Crew vs. Rapids: Match Preview, Denver Edition
By: James | July 27th, 2008If you stick to the math on this one, the Crew have little chance of winning tonight against Colorado. The altitude tilts the balance of the game toward a Rapids team that is only 1-6-2 on the road, but has managed 4-2-1 at home. Colorado’s home loses came against Chivas USA and the San Jose Earthquakes, and they played Houston to a scoreless tie at home. Columbus beat San Jose and Chivas USA in their first meetings this season, but fell to both in their second pairings. Columbus has played Houston only once and won.
Columbus is without Ekpo and Rogers as they prepare for the Olympics. That may take some of the sting out of their attack. It looks like Sigi is making some interesting adjustments. I usually describe the Crew’s formation as a 4-4-2, but it’s more like a 4-4-1-1 with Schelotto playing an advanced midfielder-slash-secondary forward role. It will be interesting to see the Crew with Guillermo dropped back a bit into the midfield with Moreno and Lenhart (or Garey) as the more tradition second forward. It looks like they’ll also move to a 3 man back line, to end up with a 3-5-2 that looks different than anything we’ve seen this year.
I endorsed the idea of a 3-man back line after the Rapids visited Columbus in June and again after the Fire visited Columbus on July 5th. It just formalizes the role Hejduk has played for the last two months and puts everyone on notice that they need to step up for it..
Hopefully the Crew can add another example of the East’s general dominance over the Western Conference tonight before the high altitude takes the air out of their game. I think we’ll see a 2-2 draw.
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