tony Tchani : Good cross on goal to Warzycha, otherwise quiet
Konrad Warzycha : Right spot for goal, good effort
Ethan Finlay : Kept up his preseason form, great cross / assist
Ryan Finley : Okay, better with Higuain behind him (obviously)
Justin Meram : Dangerous, played pretty angry

SUBS : QUICK NOTE
Kyle Hyland 46’ : Involved a alot, did well
Aaron Schoenfeld, 46’ : Improved handle from last year, but quiet
Wil Trapp, 61' : 1st time seeing him, played forward, nothing to note
Bernardo Anor, 66’ : Fantastic to see him, great 24 minutes, goal
Shawn Sloan, 93’ : on for injured Tchani

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Here is how the Fire looked:

Chicago Fire: Paolo Tornaghi, Joel Leon, Michael Jiminez, Hunter Jumper, Leo Silva Lelis, Oscar Gonzalez, Brendan King, Yazid Atouba, Corben Bone, Colin Rolfe, Quincy Amarkiwa

FIRE NOTES:

- Amarkiwa was barking at all 3 refs all game, "you f-ing suck, man." He was playing frustrated most of the morning missing his chances.

- Felt Bone and Jumper played well.

- Colin Rolfe was credited with the goal.

- Leo Silva Lelis was a liability and was sent off late after a dumb challenge on Schoenfeld.

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Here are some more pictures from the game...

Speedy Recovery, Bernardo

Bernardo Anor fell awkwardly after a Kei Kamara tackle last weekend and news out of the Crew offices is torn ACL. Out 8-10 months, they say. That puts him back just in time for 2013 training camp.

I've rated Bernardo very highly here in this space. His age, training background, football savvy and talent make him so - but even beyond all that are good numbers.

Even with Saturday's loss to Sporting KC, the Crew has averaged 1.73 Points per Game when Anor starts (dating back to the start of last year). Best on the team for players over 10 starts. The closest player to him who is actually playing this year is Andy Gruenebaum at 1.47.

He's 3rd on the team as far as goals against (1.00 per game) and 4th best in goal difference.

I reckon what I'm trying to say here is that he contributes to positive results and from all accounts (helping along Olman Vargas, taking on a new position), he is a good dude.

(He also must be a tough sonofabitch 'cause he played on that torn ACL for half an hour.)

Hoping he gets well soon.

Ohio Reserve Game Renaissance, June 10 2012

Columbus v. New England in dichotomic Reserve League action today.
Headline here could be that Jairo Arrieta saw his first Crew action but, it's not. He played a rather forgettable 1st 45 and looked pretty much like a guy playing his first minutes in a new country, on a new team, in a new system, in a new league.

Columbus took advantage of a long league break and fielded a mostly senior team lineup of (mostly) senior team regulars. All totaled? The Crew fielded a team with nearly four times more 2012 MLS minutes than that of the NE Revs (Crew: 4,853 to Revs: 1,294 minutes in MLS action this year). It makes this Crew follower wish the US Open Cup was taken this seriously.

Moving on.

The Crew played well. The starting lineup featured Jairo Arrieta up top with Mr. Hustle, Ethan Finlay. In the middle we had Bernardo Anor, Milovan Mirosevic, Cole Grossman and a Mr. Kevan George. The back had Carlos Mendes and Eric Gehrig (our Sunday El Captain) in the middle. Vukovic and Williams playing the part of delivering saints.

1ST HALF
Lots of positive Crew possession but not many chances. Arrieta looked to want to impress but could not. It was very similar to Vargas' first few exhibitions. Cole, Anor and Williams had a lot of the ball. Kevan was solid and played within himself. Gehrig looked much more mature today... something I wish I could go more into but the night is closing (and the bourbon is nearly out). REGARDLESS. Good play from the armband.

2ND HALF
Columbus sat Mr. Arrieta and brought on young Aaron Horton. At first, it was hardly noticeable but he grew into the match. Horton actually seemed to open things up for Finlay, who had two of the best chances I've seen him have this year.

Just as Horton and Finlay started to get going, a Mr. Ben Speas appeared. Speas who? Yes. Finally. Speas.

Instantly, the club looked improved. Josh Williams, who had started in the Right Back spot, then moved to Left Back after Vukovic left and finally settled in his natural Center Back spot.

There was moment in the first half where Williams was at RB and was thirsty. He called over for some water and Iribarren's man tossed out a bottle around the same time a live ball game his way. Josh had a water bottle and an soccer ball coming at him simultaneously... he was able to kick the bottle out and play the ball forward. It's a moment that you don't see often.

Eventually, the ball was played out and Williams got his water.

As the game progressed, what the fans on hand witnessed was a mini Ohio footballing reserve team renaissance. It produced a goal.

Good exchanges between Aubrey Perry, Williams and Speas on the right side produced short cross in to Anor - who punched it in from six yards out.

Game Over, Final Note

The Crew kept fresh legs on the pitch, 16 total players saw the field while New England only made two subs.

Crew Game 3 Recap (Win)

1. Keep Starting Bernardo Anor

2. Eric Gehrig is Good at Soccer

3. Fox Sports Ohio Disappoints

Columbus traveled up the road to visit Toronto FC for MLS Round 4 (game 3 for Crew snd TFC) and earned a 1-0 win. Bernardo Anor provided the game's lone goal.

This was the only game on at 2 PM Saturday afternoon so any neutral viewers coming into it expecting any semblance of fireworks probably left disappointed. Crew matches at BMO field tend to be low scoring, oft sluggish affairs and this one wasn't much different. 7 total meetings, 13 goals between the two at BMO. 2 Crew wins, 5 draws. 2007 was the other Crew win.

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1. Bernardo Anor's starting record is now a team best of 5 W, 1 D, 2 L going back to the start of last year (starters >5 games).

Anor isn't known as an overtly hard worker or a bruiser or an emotional player. Nor does he carry an 'aw shucks' shoulder slump and he isn't from the mid-west. He wasn't splash signing. In fact, he's practically devoid of all the qualities the Crew faithful usually gravitate towards.

Yesterday he was matched up against an above average MLS player in Richard Eckersley. Most of the game on that left side those two battled it out. It wasn't always pretty but Anor outplayed him.

Anor's touch sometimes lets him down but he knows where to be. He knows how to get the ball into dangerous areas. He knows how to pull that RB out when he has to and forces him to stay home when he should be advancing on the attack. Most importantly: Anor know's how to Win at the MLS level. A characteristic that his counterpart Dilly Duka (4 W, 4 D, 10 L) decidedly does not know how to do.

Watch the Vargas goal from last week closely. Anor shields (obliterates) the Montreal defender allowing Vargas space to swoop in. This is not something Duka has ever shown the willingness to do to this point of his career in Columbus.

2. Eric Gehrig had the best game of his professional career. Involved a lot and yesterday. His confidence was through the roof. He is one of those guys that just keeps improving as time passes.

With that performance, Gehrig has earned more starting chances. O'Rourke, to me, should stay in the CDM spot, Urso's current home. With Julius James still seemingly a ways out I think the CB tandem of Marshall and Gehrig is one we may become familiar with this year.

3. Fox Sports Ohio didn't travel their announcing team to Toronto. My suspicions arose when the green screen cutout was worse than normal at the start and then confirmed at half when they showed the game callers at the all too familiar FS OHIO game desk.

I don't know where that desk is located exactly (near Cleveland I think) but it is a very familiar setting for the Cavs and Blue Jackets fans. It's disappointing that the play callers didn't travel.

Don't think the Dispatch beat writer traveled either.

If that's the case than we had remote coverage on a televised game which was covered in the paper by a beat writer watching that remote coverage. If this is the case going forward than FS Ohio should just broadcast the 2008 games over again.

On the announcing: Dwight Burgess.

It could have been the fact they weren't at the game but he read the game poorly. He also has a hard time not talking yesterday.

Knowingly or not Duncan Oughton often has to provide somesort of explanation to counter a Burgess "negative pass" (back pass, I'm assuming) comment or misguided [player x] "...having a horrible game" in a grating/berating coach sort of way.

Mr. Burgess has been with the Crew for a long time. He is part of that family. He is a serviceable play caller but listening to him is too often like traveling back in time to American Soccer 1998.

Let the game do the talking.

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THE END, NOTES

• More important 3 points earned from a team the Crew can beat. The summer portion of the schedule will be brutal for the Crew this year.

• Francis and Miranda stayed home for most of this match, good coaching, that.

• Can't argue with two consecutive shut outs but you can argue with only 2 goals during run of play in 3 games. Similar rate as last year and 2012 preseason and not good enough to raise the team to higher levels. Still wanting more team play from Renteria. Both he and Vargas had quiet games but too much holding play is still stopping with Emilio.

• Urso is playing his role well enough. It does seem as if the game is being played around him at times. Mirosevic is going box to box and still nabbing balls that Urso should be taking care of.

• After lots of turnover over that last 1.5 years and many injuries, nice to see similar 18 dressing for two weeks in a row (Gehrig only change over last week). It's the little things.

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Further analysis on Bernardo Anor's contributions to the Crew. Link.

Not Just Lucky Anor, LJ Metric

Getting wins whilst starting and decisively beating opponents. Two important and easily measured metrics in the world of Major League Soccer.

Wins in soccer equates to points. 3 pts for a win, 1 for draw, 0 for loss. Divide the total number of games played into the total points earned by a team or player and you get Points per Game (PPG). Most leagues that play heavy cup and international league schedules use this metric because not all clubs are on the same number of games to associated league round. I use it on the upper right of this page for MLS. Sorting a league table in this way is sometimes called a True Table.

Decisively beating opponents can be acutely measured by goal difference. While it may not work on an individual game basis, it does work out over time. The bigger the positive number - the more convincing the victories are. These are high level generalities - but good enough to serve as an easy way to determine player importance to a club.

What I've done with Crew players over the past year or so is add each player's PPG and GD together to figure out who is contributing most to my beloved hometown club. It's a way for me to quantify performance.

Example: Will Hesmer. 11 wins, 8 draws, 14 loss. 1.24 PPG. In that same time frame the Crew has a GD of -0.18. Add the PPG and GD = 1.06. Pretty much an worthless number on its own but when put in relationship to the overall team performance of 1.27... you start getting a clearer picture. Hesmer is performing below the team average.

I'm going to take a quick conversational look at these two metrics as they stand from the start of the Columbus Crew's 2011 season to today (two games into 2012). 37 total Games.

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Last Saturday's game marked Bernardo Anor's 7th career start for Columbus. His record is now 4 Wins, 1 Draw, 2 Loss. That translates to 1.86 Points Per Game (PPG). Goal Difference (GD) with him starting is +0.71.

Anor PPG and GD are now tops on the Crew counting players with 7 or more starts.

If you compare that to Shaun Francis and his 7 career starts over that same time frame you get the second to last PPG of 1.00. 2 Wins, 1 Draw, 4 Loss. The Crew's GD with him starting is -0.43. Again, second to last on the team.

To put it another way; The difference between Anor and Francis' PPG (0.86) was the gap between the LA Galaxy and Chivas USA last year.

7 games isn't quite a large enough data set to make any major conclusions. Especially when comparing players of different position, but it is enough data to start asking questions.

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Floating up with Anor in PPG and GD is Tommy Heinemann, 1.50 PPG and +0.33 GD and Eddie Gaven, 1.48 PPG and +0.14 GD. No other active Crew player with over 7 starts has a positive GD besides Danny O'Rourke, +0.13 GD. But Danny's PPG is too low to be considered for this group.

I'm not the only one noticing Tommy's contributions and potential after his first year. LINK.

Justin Meram and Andy Gruenebaum are close to joining this 'winners club', need 3 more starts each though.

At the bottom with Francis is Dilly Duka, who deserves his own special spot with these two metrics. Duka only earns 0.89 PPG and has an astonishingly low -0.72 GD (18 games started, only 2 games short of the 20 I need in order to be 99% sure he needs to sit the bench or be traded).

Joining Duka is Rich Balchan with a 1.17 PPG and -0.33 GD (18 games started).

Below is the complete list sorted by the Metric I've described above (current players are in BOLD)

PPG+GD : Player : Games Started

2.57 : Bernardo Anor : 7
1.83 : Tom Heinemann : 12
1.62 : Eddie Gaven : 29
1.60 : Kevin Burns : 15
1.59 : Joshua Gardner : 22
1.38 : Emmanuel Ekpo : 29
1.38 : Julius James : 32
1.38 : Danny O´Rourke : 8
1.27 : Sebastian Miranda : 37
1.27 : Team Average : 15
1.26 : Chad Marshall : 35
1.23 : Dejan Rusmir : 13
1.08 : Andrés Mendoza : 26
1.06 : Will Hesmer : 33
0.96 : Robbie Rogers : 25
0.94 : Emilio Renteria : 16
0.83 : Rich Balchan : 18
0.57 : Shaun Francis : 7
0.17 : Dilly Duka : 18

These guys haven't reached the five games started yet but are contributing to the Team Average.

5.00 : Olman Vargas : 1
3.25 : Justin Meram : 4
3.00 : Andy Gruenebaum : 4
2.00 : Andy Iro : 2
1.50 : Kirk Urso : 2
1.50 : Milovan Mirosevic : 2
1.27 : Team Average : 15
1.25 : Jeff Cunningham : 4
0.75 : Eric Gehrig : 4
-1.50 : Tony Tchani : 2

Like I mentioned above, the number by itself doesn't mean much. It's just something simple to keep track of that I hope adds weight to my musings on Crew Football. The simplicity of soccer is the reason for it's greatness.

That said, this metric would get shot down were I to present it to the C level Emeryville team of the company I work for. It's not something they could put on a slide deck and present to the board during quarterly meetings. However.

It is definitely a metric that would be used by someone, say, on the operational level. Someone whose survival requires more sweat then swagger, flash and splash.

Exhibition Saturday

Columbus played two Exhibitions yesterday. In the first, the starting team beat Michigan State 5-1. The second saw Crew backups and Reserves beat West Virginia University 1-0.


Mirosevic scored off two set pieces from similar placements on the pitch (atop the 18 yd. box). Olman Vargas was in the scoring mood as well, scoring two off crosses during open play. One high from Shaun Francis that he headed in. The other was a low searching ball from Miranda in the box that Olman, facing the cross, deftly let roll slightly past his planted left foot then flicked it in with his right behind his left heal from a few yards out. Kirk Urso fired one from 20+ yards late to take the days tally up to 5 goals.

It was exciting to see clear Crew roles and responsibilities against Michigan St.

Kirk Usro was responsible for defensive support from the MF. Mirosevic played box to box. Finlay and Gaven ran the wings. It widened the play well. It'll be interesting to see if the Crew can dictate this shape to opponents in the coming weeks.

In the Back, the pairing of Eric Gehrig and Chad Marshall anchored and worked well with Miranda and Francis out wide. Decent workout from MSU forwards, only a late one got by.

Up front, Vargas looked much more comfortable with Renteria holding things up and working the MSU backline. Renteria ran the MSU players ragged. Literally. So much so that one MSU player just sort of crumpled to the ground around ~40 min. Warzycha yelled "half!" and the ref blew his whistle. Warzycha the merciful.



The 2nd game saw Crew backups and Reserves taking on (what looked to be) a pretty good WVU team. The match started well as Justin Meram and Finlay (both had playing time in each game) worked decently with Cole Grossman and Tony Tchani in the middle.

Trialist Aaron Schoenfeld again got matched up with Heinemann up top. Schoenfeld is chasing the game and isn't finding the right spots yet.

A recovering Meram and an out of gas Finlay provided some attacking pressure and positive play in the first half but the game was disjointed. Aaron Horton was subbed in late in the second half and put a nice shot in from the left side. Tchani provided the assist.

Interesting to see Tchani playing backup to Urso. At this point it is fair to say that the hardworking Urso has earned that spot. No Danny O'Rourke in either game but it may play out that the CDM depth is: Urso -> O'Rourke -> Tchani (if O'Rourke gets all healed up). That's an expensive Reserve Team player.

Important note: Urso plays an O'Rourkian style football.

Beautiful day at Columbus Crew Stadium.