The Crew will have to replace Emilio Renteria, facing a red card suspension, with Jeff Cunningham. However, the Crew should not expect too much of a drop off considering Cunningham's previous success in Salt Lake.
3/1/2011: Preview- All Comes Down To Tonight In Second Leg Of Crew Vs. RSL
The Columbus Crew surprised and delighted Crew fans in the first leg of this CONCACAF Champions League Quarterfinal by having the better play compared to a more stablized Real Salt Lake team; As Real Salt Lake was one of the strongest team's last season and only made one roster move this offseason compared to the Crew's 15 and counting roster moves.
Yet the first leg, last Tuesday in Columbus, still ended in a 0-0 tie. The Crew, still in preseason mode on the offensive side of the ball, couldn't capitalize on their more promising offensive forays and defense's stronger play. The inability to score last Tuesday at home, hopefully not a carryover from the 2010 season, puts the Crew in the underdog slot tonight away at RSL's Rio Tinto Stadium.
The underdog status intensifies when one also considers the Crew have yet to win at altitude in Real Salt Lake's Rio Tinto, 0-3 since the opening of the stadia.
Add to that 7 players, most of them starters, will be missing in action once again for the second leg tonight... And mix in a suspended Emilio Renteria, for added grimace.
Such a formula of lineup disaster is unlikely to equate to a Crew debut in the CONCACAF Champions League Semifinals after 90 minutes tonight.
But, then again, when the Crew debuted four new players on defense last week out of five positions, a clean sheet and a tie seemed unlikely in the first leg. So, let's play the game before crowning RSL Champions of the North American soccer world.
Crew Legend Jeff Cunningham Slated To Make His First Crew Start Since 2004
RSL knows all about Jeff Cunningham. The U.S. International from Montego Bay has scored 19 goals in 32 games with the club from the land of milk and honey.
Sporting a unique hairstyle at the time, which probably helped with headers.
Warzycha is unsurprisingly looking at Cunningham to fill the suspended Renteria's starting spot. Probably not a bad move considering Cunningham has scored over 1 goal a game in every two appearances he has made in Utah.
Hopefully Jeff can get one over on a Real Salt Lake club that shipped him to the unforgiving tundra of Toronto F.C., where Cunningham had the worst form of his successful MLS career.
Is RSL Focused On Winning This Series Or On Creating Docu-drama's?
For the CONCACAF Champions League Quarterfinal RSL has logged in over 40 minutes of docu-drama coverage, full with awe inspiring intro music and a creepy narrator for part 1 and part 2 of the series.
This past week, parts 3 and 4 were shot. The documentary is pretty good and interesting as a fan of MLS soccer, who wonders what goes into the preparation for these games. However, I wonder if the Crew can use any of this to get a feel on RSL's prepping for tonight's matchup?
Here's part 1 and part 2 if you want to hear the most painstaking voice over ever.
Another issue I have with this series is that we know who MLS headquarters is rooting for tonight; As MLS didn't decide to cover both teams in this series, only RSL. So, if the Crew beat RSL tonight, MLS will no longer be able to do this series on RSL's CONCACAF Champions League run and it would look cheap to switch over to the Crew midstream.
With some money and production invested in the filming of RSL, how nice would it be to give another "forget you" to MLS headquarters. The Massive club gets snubbed again, you would think that MLS could at least do this series on Columbus, since we won't be on ESPN all year.
"No one likes us and we don't care."
Ok.. I kind of care otherwise I wouldn't of wrote about it.
Crewture's Lineup Prediction:
-------Mendoza-----Cunningham---------
--------------Ekpo--------------------
Rogers---------------------------Gaven
-------------Grossman-----------------
Gardner----Iro------Balchan----Miranda
--------------Hesmer------------------
William Hesmer has declared himself ready to play on Tuesday, and I would like to see that happen.
Newly installed backup Ray Burse didn't do a bad job last Tuesday, but Burse also wasn't challenged often by RSL. I see a stark contrast on the horizon at RSL's home turf, as I'm afraid Burse (or whoever starts at goalkeeper) won't have a similiarly boring night out.
Dilly Duka may also be fit for tonight's match up. If Duka was a little more game fit, I would not be surprised if the U.S. youth international got his chance at attacking midfield; As Emmanuel Ekpo was unconvincing at that position last week.
As far as the defense, same chorus, second verse. Most of our starting defense from last year is still injured but Miranda, Balchan, Gardner, and Grossman all took some names and kicked some ass last week in their debuts.
More of the same will be crucial in winning on the road and advancing to the CONCACAF Champions League Semifinals.
Tripped Up: The Crew are going to need much better performances out of their midfield trio of Ekpo (above), Gaven, and Rogers to advance to the semifinals.
Keys To The Game: Crew are going to need a repeat "standing O-hio like" performance from their makeshift backline. The Crew are also going to have to get Ekpo, Rogers, and Gaven to step up and become more involved in the game. Further, Cunningham's veteran goalscoring experience is going to be key in slotting one past RSL; were going to need a focused Cunningham tonight otherwise I don't know if we score.
Prediction: Crew 2, RSL 1
Tonight will not be as preseason-like as last week for both clubs. Both clubs have 90 minutes of soccer that matters underneath their belts and I have a feeling it will get intense tonight; as both clubs are staring elimination from this tournament right in the face.. A huge contrast compared to last week which was more of a feeling out process in bone chilling weather.
I believe last week wasn't an albatross for our new defenders, I think they'll show up once again. Nevertheless, RSL is going to be more threatening offensively at home, it will be a battle, and they will score.
The question is whether the Crew's offense is going to show up tonight past the first 25 minutes of the game; as that was around the time the Crew attack started to shut down last week.
A similiar shut down and the Crew goes home. However, I have a feeling Cunningham will put the Crew on his back this evening. I'm saying two for MLS's second leading goalscorer...
Unfornately those two are not coming in a MLS matchup :-), which will delay Cunningham taking over first place on the MLS scoring charts. However, I don't think Cunningham or the Crew will particularly mind as long as their headed for a Semifinal matchup.
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