'19 Carolina Cup Grades, Rd 1

Long live the Carolina Challenge Cup. Believe it or not, this year marks the 15th consecutive year for this little four-team tournament that always manages to get a strong effort from players and coaches. This year sees hosts Charleston Battery (15th appearance) face up against the Columbus Crew (6th app), Chicago Fire (4th app) and FC Cincinnati (1st time).

Last night the 1st games of this mini round robin kicked off. Columbus took on Chicago and Charleston took on FC Cincy.

As far as season projections: I've got Columbus finishing near the top of the East, with Chicago and Cincinnati finishing near the bottom.

Results aside here's team grades based on performance vs what I expected:

B : COLUMBUS CREW
A sloppy tackle by Wil Trapp saw him get sent off, but it sent this game into an interesting direction. With most of the team returning, I was looking to see if Crew players were engaged. Playing with 10 men for 60 minutes was a great way to measure that. They were. I was also interested in seeing new ideas from Caleb Porter, but we'll get an incomplete on that via red card.

C : CHICAGO FIRE, CHARLESTON BATTERY
Chicago looked like they have for the past few years. A handful of talented players mixed in with a bunch of guys that have no business being out there. They played hard and desperately wanted another goal to put away Columbus. Perhaps if they were facing any other MLS team they would have gotten it but the Crew pretty much brought everyone from last year back. It was pretty much like facing a season ready team.

Another thing from Chicago I was looking for was a plan. They didn't seem to have one. Their coach seems like a nice guy, but that's about it. "Get forward, play tough defense, look for the break" is not coaching.

Charleston gets a C grade for playing up to their competition, which they usually do in this tournament. FC Cincy was looking to come out of the gates firing here but the Battery soaked it up and played competitively.

D : FC CINCY
In a few ways, they are being built like the Chicago Fire. Half the starting XI is good, the other half bad. I wasn't looking for much last night. The effort was great, but there was no clear plan. Facing an inferior team of players should afford you some latitude in trying out stuff. Even if it doesn't work, it's a great opportunity to work on it. Cincy just went out and played general soccer (if that makes any sense). I don't care if they made mistakes, just wanted to see some structure in what they were doing. There wasn't much. About what I expected, I guess.

The season starts in a couple weeks. Major takeaways from last night for each team:

1. Columbus: Are ready to go
2. Chicago: Good effort, bad coach, sloppy roster build
3. Cincy: Sloopy roster, no plan

Next round of games are on Wednesday.

USMNT: Berhalter Mined Mihailovic

Djordje Mihailovic was the first to score in a game for new USMNT coach Gregg Berhalter. Most likely never heard of the player before he was chosen to start, so who is he? How did he get on Berhalter's radar?

It likely starts with his father Aleks Mihailovic who is a well respected and well-known coach in the US soccer-sphere. Aleks was a player in the old NASL that turned into a major player in the United States Adult Soccer Association.

His son, Djordje, is a chip off that block. After spending time with his father's club (Chicago Blast) as a youth, he moved into the Chicago Fire Academy in 2013 around the age of 14. The Chicago Fire signed him in 2017 on a Homegrown deal where he now makes around $96k a year.

PERFORMING IN A SMALL WINDOW

At 20 years old, Djordje has played a total of around 1300 minutes in MLS, scoring 2 goals and assisting on another 6 in two seasons. Last year, Chicago only ran him out for 600 minutes where he scored a goal and assisted on another four.

Critical to his performance this past MLS season was starting against both Gregg Berhalter's Columbus Crew (August 24, 2018) and Bob Bradley's LAFC (September 29, 2018) where he had a goal and an assist to go along with 2 key passes in a rare Fire win on the season (3-1).

Djordje has a  0.54 non-penalty goal + assist (NPG+A) metric within 1300 minutes of MLS play. For a 20-year-old from Chicago, that is impressive. This past season his 1 Goal, 4 Assists (0.77 NPG+A per game) was the highest by an American with over 500 minutes.

At his age, the position he plays and that type of production it would have been hard for Berhalter to not bring him in.

GOAL, #USMNT

It's Djordje Mihailovic that scores in his debut, but Corey Baird did all the work finding him for the assist. The United States have the first goal in the Gregg Berhalter era.#USAvPAN | 1-0 pic.twitter.com/KbHG1N9xxn

— Last Word on Soccer (@LastWordSC) January 28, 2019

HEAD START, BUT PERFORMED

It's a positive sign that players like Djordje are getting a closer look. This may sound overly simple, but it means that at least someone is looking. It's hard not to put an asterisk on that because of who his father is, but a positive sign, none-the-less.

Berhalter put him in an attacking position up top. Not too terribly different to how he once deployed Ethan Finlay when he was with the Crew. It worked. He went out and played well.

OTHERS LIKE HIM

When looking at MLS / US eligible only, here are similar players attack-minded players 23 and under:


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Age	Name	Pos	Team	2019 Mins	Goals	Assists	NPG+A
21	Jonathan Lewis	Forward	NYCFC	218	1	3	1.65
23	Paul Arriola	Midfielder	DC	2184	7	8	0.62
22	Sebastian Saucedo	Midfielder	RSL	1044	3	4	0.60
23	Alex Muyl	Midfielder	NYR	1285	3	5	0.56
23	Kellyn Acosta	Midfielder	COL	1041	2	3	0.43

Not bad company to be in. Arriola might be a like player Mihailovic shoots for, in terms of production. To get there, however, he needs to get out of Chicago.

Another player to note here is Jonathan Lewis, who had an assist in last night's USMNT game vs. Panama late in the second half. He played a little for NYCFC but was loaned out to Louisville City (USL) where he again had to play off the bench.

Preseason Look: Chicago Fire

Chicago is going into this season with an incomplete roster. Recent pickup Przemyslaw Frankowski is not nearly enough to make this team anywhere close to ready. The team is missing starting players at right and left back, central midfield, goalkeeper as well as a number 10.

It's entirely possible that Chicago plans to try and move Schweinsteiger back up into the midfield, but they have absolutely nothing to backfill his CB spot (of which he inexplicably filled last season). I do think the Argentinian Nicolás Del Grecco pick up mid-year last year was an attempt to fix that, maybe? He never made an app in MLS and was passed along to the Tulsa Roughnecks.

Perhaps it's better to look at what the Fire have going for them. Nikolic up top. Katai out on the right. It pains me to say it, but Schweinsteiger is a part-time player and playing in a hard position to have much impact on results, given his skill.

		Player Ratings (avg)		TransferMarkt Value (000)
	Team	Starters	Bench	Starters	Bench
1	ATL	70.9	65.9	$ 52,497	$ 6,067
2	TFC	70.5	65.7	$ 25,027	$ 4,315
3	NYR	69.7	64.9	$ 20,192	$ 3,745
4	CLB	69.3	66.2	$ 24,671	$ 4,180
5	NER	68.7	64.5	$ 13,278	$ 5,115
6	PHI	68.0	56.1	$ 10,339	$ 5,297
7	CHI	67.8	63.7	$ 17,022	$ 3,955
8	FCC	67.5	64.7	$ 11,014	$ 4,383

As it stands, Chicago is barely above expansion side FC Cincinnati. It's not going to take just one or two signings to make them competitive. The need half the starting lineup.

Rating	Name	Position	FM19	FIFA	WS
73	Marcelo	Centre-Back	73	75	69
73	Bastian Schweinsteiger	Central Midfield	73	80	71
72	Nemanja Nikolic	Centre-Forward	72	75	67
72	Dax McCarty	Central Midfield	72	74	69
71	Aleksandar Katai	Right Winger	70	75	71
68	Przemyslaw Frankowski	Right Winger	68	70	64
67	Marcos Ureña	Centre-Forward	63	68	67
65	Cristian Martínez	Right Midfield	59	65	67
64	Raheem Edwards	Left Winger	61	64	67
64	Fabian Herbers	Right Winger	62	66	64
64	Nicolas Hasler	Central Midfield	63	66	64
63	Diego Campos	Right-Back	54	63	65
63	Grant Lillard	Centre-Back	63	63	66
63	Jorge Corrales	Left-Back	61	63	66
63	Mo Adams	Central Midfield	62	63	65
63	Richard Sánchez	Goalkeeper	60	63	63
63	Brandt Bronico	Central Midfield	63	62	65
62	Djordje Mihailovic	Attacking Midfield	62	62	69
62	Stefan Cleveland	Goalkeeper	59	62	68
61	Nicolás Del Grecco	Centre-Back	61	66	0
60	Amando Moreno	Left Winger	59	63	60
60	Elliot Collier	Attacking Midfield	58	60	64
0	Jeremiah Gutjahr	Midfielder	0	0	0

Rd 6: Missing Pieces = Loss

Columbus traveled to Bridgeview last weekend without three key starters and lost in an uneven match. Three wins was enough for Gregg Berhalter's side as he opted to look at the long term instead of a relatively meaningless early-season match.

Federico Higuain, Harrison Afful and Jonathan Mensah sat out the match for various non-serious injuries. From the outside, it looks like it was better to get them healed up versus risking further injury in a stadium that the team has never performed well in. The basic question was asked; "Do we need this game?" The clear answer was a firm "no."

It's likely the smart move considering the team just ripped off 9 points in the previous 3 games. The team proved they could play well and find themselves near the top of the table with breathing room. With no urgency to win the East or even the league, it is more about jockeying for a position near the top of the table and staying there.

What this tells is is the Berhalter is confident in his team at full strength and that he'll get the wins he needs on down the road. Time will tell if this is the correct approach. With 3 wins in 6 games, and the near fact that 12 wins will probably get his team into the playoffs, the team is in fine shape.

Pulling back to the bigger picture. MLS rosters are thin. Missing one key player sets you back. Missing three - you're done.

Crew Open 2017 Season

Federico Higuain turn.

The 2017 Crew season opened with a 1-1 draw, at home, to Chicago. After jumping out to a 1-0 lead in the first half via a beautiful cross from Justin Meram to Ethan Finlay's head, Chicago were able to level the match in the 2nd half (nifty footwork by David Accam).

This would be just another game were it viewed on its own, but it dropped a stink bomb on the opening week fanfare because of the issues Columbus had with closing out games from leading positions last year.

Good performances were turned in by new signing Jukka Raitala, as well as Justin Meram. Both commanded the left side for and owned the first half for Columbus.

For Chicago, it was the David Accam show. He was everywhere. Notable, however, was also goalkeeper Jorge Bava who made a handful of difficult saves taken by Crew players in and around the six-yard box.

Final Thought:

Columbus was the better of the two teams, but Chicago played the kind of game that neutralizes Gregg Berhalter's style. The secret to bottling him up has been out for over a year now, it's just a matter of whether or not opposing teams bother to shut it down or just play their own game.

Boring, Lethargic Crew SC Draw Fire

The end of last night's Columbus, Chicago MLS match was perfect. After 90 minutes of mostly nothing happening there was a flurry of effort from half of the Crew side while the other half was still in "let's get back home, no MLS next weekend" mode.

Games between these two up in Chicago have a recent tradition of being pretty bad. I'm not sure if it's because there aren't direct flights or the weather or the usually sparse crowd, but they are most always dull. Maybe it's a combination of things? In either case, last night's match fits right in with the rest. 

Most of the blame should go on to the Crew. Chicago is coming off a string of bad seasons, so it is expected that they would place a focus on defending when one of the best scoring teams from last year rolled into town. Gregg Berhalter and company likely knew this - but no adjustments were made and the team lacked significant energy. It led to a massively boring game, which is now three massively boring in a row.

Shawn Mitchell put it best in today's Dispatch... "Everybody was happy, except those who had to sit and watch it. Pity the 12,605 who did."

IN a FUNK and EVERYONE GOT PAID

No question Columbus is in a post-MLS Cup Final loss funk still, but when should they snap out of it and how do they do it?

I looked at the "when" earlier this week and came to the loose conclusion that we will know if they are going to have a good or bad season by the 10th game or so. Looking at the math, Columbus has already dropped 8 pts out of their first three games. To match last season's start, they will need 13 pts from the next 7 games. Or; 1.86 points per game. Berhalter has topped that mark a couple times in a 10 game span before, so it is possible, but only if they put forth more effort in games.

Effort appears elusive right now, though. The is only one positional battle going on right now in the starting eleven (Justin Meram's left mid role) and virtually nothing going on when looking at players cracking the 18, down roster.

Compounding problems this year is that some key players got paid recently. Ethan Finlay, Kei Kamara and Federico Higuain to name the three most important. Some players, not all, regress a bit when they feel they've achieved their worth. Especially when there isn't anyone pushing them. Is this they case with these guys? Right now, absolutely. There is no reason to qualify that statement until they prove otherwise.

Columbus hasn't won a competitive MLS game, including preseason, since beating NY Red Bulls on November 22, 2015.

Next Crew game is sometime in April.

Special K Heads in the game-winner, yet Crew SC still searching for killer instinct

Crew SC forward Kei Kamara get's game-winning goal in 3-1
victory over Chicago Fire.
Photo courtesy of Sameh Fahmi/Studio 79

Columbus, Ohio – Delayed by rain and lightning for their first nationally televised match of the season, the Crew SC beat the visiting Chicago Fire 3-1 in front of a less-than full house.

This is a Chicago team that the Crew SC had just beaten four days previous in the Second City. This is also a Chicago team that sits dead last in the MLS table with 18 points and has yet to win an away match. To say that head coach Frank Yallop is fighting for his job would be an understatement.

Despite scoring on a penalty kick (earliest in MLS history) for the early lead at the 2’ mark, Columbus conceded an early goal (9’), yet again. This is still a disturbing trend in the play of the team as they ascend to second place in the Eastern Conference.

As I sit here post-match listening to The Devil in California’s “Sell Me a Reason”, I’m reminded of the fact that the Crew SC still doesn’t have that killer instinct that championship teams display. Playing the last place team should be a walk in the park, unless your passing is not crisp and you give the ball away. This happened with alarming frequency Sunday evening in Mapfre Stadium for Columbus.

Where do I go? Where do I run?

If I double back again, I might come undone…

The Fire’s Jason Johnson saw his second yellow card for a dubious embellishment in the early stages of the second half, leading to a red card and his being sent off. This should have led to domination by the home team. And yet, there were many times that they had to get goalkeeper Steve Clark involved to clear the ball upfield.

In essence, they were chasing the game. This is not to say that they played like complete poo, because they did not. The victory and the three points garnered vault them into second place in the conference standings. And yet, there is still something missing that convinces people that Columbus is on the upswing.

“I think there were a number of challenges,” said head coach Gregg Berhalter past-match. “The first thing is that it was the third game in nine days, so there was obviously fatigue. Both teams had fatigue but I think that led, overall, to the quality of the match.”

“But the second thing is,” he continued, “they had to reorganize and they had to figure out a way to stop us, and we wanted to be the proactive team, and it’s always harder to build than it is to destroy, and I’ve said that a lot. So it was challenging, and then battling the weather as well with it being pretty warm, I think it led to a number of factors.”

The game-winning goal came at the 17’ mark as Special K, also known as forward Kei Kamara, leapt head and shoulders above the Chicago defenders in the box to head one home. He is the MLS leader with 14 goals scored of the Crew SC’s total of 31. And still, he ended up being a coach’s selection for the MLS All-Star Game on July 29.

“Definitely it wasn’t our best,” said Kamara of the match. “At some point I even forgot we were a man up. I felt like Chicago was controlling the game a lot. But, again, it’s really good for us to come out of there with three points and multiple goals. Being at home, always, we have to take three points from those games. Doing it twice against Chicago back-to-back is definitely good for us.”

Yes, the points are good. But do they portend good things for the team moving forward? They have a week of rest and training before hosting Toronto FC on Saturday, July 25. There is time to regroup and refocus their collective mindset ahead of that match.

Happiness comes in small does when you beat the worst team in the MLS. But, they earned six points over the last two matches, and that helps in keeping them above the playoff line.

The limits abound, there’s nowhere to be found. It’s where it begins, not where it ends, yeah…

Sell me a reason, indeed.

A Lot on the Line, Crew SC TV Game

MLS Viewership by week on ESPN

It's no secret that MLS TV ratings drag those of of other professional leagues in the US. For whatever reason (a post for another day) people just don't seem to want to tune in. This doesn't mean that soccer hasn't made it in the US because it has. It absolutely has, for decades. Fans will watch US National team games ("Team USA") to record smashing degrees and the Barclays Premier League, whose TV viewership on a smaller network beats that of MLS on ESPN, but when it comes to this country's domestic league, it's pretty much crickets.

Columbus Crew SC will be on ESPN 2 this afternoon for the first and only scheduled time of the year and it is against Chicago. Not the sexiest of matchups but not the worst either (I think). The lowest viewed game so far on ESPN 2 is the delayed game (heat) in Portland a couple weeks ago with 133k average viewership. Next lowest is a game in Chicago back in March, 152k.

In my opinion there are two things that Columbus needs in order to make an impression. Why this week? For many, this will be the only game they see on TV in Columbus - both local (thanks TWC) and casual MLS fans.

1. ATTENDANCE
Columbus hasn't had a real sellout yet this year. LA was reported as one but it was rain delayed. For the most part Mapfre Stadium has been about half to three quarters full. MLS can announce that there is three million at this game but unless there are people filling up that camera facing side, it will hurt the team's chances of getting more games next year.

Prediction: 15,000 announced, half full as far as butts in seats.

2. TV RATINGS
Attendance, in a way, goes hand in hand with TV ratings. Have a full, loud place and people will tune in. Crew (Mapfre) Stadium can get loud, as USMNT games have proven, but for Crew games it can get a little embarrassing when the only noise emanating from the stands is that of a couple guys (that I know, bless 'em) and La Turbina's drums.

Prediction: 130,000 average viewers.

My hope is that Gregg Berhalter has this team ready to go and plays the brand of soccer that they have proven to be able to do before. Soccer fans will take note and will return to watch the Crew if this is the case.

We'll have to see. Crew SC seem to be a little snake bit this year in regards to weather and it appears a thunderstorm is on the way.