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Crew coach Gregg Berhalter has been known to experiment over the first few months of the MLS season. New players to try out, injuries and card suspensions mean slight lineup variations, and he made a few to start the 2017 season.
Over the first three months of last season, Jonathan Mensah faced a red card suspension and a hamstring injury, Alex Crognale sprained his ankle, Artur supplanted Mohammed Abu in the starting lineup then broke his wrist, Harrison Afful severed a nerve in his hand while preparing chicken in his kitchen and Niko Hansen briefly earned starter’s minutes on the right wing.
The Crew also briefly experimented with the 3-4-2-1 formation it had spent a good portion of the preseason installing. It was no surprise, then, that the Crew’s lineup rotated considerably during that time, as Berhalter rolled out seven different lineups in the Crew’s first eight games. This season, things have so far been steadier.
The 11 used in Saturday’s 0-0 tie at Philadelphia has started three consecutive games over the Crew’s 2-0-1 start, a first in Berhalter’s four-plus seasons with Crew SC. Based on the results, “they’ve earned the right to keep playing,” Berhalter said.
“I think they did a good job in the preseason, the first couple games they’ve done a good job and so I think we’ll make changes to the starting 11 when a guy falls out of form or a guy is pushing so hard from behind,” he said Saturday. “Right now the guys are pushing hard but the guys have been in decent form.”
Form won’t have anything to do with what is likely to be Crew SC’s first altered starting lineup of the season. Midfielder Wil Trapp and goalkeeper Zack Steffen have earned a call-up to the national team for its friendly next Tuesday against Paraguay. They are expected to be in team camp while the Crew plays at home Saturday against D.C. United. That means a starting 11 against D.C. will likely feature either Ricardo Clark or Mohammed Abu in the midfield and either Jon Kempin or Logan Ketterer in goal.
Valenzuela on offense
A goal Berhalter and Valenzuela had upon the 19-year-old left back’s loan to Crew SC was for the young Argentinian fullback to add to his offensive arsenal.
Valenzuela has had the skillset to contribute to the attack, but his role with Newell’s Old Boys in Argentina had been stricter in its defensive focus. Valenzuela notched his first assist of the season in the first half of a March 3 season opener at Toronto and produced a shot on target last Saturday in the Crew’s win over Montreal. He did not register a shot Saturday against the Union but was considerably more noticeable in the attack, putting together a couple impressive exchanges with Gyasi Zardes and Pedro Santos on a few of the Crew’s best scoring chances.
“Yeah, he was solid. I thought he had a good game and it’s about now him making a difference in the attacking end,” Berhalter said of Valenzuela. “He got forward a number of times, had some good combinations, good passing, so overall pleased with his performance.”
Under pressure
As expected, the Crew faced a high press from Philadelphia early in the game and as a result had some challenges circulating the ball out of the back and moving it into the final third The Crew’s final third passing accuracy was less than 50 percent for much of the opening 45 and attacking half passing stood at around 55. Both improved significantly as Crew SC showed improved command of the ball later in the game: Attacking half passing accuracy rose to 69 percent by game’s end and final third passing jumped to 63 percent.
Philadelphia midfielder Haris Medunjanin said earlier in the week that “Columbus isn’t Barcelona” with respect to its buildup and as a result is susceptible to costly mistakes. Crew SC made a few, even late — a Jonathan Mensah giveaway in the defensive third resulted in Philadelphia’s final shot in the 83rd minute — but the Union failed to capitalize.
“It wasn’t too bad. I don’t think they forced us into many turnovers,” Berhalter said of Philadelphia’s early press. “I think we made some errors on our own that led to turnovers but I was expecting it to be more, to be honest.”
Injury update
Pedro Santos went down near the endline in the second minute of stoppage time after colliding with a Union player and appeared to grab at his lower leg. Santos lay on the ground for a minute or two — a few Union fans, believing Santos was stalling, expressed their displeasure — before exiting for rookie Luis Argudo. Berhalter said post-match that Santos is expected to be “fine.”
“He walked off the field and I think he’s OK,” he said.
Defender Josh Williams (foot) and Argudo (thigh) were both listed as questionable on the injury report earlier this week and both were in the Crew’s 18 on Saturday.
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