OBETZ, Ohio – In Gregg Berhalter’s offense, Columbus Crew SC love to cross the ball. The team leads MLS with an average of 23 crosses per game, four more than the closest team.
The combination of active wingers like Justin Meram and Ethan Finlay along with Berhalter’s signature aggressive fullbacks like Waylon Francis and Hernan Grana has given the club a plethora of crossing options, and the large frame of striker Kei Kamara presents a target in the middle to send those crosses to.
But in Saturday’s 2-0 loss to D.C. United, the crosses didn’t work. Columbus launched an astronomical 40 crosses in the match, but only generated three shots on goal. None of those shots on goal came from a cross.
For Berhalter, the lack of success in the final third last weekend was simply a symptom of slow play.
“If you look in that opening stage of the game, we had a lot of opportunities that we could have done better with,” he said. “We remember that. We remember that we need to work on those things. But overall, it wasn’t too bad. When teams pack it in, we want to move the ball more quickly and everything has to be more accurate.”
D.C. did seem to “pack it in,” keeping as many players behind the ball as possible and frustrating the Crew SC attack that scored seven goals in the previous two matches. Finlay said his team was too bothered by the defensive shape.
“They brought two blocks of four and had a block of eight guys back behind the ball,” he said. “We were moving the ball at the top of the box, and at that point the service has to get out wide quickly and then be whipped in quickly. We didn’t move the ball quick enough, so in turn the crosses weren’t on time or we waited and took one or two too many touches. Then that throws off the runs, and that’s why we didn’t get on the end of any.”
And while that kind of defensive style bothered Columbus during stretches of 2014, the team isn’t concerned about it at this point. And Kamara and winger Kristinn Steindorsson both said they take it as a positive.
“It’s a credit to us to see that teams adjust to play us,” Kamara said. “We don’t really adjust to play other teams. So it’s good for us, and we just have to keep working and getting better at our stuff.”
Kamara, a former winger, can play plenty with his feet. But he’d like even more chances in the air, he said, and hopes to be more in sync with his teammates on those crossing opportunities.
“I actually need more crosses,” he said. “I don’t think I’ve gotten enough crosses. Maybe there are some crosses that come in, but the accuracy of them has not been as good yet. The guys are still working on it for me. If I can get more crosses, I prefer to get them on my head than actually to my feet.”
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While DC’s strategy worked Saturday, Finlay says Crew SC is good enough to find ways around it, and thinks a better plan B will be on display in the future.
“We still have the ability, we’re a good enough team, to be able to find guys in between those lines when they drop guys back and go down the seams and not have to go out wide and whip balls in,” he said.
“But we have to be able to figure that out on the field. Saturday we weren’t able to do that.”
