Tonight the Crew travel west to take on the slumping San Jose Earthquakes at Buck Shaw Stadium. The Quakes seem to have lost their way where the Crew are continuing to find ways to not lose. They are able to find ways to stay unbeaten through solid midfield play. The team had a great start of the season, beside the first game against D.C., due to the play of the back line. Chad Marshal has been an on field commander for the Crew and a calming player for the whole team. Though the defense has had great play they have had their sloppy moments. Last week they had an unmarked runner in the box and Seattle scored a goal in the seventh minute. It is hard to play from behind and the Crew seems to be doing it quite often. All of the Crew’s goals have been in the second half and for the Crew to become an elite team the goals have to be scored earlier in the match. The old adage of, “The mark of a good team is the ability to get the late winner”, or something to that effect, does hold true to an extent. However if a team depends on late game heroics alone, they are setting themselves up for an up and down season.
I have said over and over again that the play of the forwards needs to be better. The Crew needs to take care of teams like San Jose if they want to make it back to the championship again. San Jose has gone four games without a win and in the mid week match they were foiled again by a late match goal by Vancouver. In the last match the Crew gave up an early goal and scored early in the second half with a Penalty Kick. The Crew are unbeaten seven games but that is with four ties. They cannot give up points against teams like San Jose, even if it is away. Look for the Crew to come out in a 4-5-1 formation and the major benefit of having this formation is if the Crew can score an early goal they can hold the ball better. San Jose will want to pressure the back line of the Crew and see if they can force a mistake in coverage and steal a goal. Look at what TFC and Seattle did. If the Crew are able to get good runs off the ball and string together passes through the midfield, there will be a win to be had by the Crew.
(image courtesy of Getty Images)
