With the MLS season at its midpoint, the Columbus Crew and the New York Red Bulls are primed to face each other Saturday night in a crucial match that has the potential to define each other’s seasons. Both teams have played exactly half their regular season games, are deadlocked at 20 points, and have identical goal differential, which, ironically enough, is 0.
The Red Bulls occupy the fifth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference only by virtue of their 26-19 advantage in goals scored. That number by itself should give the reader an indication as to what the strengths and weaknesses are for each team considering the goal differential mentioned above. Going into Saturday’s clash at Red Bull Arena, the Crew boast a league leading back line that has conceded the fifth fewest goals in MLS, yet on the other side of the coin are fifth from bottom in scoring.
Goalkeeper Steve Clark has done his part in limiting opponents’ success in their attacking third. Of the net minders who’ve started at least 75 percent of their team’s games, Clark has the fourth best goals against average (1.12) and save percentage (72%). If he wants to leave Harrison with similar or improved numbers, it’s pretty much a given that he will need to parry many a shot from the league’s leading scorer in Bradley Wright-Phillips.
Strength on strength is probably the best way to describe what’s going to transpire from an overall game flow standpoint. Wright-Phillips accounts for just over half the Red Bulls’ goals, and, by himself, is only five short of the total conceded by the Columbus defense. If you watched Crew defender Giancarlo Gonzalez’s performance for Costa Rica during the World Cup, you are well aware of his ability in the middle of the defense to give prolific strikers fits. Superstar goal scorers such as Mario Balotelli and Robin van Persie were held scoreless during their matches with the Ticos, and that’s saying something considering what the Netherlands did to Spain in those teams’ opening match in Brazil. Centerback presence is going to be a major factor in determining whether or not the Crew can escape with a road result over the weekend.
It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that Columbus has been offensively challenged of late. After scoring seven goals in their first three games of the season, all victories, offensive output has stagnated. Team leading scorer Federico Higuain was responsible for three of those seven goals, but has managed only three more in the 11 games he’s played since. Midfielder Bernardo Anor scored twice against Philadelphia in the Crew’s second game yet has figured to go the rest of the season to date without netting a third. Columbus cannot be one-dimensional in the attacking third by just relying on Higuain. Is a second scoring threat up front such as Jairo Arrieta going to step up? What about attacking midfielder Ethan Finley, who’s showed himself capable of finishing at times?
Symbolic momentum, as I like to call it, is perhaps the most frequently overlooked intangible not just in soccer, but in all team sports. No more can such a quality be seen than in a game involving two conference rivals tied in the standings at the proverbial halftime of the season. With Columbus facing a mid-week home test on Wednesday against a formidable Sporting Kansas City team, a solid performance at Red Bull Arena on Saturday would be a huge step going forward. The playoff race is extremely close in the East, with third place New England a mere three points behind both New York & Columbus.
These next two games will figure prominently into determining whether the Crew will have that all-important momentum going into the season’s home stretch.
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