Crew not so bad, but still have a lot to prove.
You may be asking, "where the hell has Crewture been?" I took an unexpected month hiatus from writing on here since I was in limbo on whether to take a job with the Dayton Dutch Lions again. Wanted the experience, the salary "ehh no comment." Despite the hiatus, I still took a look at all of the games and here are some of my disconnected thoughts on the season so far. I'll only be writing on the Crew from here on in, so weekly articles should be rolling in once again and I'm looking to clear the 30th at work to take the trip to the home Whitecaps game. So, without further or do..
Crewfighter's 6 Disconnected Thoughts On The Crew's 2011 Season So Far
1. They're Better Than We Thought They Were (So Far).. Despite not being exactly exciting offensively, the new look Crew is getting it done defensively. Since a shelling in the season opener away against D.C. United, the Crew has four clean sheets thanks to the (so far) excellent additions of Balchan and Miranda. Both have been younger, faster, and smarter in 2011 (so far) than Hejduk and Padula were on the defensive wings in 2010. And, have been able to (so far) gel with Marshall and the rest of the established defense.
This Iron Curtain has culminated into a start that can be taken as pleasantly surprising (so far) for Crew fans.. Especially after the initial freak out! fest in the first few weeks of the season (myself included), based on dooldrum performances for the Crew away at RSL in the Champions League, as well as in the season opener at D.C. United, and leading to an explosively bland home opening draw; With those results in mind, I bet most Crew fans were expecting the Canaries (so far) to be 0-5 at this point instead of tied for second..
Yes, were tied for second.. Who knew? Considering the Crew haven't played dominating soccer at all yet in 2011.
Nevertheless, currently the Crew are on track to safely be a playoff contender, especially if the offense starts to gel like the defense has (so far) in 2011.
2. Is Robbie Rogers Manning Up?
After riding the pine in the season opener at D.C. United, Robbie Rogers whined on twitter stating that he "requested a trade" and was apparently even kind enough to point out which teams he would love to be traded to.. Some sources say the request was actually made in crayon.
But, after Rogers got over his tears (for frankly being benched once for two and a half years of ineffectiveness) it appears to have been the shot in the arm that has rejuvinated the previously talented and highly-touted prospect. And even though the Crew attack may only have four goals in five games- Rogers has two of them, including Saturday's deft touch winner.
Rogers two goals in five games in 2011, matches his regular season goal scoring total from 42 regular season games in 2009 and 2010. Production no one, including Rogers, could consider scintillating or unbenchable.
Rogers turn around has calmed him down a bit. As Rogers has apoligized and stated he's fine with staying with the Crew for the rest of 2011 but looks to head to Europe in 2012. Nevertheless, Rogers needs to keep up his current fine form to turn some heads in Europe. So, hopefully he continues to be focused and continues to man up for the Crew.
Image: Sam Fahmi/Massive Report
Either way, it was nice to see Robbie come celebrate with some of his critics in the Nordecke after his winning goal on Saturday.. If he keeps scoring in 2011 he'll have a lot of pals in that corner, who may just wish for a 2012 encore.
3. Attendance or lack thereof In three home games the Crew's attendance is an average of 10,850.. With the 14,549 attendance for the F.C. Dallas game likely highly inflated, with 5,000 of those fans morphed into yellow chairs. A 10,850 average attendance so far is only likely beating out San Jose (because they only have 10,000 seats) and Kansas City because their new stadium hasn't been finished yet and thus no home games for fans to go to.
Sure there has been bad weather but that doesn't keep Portland Timbers fans away.
And some Crew fans ponder "why can't we have an atmosphere like that every day in our stadium?" And it's because your Portland's and your Seattle's, even your Toronto's (although they're looking a bit sparser this year too) spend money on marketing to make money on ticket sells. HSG appears terrified to spend a buck on selling this team to Columbus, which has to make the Crew's General Manager Mark McCullers job of filling the stadium rough (even with a comfy new four year extension).
And hell even teams in markets that have struggled, like FC Dallas and the Colorado Rapids, both already have a sell out under their belts in 2011.
The Crew, despite not being terrible in 2011 so far, haven't helped themselves either by shipping off the identity of the club in the likes of Schelotto and Hejduk. Also, the Crew didn't sign a star replacement and the new no names, along with a faltering Cunningham, just haven't been enough capitivating star power to bring in random fans in bad weather. I don't see how anyone could be shocked by this, sure the Crew might of made these moves to make the team better, but those moves were not made to help attendance.
Even the Nordecke, usually packed no matter, looked as if half of the diehards took the night off in the rainy weather against KC where only 7,396 came out (above picture).
4. Duka Stepping Up Dilly Duka had a good second half on Saturday and Warzycha is putting faith in the youngster saying that "he deserves the minutes." Well, Duka proved that on Saturday by providing a nice assist on Robbie Rogers goal and being very active in the midfield.
If Duka can continue to contribute that should help stabilize the midfield if Rogers and Gaven continue to play well. Now all the Crew needs is someone to step up on the forward line and start scoring goals at a clip, and the Crew might be onto something in 2011.
Well that's not all the Crew needs, which takes us to number 5.)
5.) Prim to Replace Ekpo In The Attacking Mid Slot?
It's been no secret that the Crew has had a problem in replacing Schelotto in that creative, attacking midfield slot. And it's also been no secret that Ekpo hasn't done a good job in that attacking midfield slot. Well, here enters Santiago Prim who is now a free agent from San Lorenzo in Argentina and apparently back in Columbus.
If Prim is the answer in attacking midfield, when Ekpo and Rusmir have not been, it could be a big missing piece to the Crew's puzzle in 2011.. And since the Crew have seen Prim before in their preseason hopefully they're right.
But, has to make you wonder who will be let go (since all roster spots are currently filled)? Don't see it being Ekpo since he has trade value. Someone such as Riggs, Heinemann, or even Rusmir would make more sense.
6.) Four Shutouts Is Great And A Step In The Right Direction But.. The Crew has yet to do anything significant in 2011.. They got a long way to go yet to prove themselves.. And another first round playoff exit and a mediocre season will still be seen as a disappointment by most Crew fans, as that wasn't a step in the right direction compared to 2010. So, yeah there has been some positives in the last few games, but the Crew still got a long way to go yet to prove the naysayers wrong..
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