Crew vs. Dynamo: Match Report

By: James | August 6th, 2008

Crew 0, Dynamo 2
Brad Davis(Brian Mullan) 13, Brian Ching(Nate Jaqua) 43

It’s no fun to lose. I’m most disappointed that the Crew drops to 1.6 Points Per Game, the same figure as Chicago. That’s a slide from 1.8 at the end of June. New England is at 1.9 PPG with two games in hand on the Crew.

Injuries and absences are an easy culprit to blame for the loss. We knew that Hejduk, Rogers, Lenhart, and Ekpo would be out. Miglioranzi not being available was a surprise. In-game injuries for Marshall in the 28th minute and Evans in the 53rd hurt, and really limited what could be done to adjust their look on the field.

I was surprised by the line up. Zayner and Peterson started while Elenio ,who I thought we’d see, didn’t enter the game. Also, Jason Garey sat until the 69th minute. That’s comparable to when Sigi has brought Lenhart on to the field, but looks like a big step away from what he was trying in Colorado. I’d be curious to hear how Sigi would debrief on the tactical decisions on these two games. Clearly you don’t want to come out to play a game like we did in Colorado each week because it usually shouldn’t bring a win.

Offensively the Crew got some great chances. Schelotto and Moreno each had a second-half goal denied by exceptional saves from Pat Onstad. Gaven and Evans each had some chances. You’d hope Evans could get one of those in, but you really can’t fault those touches.

The Crew are off until August 16, so hopefully Evans, Marshall, and Miglioranzi can get healthy. Hejduk and Lenhart are back, but Lenhart’s probably still a sub rather than a starter in Sigi’s scheme. Hopefully Rogers and Ekpo get some professional growth out of the Beijing visit.

There are rumors that the Noonan deal is back on. He’d be available by the 16th as well. The Crew play Western Conference teams to round out August, including an improving FC Dallas twice. The offense with Noonan can get tooled up to face a string of Eastern Conference games to close the playoff bid.

Defensively, we saw Houston’s goals come from the same kind of plays and field position we get killed on week after week. Poor tracking has made balls played to the penalty arc near deadly for the Crew. The defenders and midfielders seemed to come back to defend fairly well, but aren’t applying pressure in the right spots, or aren’t cutting the right angles down to stop shots. Where there had been a lot of standing flat across the penalty area with no depth of defense, now there’s some depth to go with the poor tracking.

It’s not foot speed or clever challenges that’s beating the Crew defense, it’s simple passes and wide open shots. It’s good to see some adjustment since I’d been attributing the problem to coaching, but I think this game gave more credence to personnel issues as a key factor. That should seem odd given that we didn’t see anything like the defensive first team in this game, but the game actually showed that the same kind of errors and attacks are causing weakness regardless of who’s on the field.

So, how can the Crew squeeze the opposing offenses to keep them from converting chances? Some options are 3-5-2, being more defensive-minded in the current 4-4-2, adding to the roster, eliminating errors, or working on controlling midfield possession better?