OBETZ, Ohio – In Saturday’s 3-0 win over visiting Orlando City SC, Columbus Crew SC playmaker Federico Higuain finally made his breakthrough. He put in a dominant performance, notching a goal and an assist to banish a slow start to 2015.
Even without the numbers, Higuain is a constant source of work rate and brilliant passing in the Columbus midfield. But the Designated Player had yet to find his way onto the scoresheet in the young season, so questions of frustration naturally arose.
Higuain says that was never an issue, and he never changed his role. Following the breakout performance Saturday – in which he scored an AT&T Goal of the Week nominee – he reiterated that all is well in the Crew SC attack.
“It was good, like always,” he said through a team translator. “Fortunately for Saturday, we finally started connecting passes and doing things we want to do as a team. It felt good, so it’s a good result. … Ever since the season started, we’ve been working well.”
Higuain had one of his vintage aggressive matches, demanding the ball from teammates and finding spots both in attack and defense. He attributed the attitude to the entirety of the team working together.
“It was finally coming together,” he said. “That culminated in the way we played. Aside from the Vancouver, where it didn’t come together, we’re hoping this is the beginning to the season and everything coming together.”
All four Crew SC attackers – Higuain, Ethan Finlay, Kei Kamara and Justin Meram – notched either a goal or an assist in the win, and Finlay said Higuain’s play creates the chances that they’ve worked on finishing.
“It’s just so difficult [to defend] because there are so many elements,” Finlay said. “I’m maybe a guy that’s getting more in behind, Kei is getting the ball and he can body guys, be an aerial threat and then you’ve got Justin who can cut inside or beat guys on his left. …So [Higuain] draws so much attention that it makes our jobs easier. But we have to execute and make those runs for him to play those great balls to us.”
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And for Kamara, working together with the team’s No. 10 never felt better.
“He was just Pipa,” Kamara said. “That’s what most of the players are used to. For me, I’m just trying to read him a lot more. It was really fun to play with him tonight.”
Head coach Gregg Berhalter, who preaches an even-keel approach and a game-by-game mentality, was similarly appreciative of the performance after the game.
“He was amazing,” Berhalter said. “I think that was one of the better performances since I’ve been around seeing him play. We know he has that in him and tonight was a good night for him.”
Andrew King covers Columbus Crew SC for MLSsoccer.com.
