The North and South Difference

There were a couple of tweets by Crew beat writer Adam Jardy in the middle of summer that stuck with me all this time so I'm posting them up. Both of them included a photo of Crew players hanging out after practice. Top is three US players and the bottom is of two Argentinians.

One of the reasons these photos linger with me is because they were taken during a difficult spell for the franchise. The six games they played between June 22 and July 27 the Columbus Crew had one win and 5 losses.

Nobody is doing anything wrong in the photos as I know that the guys in the top photo have stayed after practice often to work on soccer things and are just keeping it loose.

It is just interesting to me and my simple brain and highlights differences.

Dear Prudence, What to do with Bliss

Dug about as far in to the Brian Bliss situation as I want to go right now for Massive Report.

Unreasonable Expectations

One thing I realized is that it gets real sticky real fast. So so many things need repairing outside of the coaching staff, trainers and players first (General Manager is probably good place to start).

After looking at it I decided that Bliss wasn't given enough time in order to make a solid decision, which is unfortunate because he could have been given enough time and the FO could have made a sound decision.

There really wasn't any reason to not make the move sooner. Instead we got a misguided move based around making an impossible run at the playoffs.

I think I may come off in support of Bliss in that piece and in a way, I am. But it has more to do with circumstance.

The Crew might have sold some tickets on the promise of playoffs (which to me was more like that Bain prison hole in the last Christopher Nolan Batman movie) but they sacrificed a great opportunity to evaluate a potential coach and many players.

Anywho, like I said; Sticky.

Crew Rd 32, KC Shut Crew Down

Sporting KC abruptly end the Crew hot streak in Columbus (photo: Sam Fahmi, Massive Report).

1ST HALF
Both sides started off in a test type mode trying to figure out the other side. Sporting proved to be the more evolved team and figured it out first.

After a quarter hour of KC went up of a Graham Zusi cross to Ike Opera right in the six yard box. Agustin Viana was laying on the ground with an apparent injury but camera angles would later show him peaking up to check the play.

The quality of Zusi's cross ultimately made Viana's decision to stay down look bad. Bad play by Viana (he popped up after the goal) but a goal was deserved as KC found plenty of space behind Trapp and Tchani all half.

2ND HALF
Coming out of the locker room Sporting dropped eight back and stayed disciplined. It was very similar to how Seattle beat the Crew with 10 men about a month ago.

Because of their style, Columbus has no answer for team with a defensive posture. Dominic Oduro had no space to break free and Federico Higuain was jammed in the middle.

The Crew ended up only getting two total shots off from open play all game. The other 10 shots came from set pieces.

The game ended with an exhausted and frustrated Crew side.

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GAME OVER, THOUGHTS

• Sporting played the Crew smartly as Columbus basically has only two cards to play in attack:

1. Through balls that get behind the defense (Oduro's speed)
2. Set Pieces

• KC took care of both of those things. They shut the Crew down almost in total.

• Tchani and Trapp were playing on top of each other all night. This comes after three games were they kept good spacing in holding roles. This was more do to the way KC played and them not knowing how to work around it.

• Nobody on the Crew played terrible, KC just are better at more things.

• Federico Higuain seemed to pick up an injury early on but stayed in the game and slowed him.

• To many it might appear simple what KC did to the Crew but it always amazes me how many teams do not prepare for each opponent. KC prepared and executed. It should be appreciated.

• Columbus only has a week off than two matches against NE to finish up the schedule.

The offseason has basically started for this team.

Predictions: Crew (H) v Sporting

Big game at Crew Stadium tonight, Sporting KC is in town. Whistle blows at 7:30 PM EST, 6:30 PM Central.

GAME NOTES
CLB: Same lineup as previous 3 likely
CLB: Hot streak, have won last three
CLB: Recent results: have shutout NY, TFC, HOU, CHI at home
SKC: Oriol Rosell is out, Red Card
SKC: Decent results last 6, even GD 9 pts
SKC: Looking to catch NY for top spot in East

PREDICTIONS
(in no particular order)

1. COLUMBUS DISPATCH ... COLUMBUS CREW
"Something about the timing and location of this game points to an upset in the making," writes team beat writer Adam Jardy.

2. HOME TEAM ... COLUMBUS CREW

3. BET 365 ... COLUMBUS CREW
Home team favorites at 31/20 but a little unusual that it isn't even (which has been the trend in MLS for home teams). Next most likely is SKC win 7/4 and draw 9/4.

4. WV HOOLIGAN ... DRAW
Site Editor and Writer Drew Epperley has a hunch... "This one feels like a draw to me for some reason." has it at 1-1.

5. GOAL.COM ... DRAW
No preview yet, which is strange for this site. Reader prediction has this as a draw.

6. TABLE POSITION ... SPORTING KC

7. WIN DRAW WIN ... DRAW
Looks pretty tight. Stake is on 1-1 and home side getting less than 50% (41% Crew, 33% draw). Crew slight favorite but close enough to call this even.

8. MLSSOCCER.COM ... COLUMBUS CREW
Contributors to the "Pick 'em" feature at the virtual home base of MLS are jumping on the Crew bandwagon. Four of the six picking Crew and the other two say draw.

9. MASSIVE REPORT ... DRAW
Patrick Guldan thinks one of the important things for the Crew will be the play of Trapp and Tchani, saying "...the central midfield pair will have to work to move the ball around and unsettle a well drilled." He has this one finishing 1-1.

10. WHOSCORED.COM ... COLUMBUS CREW
Graham Ruthven is a Crew believer now as well. After mentioning how the Crew have perked up in recent weeks, he is all in with them now. Even going as far as saying, "Dominic Oduro and Federico Higuain are among the most potent attackers in the league, and with Sporting KC's backline struggling at the moment the Crew's attacking duo could make the difference."

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MY THOUGHTS, PREDICTION
The Columbus Crew hot streak finds itself back in the friendly confines of Crew Stadium tonight after a wild 4-2 win at Dallas last week.

The indicators above tell us this one will be tight and I tend to agree.

Sporting KC is one of only two teams that can pull out point on the road in MLS this year. Facing a hot team on the road shouldn't phase them too much but this one really comes down to motivations.

Circumstance has got the Crew playing like a teenager hopped up on Mountain Drew right now and they have cut through less motivated teams recently.

Does Sporting have a whole lot to play for here?

They are within range of taking NY for the top spot in the east and also want to maintain a home advantage in the playoffs.

KC has abused the Crew in KC during previous two matches this year so this one is hot team verses good team situation.

Temps look to be a little above normal tonight here in Columbus. High 70s around kickoff. Storms are rolling through trying to flip the switch to fall temps, might be a little damp.

Enjoy the game.

MLS General Trend

This is by no means a be-all end-all look at things, but is a good general indicator of interest.

I've been working in "e-commerce" for over a decade. I might not be on the merchandising/marketing side of things but know enough about trends to say that the above isn't all that great for MLS.

As a trend for a passer by, were this any other brand or product, it would have been a sell some time ago.

There are many things that factor into a chart like this that I'm not going dig in to now. It does warrant a much closer look, however. Especially in comparison with the NBA and NHL (reminder that MLS is closely associated with real estate, which is why I'm speaking in generalities, also why the line is smooth for "MLS").

Here is a link to the Google data.

DC United Win US Open Cup

One of the shots of the year in US Soccer. Ben Olsen post game. No photo credit was given, the MLS twitter account distributed it.

Crew Rd 31, 90s Style MLS Win at Dallas

Columbus put together another away win Sunday as they see off Dallas at Toyota Stadium.

1ST HALF
The Crew took advantage of a eager FC Dallas in the first half by using their speed to get past a attacking minded back four.

Columbus scored in the 9th and 17th minute before Dallas could tuck one away in the 21st. Just before half the Crew put another away on a disorganized, happy-go-lucky home side.

The whirlwind half ended 3-1 in favor of the Crew.

2ND HALF
Much like the first. Dallas was disorganized and pushing forward and playing with very little to lose. The chaos paid of for them in the 54th when a lot of the Crew players thought the ball had gone out and stopped before the whistle. Mauro Alberto Díaz would end up walking the ball into the net (somewhat embarrassingly).

With the game 3-2 both sides decided the buckle down, grinding the free wheeling flow to a mess of subs, fouls and yellow cards.

In fact in the span of 17 minutes between the 66th and 83rd minute this game saw 10 fouls, 5 yellows and 4 substitutions.

by the final few moments of this game you sensed this this one was over. Bernardo Anor would put one last one past a (very poor) Raúl Fernández to end it 4-2.

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FINAL THOUGHTS

This game reminded me of how MLS soccer played in the late 90s. Fast paced, fearless, and pin ball like possession (even between same team).

Dallas played like a collection of above average players with no coach. I'm not sure if they have given up on the season or just are poorly coached, really.

Columbus played with more structure, which is what won them the game. Dallas just didn't seem to want to play any defense, and their keeper... oh my.

All in all, what a crazy game. Flashbacks to my days perched in the RFK stands having flashbacks to the 1998 Tibetan Freedom Concert not to long before on the same grounds.