Sporting KC vs Columbus Crew Recap

By: Morpheus | April 18th, 2011

The weather might not have been the best for a game, but it would be hard to blame the poor play from both teams solely on that. The Crew showed why they have only scored 4 goals the entire season. And the Wizards showed why they have given up more goals than any other team.

Formation

Vermes decided after the embarrassment in Vancouver that he would go with the exact same line up for this game. That meant Micheal Harrington and Roger Espinoza played outside defenders while Julio Cesar and Matt Besler played centrally. In midfield we saw the second start for Birahim Diop playing in the middle with Davy Arnaud and Milos Stojcev playing around him. The forwards consisted of C.J. Sapong on the left, Kei Kamara on the right, and Teal Bunbury playing as the center forward.

I didn’t like this formation in Vancouver and I really didn’t like it this week. And once the game got going and I saw the formation and movement on the field I absolutely hated this formation and it all stemmed from the play of the midfielders. These 3 mids just don’t compliment each other and can’t control the middle of the field. Stojcev seemed to be given free reign to play anywhere he wanted, which meant that he was receiving the ball as high up the field as our forwards. This forced Diop and Arnaud to play deeper but the 2 of them couldn’t cover the whole middle of the field. And to top that off Diop is the worst midfielder I have ever seen. This guy lunges into tackles and makes half-hearted attempts at the ball that cause all kinds of problems. And on top of that since the whole game was played with only 2 guys in the midfield that meant on the attack our wide presence had to come from our defenders which left us vulnerable to counters. And when we were defending the defense of the Crew’s wide players had to come from our forwards tracking all the way back, which stopped us from making any kind of counter attack.

I hope that Vermes sees these problems and either goes away from the 4-3-3 formation or realizes that the players he wants to play don’t fit that formation and he needs start different players.

Defense

Overall I don’t think the defense played terrible, but part of that might have been the anemic attack of the Columbus Crew. I am not the first person and I won’t be the last that says the Crew lack the creativity in the attack that they have had the last few years.

Matt Besler ~ He had another solid performance. He is proving to be a very good option now and into the future.

Roger Espinoza ~ He did really well for most of the game, but started to have some mental lapses as the game went on. If he can stay focused throughout a game then he will be able to provide a little spark out of the back when we go on the attack.

Julio Cesar ~ Not the best performance but not terrible either. The 2 yellow cards were a little harsh (both times) but Cesar’s terrible attempt at a tackle that led to the ball hitting his hand and him getting his 2nd yellow card, and ejection, was pathetic. He had position and had slowed the attacker, Heinemann, down and didn’t need to attempt that tackle.

Micheal Harrington ~ This was probably his worst performance and after the game in Vancouver I didn’t think it could get worse. Throughout the game Harrington would get caught pushing forward too far (at times higher up the pitch than Kei Kamara) and left SKC’s defense stretched too then. A prime example of this was when Cesar was forced to defend Heinemann 1 v 1 behind Harrington because Harrington decided wanted to push higher up the field but no one covered for him. With all that said when Harrington was back to defend he did a really good job of it. Like in the 15th minute when Harrington forced Eddie Gaven to take too many touches and Cesar was able to come in and take the ball.

Midfielders

Milos Stojcev ~ Stojcev played pretty well. He found some open space behind our forwards but because he was running side to side on the field he seemed to get tired. This resulted in him not tracking back to help on defense. This left a gap between our defense and our midfielders.

Birahim Diop ~ The worst player on the field for both teams and it all started within the first 10 minutes of the game. The Crew went on quick counter attack down the middle of the field. Diop was playing the holding midfield role and had a perfect opportunity to slow down the attacker but instead he made a weak challenge that let the player dribble right by him. This forced Cesar to step up to pressure the attack which left space for Eddie Gaven to get the ball and get a shot off. This is what Diop does when he plays in midfield. This exact thing happened again in the second half and forced Cesar to make a hard late tackle to prevent another pass behind him and Cesar was rewarded with his first yellow card. If Diop would have made good tackles in the midfield there is a very good chance that Cesar wouldn’t have gotten that card and in turn wouldn’t have been ejected later in the game.

Davy Arnaud ~ I want to say right now that Arnaud is probably my favorite player on this team and has been for some time. He might not be the most skilled player on the field but he is the player that works the hardest. Watching this game I realized what Arnaud’s problem has been this year. Because he is forced to play centrally with Diop, who can’t defend at all, Arnaud is forced to defend 4 sometimes 5 opposing midfielders. So, instead of opposing teams having to play through Arnaud they just pass the ball around him and Arnaud can’t do anything about it. Since Arnaud is running all over the field trying to contain the opposing midfielders he didn’t get to help SKC on the attack. Arnaud’s long range shot could have been just what we needed against the Crew to loosen up that defense.

Forwards

Teal Bunbury ~ Teal spent too much time with his back to the goal. A couple of times Teal was able to drop back a little and receive a pass while he was facing the goal. Both times resulted in solid shots. But when Teal would receive the ball with his back to the goal the defense was able to force him to pass the ball away and not let him turn with the ball. I think Vermes needs to find a way to get Teal out wider so that he can get some space and challenge players 1 on 1 while facing the goal.

Kei Kamara ~ Most of the time I like the way Kamara plays. He likes to get the ball on his feet and dribble at people. This works for him because he can use his size and speed to his advantage. But, in this game Harrington and Kamara just weren’t on the same page. Harrington would push so far up that Kamara was left with no space to take on defenders. And on top of that when Harrington would pass Kamara the ball it wasn’t a pass to Kei’s feet. This is where having a midfielder between Kamara and Harrington could have helped both players.

C.J. Sapong ~ After a hot start to his career Sapong is starting to show that he is still a rookie. He looks like he is getting tired on the field and isn’t putting the same high work rate that he did in the first couple of games. A prime example was in the 33rd minute when Sapong tracked back deep to help out the defense but when the ball was played up to Teal, Sapong was still in the defensive third. This resulted in Bunbury turning the ball over because there was no one there to help him. And on the flip side when Besler cleared the ball to Sapong’s general area he was slow to react and lazy on the challenge that allowed Kevin Burns, Columbus midfielder, to cross the ball back into the penalty area and resulted in only goal. This time Sapong wasn’t tracking back to help at all and left too much space behind him.

Substitutes

The other problem I have with using so many of our attacking players on the field at the start of the game is that it leaves our bench empty of attacking threats. And in a game like this when you are playing a goal down having a forward that can come off the bench with fresh legs could have helped. Instead Vermes was forced to take off attacking options.

71′ ~ Graham Zusi came on for Arnaud. This didn’t really change anything and Zusi had the same problem as Arnaud with controlling the entire midfield by himself while Diop continued to provide no help at all.

75′ ~ Shavar Thomas came on for Stojcev. This was due to the ejection of Cesar, but I would have rather seen Diop leave the field. That might have actually helped the defense two fold.

87′ ~ Korede Aiyegbusi came on for Kamara. At this point Kamara looked really tired and maybe a little injured but this substitution didn’t help the Wizards either. Korede did have fresh legs but with only a few minutes to work he didn’t really have time to get worked into the game.

Overall

This was not a pretty game by any means and the weather certainly played a part in that. But the Wizards didn’t play anywhere close to their abilities. The forwards were flat and weren’t creating open space, the midfield was nonexistent at times, and the defense just couldn’t deal do all the work and eventually broke down. Also the Wizards couldn’t string any passes together. Maybe this was because of the rain or maybe it was Columbus’s domination in the middle of the field but the Wizards couldn’t string together more than 2 or 3 passes on the Crew’s side of the field.

Another major problem for the Wizards is that they have played 4 games and in 2 of them have finished with less than a full squad on the field. I will be the first person to agree that both of these ejections were over the top and unnecessary but the truth of the matter is that they happened. If this team doesn’t figure out how to play games without getting thrown out of them then there needs to be some serious evaluation of what we are doing here.

I am not one that likes moral victories but at least our defense didn’t give up 2 or 3 goals this game. And really there weren’t that many chances for Columbus to score 2 or 3 goals. Hopefully this means that the defense is starting to understand how to play together and now it is just time to get the midfielders on the same page.

Scoring Summary

CLB — Robbie Rogers 2 (Dilly Duka 1, Kevin Burns 1) 53′

Misconduct Summary

KC — Julio Cesar (caution; Reckless Tackle) 50′
KC — Michael Harrington (caution; Reckless Foul) 55′
KC — Julio Cesar (caution; Handball) 72′
KC — Julio Cesar (ejection; Second Caution) 72′
KC — Shavar Thomas (caution; Reckless Foul) 76′