Crew Hosts the Revs: (Late) Preview

By: Jeff | April 19th, 2007

Yeah, yeah, yeah…so I’m late. It’s not like you couldn’t read the official preview on MLSnet.com - that’ll be more thorough than what I’ve got below anyway.

OK, wait. Look, I’m sorry. Things have been complicated lately. So, y’know, it’s not you, it’s me. And all that. Dammit. I admitted in this space’s inaugural post that I’m, essentially, a New England Revolution fan; as such, games between them and the Crew aren’t the easiest to write. The thing of it is, I’m actually really looking forward to this game - and on a lot of levels. It helps quite a bit that I’m fascinated by both teams; my best efforts aside, the “fan” part of me that still pulls for the Revs, but I’m also highly intrigued by the Columbus Crew’s potential-laden roster. But I’ll be most interested to see what happens when I sit down to watch this game. I’ve found that my true sympathies reveal themselves during the course of a game; I’ll give word of results of this experiment tomorrow.

Enough about me, though. We’re talking about the game now, right? What should we expect? Will Columbus finally break it’s duck (I say “no” here; sorry Crew fans). Will the Revs duplicate the ass-pounding hurt they put on new-boys Toronto FC last weekend (again, signs points to no)? Keep reading to see what I’m thinking.

Turning again to the official preview, a couple things jump out. First, the Crew (wha?!) actually hold the edge for the all-time series between the two teams; they’ve won 21 to the Revs’ 14 and they’ve split another 7; when it comes to games played in Columbus, that advantage grows to 12-4-5.

The injury report also appears in that preview and, given both teams’ seasons thus far, the most notable absence between them is left-sided midfielder Khano Smith’s “probable” status. Yeah, it’s true the Crew won’t have Jacob Thomas, who could conceivably help with the scoring, but the other certain absence, Chad Marshall, shouldn’t matter much given Ezra Hendrickson’s entirely laudable play thus far. On New England’s side of the ball, Pat Noonan’s still working his way back - that’s status quo - while Daniel Herandez (groin) and Joe Franchino (”absence” - let’s assume rehab like we used to do at my high school), are out for sure, Michael Parkhurst is doubtful, etc. etc. - really, we’re still talking status quo ante here. In other words, injuries aren’t much in the context of the ‘07 season.

Turning now to the Crew, the Hunt Park Insider wrote up some practice notes and, apart from containing some quality talking points, it also snuck in a likely starting line-up toward the bottom. Here’s that:

“The projected line-up; Greuenebaum, Hejduk, Hendrickson, Gonzalez, Pierce, O’Rourke, Grabavoy, Herron, Gaven, Ngwenya, and Garey.”

More status quo, there. (OR IS IT? I just read elsewhere that Herron will go up top with Jason Garey. If you read below, you’ll see I think that’s a smart call. Back to the action.) With personnel out of the way, time to breakdown what the Crew need to do.

Movement, Movement, Breakdown
If you read the full Hunt Park piece, you’ll see anxiety-inspiring power the lack of scoring has on the Crew; it’s to the point they’re running their practice like a Marine boot-camp, complete with push-ups. But the most worthwhile line in the whole piece centers around the question of why the Crew struggles in front of goal: on a fundamental level, they’re not breaking down the opposition, which, as the piece points out, could be a factor of movement, off the ball especially. Catching something like this is damned hard - there’s the pretty, shiny ball to follow for starters. But it’s equally obvious that the Crew’s offense is breaking down somewhere the play before the final ball (the penultimate ball?); in other words, they move the ball well into threatening positions, but those tend to breakdown before the final ball can be played.

Failing that…
With all that in mind, here’s what I’m expecting tonight - and this hurts: another goalless draw. For some reason, I don’t think the Crew is there yet. If they do score, I expect it will be somewhat fluky - e.g. it will come from range. There’s nothing wrong with this, but it is low-percentage in the grand scheme of things. On the other hand, once your team demonstrates an ability to score from range, the opposition has to close down further from goal, which helps create space in the offensive third. The trouble with tonight’s game, though, is how hard it can be to beat Revs’ ‘keeper Matt Reis from range. But I’d argue the Crew should try shooting from range early and often to see what that does for them.

Who Must Come to Play
To begin with, the usual suspects: Ned Grabavoy in the midfield, who has done so much for the Crew’s cohesion, and the so-far-solid back four of Frankie Hejduk, Marcos Gonzalez, Hendrickson, and Rusty Pierce. To name a player whom I think could pop up and threaten, I’d go with Joseph Ngwenya; as threatening as Eddie Gaven has looked from time to time, he strikes me as the kind of player who needs other players to make his game really work - e.g. when the players around him are threatening, Gaven’s very adept at exploiting that space; but carrying the team on his own, not so much. Not to question the Great Sigi, but I think he’s playing Andy Herron out of position and I’m three scoreless games away from giving up on Jason Garey. Put them in order - Ngwenya, Gaven, Herron, and Garey - and that’s about how I rank the Crew’s offense as threats to the New England goal. Trouble is, I don’t see a lot in the way of heavy-hitters among that bunch; Thomas would help a lot right about now.

Eye on the Opposition
On the other side of the ball - i.e. stopping New England - the players to watch are pretty obvious: Taylor Twellman and Andy Dorman. Twellman’s finishing was deadly precise against Toronto and Dorman’s energy is something that must be watched and managed. Hejduk should be fine handling Smith, assuming he’s healthy, but I’m less sure about how he’d handle new-guy Wells Thompson, who might try something other than pure speed to get around the Crew’s left. This leaves veteran Steve “Hound Dog” Ralston on the right as the other key threat; I don’t know how I feel about Rusty Pierce watching him, but suspect Ralston’s more worried about his shins than getting shut down; maybe watch that situation and see that Rusty gets help. Naturally, there’s Shalrie Joseph to worry about - and that’s especially relevant where Grabavoy is concerned. That will be a hell of a match-up to watch.

Well, that’s all I’ve got. In all honesty, I can’t say I like the Crew’s chances for a win. Also, I’d be less surprised by a Revs win than I would by a Crew win. Still, what do you think people will say if Columbus does win? Put it this way, I’m interested enough in finding out that I’m not sure who I’m pulling for.