Ethan Findlay in the new Barbasol kit.
2/26/2012: Crew Let Victory Go Late, In 2-2 Tie With Charleston
By Ryan Kozlowski
CREWTURE.COM
Crew rookie Ethan Findlay (pictured above) had a nice assist on Saturday setting up Eddie Gaven, as him and the Crew started off well in their latest pre-season challenge. The Crew only needed six minutes to register a 1-0 lead in there most competitive matches yet this season, in the Carolina Challenge Cup against the Charleston Battery on Saturday. The Crew will face the Chicago Fire on Wednesday in the Challenge Cup with a chance to win the tournament with a victory.
In their first match of the Challenge Cup, the Crew started off well in both halves, only to let a weaker USL side in Charleston battle back to a 2-2 tie. The Crew dominated most of the first-half and second-half against the Battery but late concentration lapses would, as in previous years, again bother Warzycha's team.
With the Crew controlling in the first-half, the Battery only needed a nice counter and some sleepy Crew defense to knot the game up at 1's. As the Charleston Battery would counter late in the first-half, in the 40th minute, with a Dane Kelly goal similiar to Gaven's.
Once again, the Crew would shake it off and continue to pile on the pressure- leading finally to a penalty kick and a Milovan Mirosevic goal in the 59th minute.
The Crew defense solidified as the second-half went on, and with only minutes remaining in the contest had control and believed to have the Battery finished. Only to have another carbon copy reply from Charleston, as Crew defender Carlos Mendes took down Salieu Bundu in the penalty area (in the 89th minute), was red carded, and a deputizing Greunebaum was beat by Jose Cuevas.
The tie and the lapses left a sour taste in Head Coach Warzycha's mouth:
“Obviously, I’m not [happy about it]. We had the lead in the first half, and we gave up the goal at the end of the first half. The same thing happened in the second half. Sometimes you have to be lucky, but more than anything we have to make sure you work hard [to prevent that from happening].”
The late-lapses in halves were a problem for the Crew last year in some games and late-lapses have plagued Warzycha's teams in entire seasons; in 2009, and 2010, and last season.
In the Summer of 2009, the Crew jumped out to a huge lead for the Supporters Shield (the Supporters Shield is given to the team with the best record in MLS) only to barely win the Shield by a point at the end of the season.
In 2010, the Crew would take the lead in the East only to barely hang on as East leaders. But, would lose the Supporters Shield to the Galaxy, by many points despite leading the race for the best record in early Summer.
In 2011, the Crew were never in the Shield race but were tops in the East during most of the Summer only to drop all the way to 4th in the East in 2011 and squeak into the playoffs.
This is troubling for Warzycha. Rogers said the lifelong Crew coach "couldn't get the most" out of him. Can he get the most out of the players wearing the black and yellow kits in 2012?
Warzycha will try to get the most out of his makeshift lineup on Wednesday, as the Crew will need an improved performance against rivals Chicago Fire to gain some confidence this pre-season. The Crew haven't had the best results so far this pre-season, only getting results against weak competition such as U.S. U-18's as well as college sides.
The Crew employed this lineup, missing a few starters because of injury, against Charleston:
Columbus Crew – Andy Gruenebaum, Sebastian Miranda, Chad Marshall, Carlos Mendes, Shawn Francis (Nemanja Vukovic 46), Eddie Gaven, Tony Tchani (Danny O’Rourke 61), Milovan Mirosevic (Cole Grossman 84), Ethan Finlay (Aaron Horton 82), Olman Vargas (Kirk Urso 46), Emilio Renteria (Tommy Heinemann 70)
The lineup against Charleston was definitely attack-minded from the get go with nearly four-strikers in the first half with Renteria, Vargas, Finlay, and Mirosevic.
It must be a little distressing for Warzycha that more goals were not scored in that half against a weaker Charleston side. On Wednesday, it will be interesting to see if the Crew employ this sort of lineup from the get go against Chicago or go with a more defensive lineup; employed more so in the second-half against Charleston when defender Kirk Urso came in for striker Olman Vargas.
Overall, results do not matter at this point of the season, but improvement does. To watch to see if the Crew does improve, check out the game against the Chicago Fire live on Wednesday, February 29, at 5 p.m. on www.thecrew.com.
0 comments:
Post a Comment