This Saturday the Crew make a visit to the second team in the East, the New York Red Bulls. The Crew are coming off a cagy tie against Chivas USA. The Crew had a first of the season last week with scoring two goals in the first half, although that still means that they are scoring 91% of their goals in the second half. That is highest in the league but no one is surprised considering that only two of the eleven goals scored are from the first half. This is something that I have been talking about all along; scoring goals early. I did say that if the Crew were able to score goals sooner then they would be more likely to win. Well, I was kind of right. The Crew scored twice in the first and once in the second however they did allow three goals on themselves. The Crew were never ahead against Chivas. Sloppy play strikes again. Where the bulk of the Crew’s goals have come in the second half, NYRB’s goals have come in the first, 67% in fact. This means that the Crew will be pressured early and often. They will have to find their early season defensive form against the attack minded NYRB.
The Crew have to get back to basics. That is what was working for them early in the season and they have to remember that going forward. They have had a string of ugly matches letting in seven goals in three matches, while only scoring three times themselves and that was all in one match. In that span the Crew went 0-2-1 and seem to have lost the mojo they had going from the start of the season. The Crew have tweaked some things in the lineup and it has had mixed results. First, thanks to my suggestion, they switched to a 4-4-2 formation and it paid dividends, last week at least. This has been helped by, yet another suggestion of mine, the play of Tom Heinemann up top. Heinemann has been great in games off the bench and now that he is getting starting time he has been even better. The Crew have had better play in the forward position but the defense seems to be slaking. Sometimes the best defense is a good offense. If the Crew can finally put everything together they will have a great team. They are only six points off the leading Union and if the Crew can string together some wins, not ties, then they will have a great chance to win the East.
Robbie Rogers has been called up for US Men’s National Team duty and I do not think that the Crew will miss him too much. Now all of the Rogers lovers out there do not get the angry mob text sent until you hear me out. The Crew have had some problems lately and I think that having a USMNT call up will help shake up the line up and the complacency that the Crew seem to have fallen into. Rogers is a good player but with him out of the lineup the Crew will be playing a little tighter in the midfield and the forwards will play a little looser. This will be good for the defense because it should help them get back to form and to the basics. The game against NYRB will be a tight game and with any luck the Crew will be able to get out of New York with a tie.
(image courtesy of Getty Images)
