EDITORIAL – Columbus Crew SC ended a three-match road trip in less than impressive fashion last weekend. The Black and Gold fell 2-0 to the Montreal Impact, dropping them to 0-2-3 on the young 2016 MLS season. The club’s two points thus far is currently worst in the league. And it marks the first time Columbus has gone winless in its first five matches since 2009.
Needless to say, Crew SC is in less than stellar form heading into Saturday’s tilt with New York City FC. It’s a predicament that is particularly concerning, and it may even be tempting to hit the panic button as a fan. What’s particularly worrisome is the fact that two talismans of the attack from last season, Kei Kamara and Ethan Finlay, have just a single goal between them through five games.
And to potentially add fuel to the flames of collective angst, the club will be short-handed in central defense for the next few matches. Center back Gaston Sauro, who has been a key cog in the middle of the Crew SC back four, injured his hamstring against Montreal. It was announced earlier in the week that Sauro will be forced to miss two to four weeks as a result of the knock he sustained.
The Columbus Crew SC Slump: Why It’s Not Time To Panic…Yet
With a seemingly constant barrage of unsavory storylines a month and a half into the season, it’s hard to be an optimist. But with that in mind, I’m here to try and play that role as convincingly as I can. Despite all the initial doom and gloom, there are some potential bright spots that bode well from here on out. And hopefully the realization of that can at least turn some of those frowns halfway upside down by the time you’re done reading this.
Firstly, let’s compare this year’s start with last year. There are subtle similarities in that both teams were sluggish out of the gate. Through five games, Crew SC was 1-2-2 in 2015. So if they somehow lost to Toronto FC on March 14th last season instead of winning, they would have an identical record as they do right now.
The attack, though anemic and unable to finish chances early on, had just two more goals five games in last year. Finlay’s struggles are well-documented in 2016. However, at this point last season he had zero goals and two assists, which isn’t much better than his current goalless total combined with a single assist this year. So while the fear of regression after two impressive campaigns is certainly there, nothing is to prevent him from catching fire like he did as the 2015 season wore on.
One cannot help but be impressed by Federico Higuaín‘s play up to this point. It’s a scary thought to posit that 2016 has the potential to be his best in a Crew SC uniform. His score sheet percentage of 28.6 percent (goals and assists as a percentage of team total) leads the club. He’s also eighth in the league with 2.4 key passes per game and 20th overall with 1.4 successful take-ons per game. His fifth season in Columbus may see him truly evolve into that trequartista role, with free reign throughout the midfield combined with the incisiveness and creativity we’ve come to expect out of him as the team’s number ten.
It’s become commonplace during his time in Columbus for fans to roll their eyes when they hear Tyson Wahl is in the starting XI. But his past few games have shown him to be a reliable central defender. His spacing within the back four as well as his ability to clear and head balls out of danger zones was on full display against Montreal. And his 6.9 tackles per 90 in 65 minutes of action translates to a usage rate of 31 percent. That number is skewed because of how few minutes he’s played. Nevertheless, it shows his quality at winning possession.
Crew SC head coach Gregg Berhalter was highly complimentary of what Wahl was able to do against the Impact.
“We’re very comfortable with Tyson,” Berhalter told reporters at training this week. “We value his veteran leadership. We value what he can bring and we value how he can perform on the field. Don’t forget, this is a guy who stepped in (for Sauro) in the (Eastern) Conference Final and we got a shutout. So he’s capable.”
Being the only winless team remaining in MLS can certainly mentally taxing. It can give the impression to players that the club is behind the proverbial eight ball with respect to being in the mix come playoff time. But it must be emphasized the season isn’t even 15 percent old. It’s a spurious effort at best to draw conclusions to how a given season’s going to pan out with this small of a sample size.
It’s for this reason that Berhalter is confident the club can turn it around.
“We have to keep perspective on this whole thing and sometimes it’s difficult to do,” he said. “And our job is to look at the positive, look at what we’re good at and keep trying to improve because we have a good team.”
There is perhaps one more significant positive to take from all of this. On two occasions during Crew SC’s previous 20 seasons has the club emerged without a win in their first five contests. Both times (2004, 2009), the Black and Gold emerged as Supporters’ Shield winners when the dust cleared on the season.
So while the situation may look clouded, confusing and downright dire, history has shown that Columbus has been able to turn slow starts around in the past. With five of their next seven at MAPFRE Stadium, the opportunity is there to do so. It all begins Saturday night against the Boys in Blue from the Bronx.
