Columbus I'm a believer
They don't have enough depth, I thought. They haven't got the experience, I thought. Without Guillermo Barros Schelotto, they'll struggle, I thought. Wrong, wrong, wrong.
Just as they have done all season, last Saturday the Crew continued to belie the doubters as they went into Gillette Stadium against the Revs and won a game their opponent needed a lot more than they did. Anchored by the ever-impressive Chad Marshall, who found time in-between commanding an impregnable defense to score the deciding goal in a 1-0 win (the first New England has conceded from a corner this season), Sigi Schmid's team deservedly took three more points to increase its advantage in the East standings to eight.
Even after Frankie Hejduk lost his mind for a moment, there was no panic from Columbus, whose bench was strong enough to feature the likes of Andy Iro, Emmanuel Ekpo and Ezra Hendrickson, all of whom played a part in securing the win.
Unsung among the Crew's stalwarts this season has been Will Hesmer, as steady a goalkeeper as there is in the league, and Brian Carroll, who has returned to the form that saw him win U.S. national team caps in 2005. Meanwhile, the youth movement of Robbie Rogers and Eddie Gaven has another member in Brad Evans, a striker who has converted himself to impress in the midfield engine room.
Barros Schelotto has been missing for three games, from which the Crew has taken seven points thanks to goals scored by five different players. In all, 14 men have found the net at some point this season for Columbus. With so many threats from so many areas, fewer and fewer would bet against Columbus winning its first MLS Cup this season.
New England needs 3-5-2
New England, meanwhile, has some work to do ahead of the postseason. Based on the experience many of the Revs' players have in late October and November games (five straight Eastern Conference championship games gets you that), the Revs will enter the playoffs as a genuine contender to reach MLS Cup.
However, if this is (finally) to be its year, New England has some issues to address. First is the Revolution's record against their main rivals in the east. Steve Nicol's side is 1-2-0 against Columbus and, worse still, 0-3-0 versus Chicago, the Revolution's likely first-round opponent.
To increase the chances of bucking these alarming trends, the Revolution's lineup needs to return to a familiar look. Especially since the team's injury problems have begun to clear up. In recent years, 3-5-2 has been the tried and trusted formation in Foxborough and a move away from it in recent weeks has resulted in an inconsistent run of results for New England. The change to a four-man defense has led to issues that affect the team from front to back.
Saturday's match against the Crew illustrated these issues. Defensively, the attempts to incorporate Gabriel Badilla have had mixed results, with the Costa Rican international still struggling to come to terms with MLS. He is comfortable on the ball, but his positional awareness has been found wanting on a number of occasions and his uncertainty seems to have affected those playing around him.
Playing Steve Ralston wide on the right of a four-man midfield, as was the case against the Crew, has resulted in the isolation of the team's most creative player which, in turn, has meant the supply line to Taylor Twellman has become spasmodic. The two last connected for a goal against Chivas on Sept. 11, a night which, coincidentally, was the last time the Revs played 3-5-2.
Up front, Twellman was buffered from pillar to post by Marshall (not that he is the first to be shut down by the Defender of the Year-elect), highlighting the need for the Revs' all-time leading scorer to have a consistent strike partner. With only Kheli Dube and Kenny Mansally to choose from, fans must hope the inexperience of those rookies is more than compensated for by their ability.
For all this, I still consider New England one of four (Columbus are favorites, Chicago and Houston are the others) teams most likely to lift the Alan I. Rothenburg trophy on Nov. 23. The track record of Nicol suggests that his methods are not to be distrusted and it would not surprise me if New England gets it right with a four-man back line. The next four games, however, will be crucial, for the postseason is not the time to be second-guessing a formation.
Bolt on the ball
Every so often, my day job affords me some pretty sweet perks. Last Friday was a case in point, as we headed to New York to
interview Usain Bolt. The fastest man on the planet is a big soccer fan and was happy to talk about his love for Manchester United and Real Madrid, with the common theme being his favorite player, Ruud van Nistelrooy.
Bolt is keen to take advantage of an offer to travel to Spain and train with the La Liga champions. With his size and speed, he'll offer quite an asset to los Merengues forward line!
Well played, young man
Yura Movsisyan has been playing catch-up ever since he was, to the surprise of many, a first-round SuperDraft pick by Kansas City out of Pasadena City College in 2006.
His stay with the Wizards featured five goals in six starts but was ultimately short-lived. Now, though, as he approaches the end of his first full season with Real Salt Lake, the 21-year-old is on the verge of blossoming into something fairly useful.
Two expertly-taken goals in RSLs win over San Jose took his season's tally to five in nine starts. If he maintains that form through the opening of the club's new stadium and all the way into the postseason, Movsisyan will have no trouble being recognized anymore.
A thing that made me go hmmm
In the history of MLS regular season, there have been have been 11 games that have featured an aggregate goals total of nine or more. Playing in six of those games has been a team from the league's New York franchise and only once have the MetroStars/Red Bulls lost (the 5-4 reverse to Colorado on Sept. 27).
Last Saturday's thriller also extended New York's record of having been involved in a game of at least nine goals to five straight seasons. Small consolation, perhaps, to their success-starved fans, who would likely swap that one-off excitement for a postseason run.
Andrew Hush
