4/5/09: Tactic Talk- What The Crew's Currently Missing

There is something brewing in Seattle, and no it's not my Cappuchino venti...


Movement off the ball and short quick passing in the midfield. Apparently, Sigi took that work ethic with him on and off the field to Seattle. As I watched their game against Toronto, and they looked like the 2008 Crew with the movement off the ball and the midfield connections.

Movement off the ball through the midfield, movement off the ball by Ljuenberg, creativity:


Movement off the ball at the beginning of this play on the right side. Players if they decide to be static, decide to be static inside the 18(Zakuani) instead of outside the box. I felt we were doing alot of sitting with four or five guys just outside the 18 against Houston and Real Salt Lake. That isn't very hard to defend against:


This was basically the storyline of yesterday's game I watched on FSC as Seattle's midfield always looked composed. They never broke out of a diamond shape.

Now contrast that with the Crew, they all stand there "statically outside the 18." The striker stops at the 18(doesn't help that Moreno, Garey, and Schelotto are all under 5'10, no matter what the roster says) and they just hoof balls in:


We are playing like we have a 6'5 target forward up there. The Crew did this for the majority of their three games while breaking out with some attacking on the ground stuff during spurts against Toronto and Houston. Apparently Jason Garey is Jan Koller:


Basically if our midfield can't penetrate and when Rogers is out the only person in our midfield who can penetrate is Schelotto, who is pretty easy to double team and close down on alone, then how do we expect to score? Moreno, Garey, and Lenhart are all pretty slow. The times when they get chances is when our faster wingers penetrate and then they capitalize on some scrappy play in the box.

Our midfield hasn't been penetrating in 2009 so far (and Ekpo anytime he does try to penetrate goes around one guy and then passes or dribbles the ball to the opposing team two seconds later) and that's why we haven't been scoring.

Who knew Sigi's defensively minded team would score more then Warzycha, an offensively minded coach. It's still early and I hope for better. But, if we see a repeat performance of Thursday tonight, I'm going to be Paul Rudd in that coffeeshop on Monday, i.e. not a pleasant person to be around.