COLUMBUS, Ohio - Before their match against Orlando City SC Saturday night, Columbus Crew SC had produced only five goals in their first five games of the season. Despite having dangerous attackers all over the field, goals had been hard to come by.
But the floodgates were opened Saturday thanks in part to an Orlando City red card, and the Columbus offense fired on all cylinders in a 3-0 win that could have produced an even more lopsided result.
For head coach Gregg Berhalter, the match went according to plan.
"The idea was to have a really high tempo to the match," he said. "We really wanted to push the tempo, and I think we did that. In the first half I was really pleased with that. ...In the first 30 minutes, we really were pushing the tempo, attacking aggressively and putting them under pressure. That was good to see."
Kei Kamara, Federico Higuain and Justin Meram all scored, while Ethan Finlay created chance after chance and got his third assist of the season. With the four interchanging and flowing in harmony, Kamara - the group's newest addition - said they felt in sync.
"It's good to feel that," he said. "We respect each other as players and respect each other's abilities, so it's really good. For us to be playing at home, that's where we start building confidence."
And with that confidence in each other came incentive to pass rather than take players on or shoot from distance, a key to the style of attack.
"You're always trying to find the guy in the best position," Finlay said. "There were moments in the previous games where we weren't aggressive enough and not taking the shots. Tonight, we were able to do that early and take some of those opportunities, and that opens it up. The defense has to come out and respect guys, and then you can fake a shot and make the next pass and the next pass and the next pass to find the best possible shot."
But it wasn't all offense for Columbus, and Berhalter's men made it a point to shut down Orlando star Kaká, leaving the Brazilian without a single shot on the night.
"We wanted to make him work defensively," Berhalter said. "We wanted to keep moving the ball around and knocking it around at a high tempo and let him use some of his energy on the defensive end. The impact of that would take away from what he could do on offense. It was that coupled with the fact that Mohammed [Saeid], Tony [Tchani] and our center backs really got around him and made it difficult for him to be dangerous in important areas of the field."
And though the offensive players all credited the defense, they were clearly the stars, and Kamara says the group is feeling better than ever.
"We're all appreciative of each other and all respect each other, what we can do," he said. "We're trying to play a team game more than an individual game. When we start doing that, it's the best thing ever."
