What a difference a month makes.
In early May, Columbus Crew SC looked to be a team on the rise in Major League Soccer. After a 3-2 win over Supporters Shield favorite Seattle Sounders FC on May 9th, the initial reaction was that the club had reason to be confident in its own ability to contend for that trophy and perhaps much more. An all-important question began to be asked: were the pieces in place to even contend for MLS Cup in 2015?
Fast forward a month later, and much has changed. The Black and Gold have played five regular season contests since that perceived “statement” victory over Seattle. They’ve obtained all of two points in those matches, compiling a less than impressive 0-3-2 record. What’s particularly troubling is the fact those matches took place against teams that were a combined 16-26-12 at the time Crew SC played them.
Suffice it to say that whatever championship aspirations the club had after the Seattle win have been tempered a bit as current MLS Cup holders Los Angeles Galaxy make their way to Columbus. Extended winless streaks have the tendency to do that. They can also test teams’ internal cohesiveness and Crew SC found out as much in the aftermath of their recent 2-1 home loss to the suddenly surging Montreal Impact.
The Pogatetz Post
On Sunday afternoon, Black and Gold center back Emanuel Pogatetz posted a message on his Facebook page detailing his unhappiness with the amount of playing time he had received over the past three games. The Austrian defender was not in the starting lineup for two of those three games and really only played out of necessity against Orlando City SC on May 30th. He was an emergency substitute in the 19th minute after Michael Parkhurst was sent off for a handball in the box.
The social media salvo on the part of Pogatetz set off a firestorm of sorts in the Crew SC Twitter-verse. Fans and media alike were looking to dissect why he decided to vent in such a seemingly indirect manner. Why couldn’t he have communicated this with head coach Gregg Berhalter in-house instead of divulging it publicly? Does this speak to a possible disconnect in the locker room between coach and players?
I’m definitely feeling concerned by that Pogatetz statement. He is clearly part of our best 11 and we can’t afford to lose him #CrewSC
— Super Blue (@super_blue1905) June 7, 2015
Pogatetz needs to start every match he’s fit for. If he isn’t first choice, then I genuinely don’t know what to say. #CrewSC
— Alex Stanek (@AlexStanek) June 7, 2015
Despite the uproar, things appeared to have been patched up rather quickly between Berhalter and Pogatetz as what seemed to be evident during their first training session of the week on Monday. Andrew King of MLSSoccer.com reported that the two sincerely talked about the situation and are now back on the same page with one another.
Here’s my moral of the story. Oftentimes with older players, coaches have to maintain a certain balance between giving them a large number of minutes and ensuring they don’t wear themselves down over the course of a long season. This is especially true in a league like MLS where the travel for road games can really get physically taxing at times.
At 32, Pogatetz is the oldest player on the Crew SC roster. Though not ancient by any means, he’s no spring chicken either. Berhalter probably has this in mind and wants to keep him fresh for the entirety of the season. It was likely the current less than stellar run of form that prompted Pogatetz to voice his own concerns about his personal situation the way that he did.
Can Columbus Crew SC Cure What Ails Them on Saturday?
With “Poga-gate” now in the rear-view mirror, attention turns to the Black and Gold’s weekend clash at MAPFRE Stadium with the Los Angeles Galaxy. Both teams currently find themselves sixth in their respective conference standings, a position neither team can be particularly enamored with at this point. The two also had ironically similar results at home last week with both dropping decisions to Canadian teams and streaks coming to an end in the process.
For the Galaxy, the 1-0 loss to Vancouver ended a 23-game unbeaten run at StubHub Center dating back to last year’s March 8, 2014 season opener against Real Salt Lake. Montreal’s win in Columbus marked the conclusion of a 25-match winless run on the road for the Impact that extended to early September 2013.
What must improve for the Black and Gold if they are to come out of Saturday night with a satisfactory result, thus getting their season back on some solid footing? Ultimately, it comes to what the source of Pogatetz’s post-match grumblings were. Quality in the defensive third of the field has consistently gone lacking for this team.
One simply needs to look at the goal scoring statistics in the standings to get a glaring look at the team’s struggles on defense. Crew SC’s 20 goals for is tied for third best in the league with four teams. Of those four, Columbus is the only one with a negative goal differential, having conceded 21. The issue has become even more pronounced during this five-game slump, with the Black and Gold getting outscored 11-5 in that span.
Though it wasn’t apparent against Seattle, this club appears to be missing Hernan Grana more than might be suspected. Hector Jimenez has filled in admirably at right back for the most part but is still learning the defensive aspect of the position. That has to be expected from someone who’s played most of his career as more of an attacking midfielder.
He certainly has excelled as an overlapping wing back during attacking opportunities. The former Galaxy player who has two championship rings from his time in Los Angeles currently leads the league in open play chances created per 90 with nearly three per game. He has a tendency to get caught upfield, though, especially when the opposing team springs a counter.
Depth is a clear issue at center back. Clearly, the Pogatetz-Parkhurst combo has worked best to this point in the season. Against Philadelphia, it was Pogatetz and rookie Sergio Campbell while Parkhurst and Tyson Wahl partnered up in the central defense last Saturday against Montreal. Campbell appeared to play too much on his heels at times during the Union’s forays into the box while Wahl and Parkhurst didn’t seem to have a lot of on-field rapport. It was a lapse of communication between the two that played a part in the opening goal for the Impact.
If indeed things are cool now between Pogatetz and his coach, I don’t see how we don’t see the Austrian paired up with the former USMNT regular in Parkhurst when Crew SC and the Galaxy take the field. In Pogatetz, you get a player who, perhaps more than anything, excels at getting the ball out of harm’s way. His eight clearances per game have him tied with Sporting Kansas City’s Matt Besler for second in the league.
If Crew SC can get some semblance of stability in defense while continuing to get consistent production in the attacking third, they may well be able to erase this current funk. It was last year’s home meeting with the Galaxy that served as a pivot point for the rest of the season after a dominant 4-1 win for the Black and Gold. A similar result in 2015 may provide the spark necessary to prevent a summer swoon which precipitated the need for that big win over the eventual league champions in the first place.
Columbus Crew SC News and Notes
– Saturday’s game will mark the 40th all-time meeting between these two clubs going back to the league’s inaugural year of 1996.
– The Black and Gold sport a 16-14-9 advantage against the five-time MLS Cup champions that includes a 9-4-5 mark in Columbus.
– Crew SC’s goal differential at home is +7, tied with DC United for the best mark in the Eastern Conference.
– The Galaxy will be missing three players due to international duty including forwards Robbie Keane (Ireland 2016 Euro 2016 qualifier vs. Scotland) and Bradford Jamieson IV (US U-20s) along with defender A.J. DeLaGarza (Guam World Cup qualifiers vs. Turkmenistan and India).
– Crew SC midfielder Justin Meram as well as Galaxy forward Gyasi Zardes should be back from recent international fixtures and available to play. Meram started for Iraq in a Thursday friendly against Japan, while Zardes played a key role in the United States two historic road wins against the Netherlands and Germany.
– LA left back Robbie Rogers, who spent his first five seasons in the league with Crew SC, is expected to be back for the Galaxy after missing the last few weeks with an ankle injury.
Photo by Jamie Sabau/Getty Images
