The postgame talk around Columbus Crew SC's 2-0 win over Toronto FC on Saturday is justifiably centered around referee David Gantar's decision to send off Justin Morrow late in the first half. It was, to put it mildly, abitofacontroversialdecision. Really.
Rest assured that Simon Borg will cover it in excruciating detail in Monday's Instant Replay.
I'm going to focus on the game itself. Reds fans should feel free to vent about whatever they want in the comments section, though.
I'll leave it at that.
1. What we talk about when we talk about Pipa
Chips. We usually talk about chips.
There was no vintage Federico Higuain moment in this game, which – paradoxically – makes it kind of a vintage Pipa game. He always puts his stamp on the action even when he doesn't get on the scoreboard or even create a bunch of chances.
Higuain is a goal-scorer, no doubt about it. But he's also a playmaker, and when the Crew need him to be, he's a ball circulator as well.
This isn't the part a No. 10 plays on most goals:
There's a line from San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich (if you don't like basketball I'm sorry – you're just going to have to bear with me), who was trying to get through to one of his players. "When I call a play for you," Popovich explained, "it's not so you can score. It's so the team can score."
That's how Higuain plays soccer. He had dropped deep and to the left to find space against under-manned TFC, finding a gap then making a simple pass. Later, he makes a delayed near-post run, dragging Michael Bradley with him to open up another lane.
Higuain wasn't even really that good in this one. He sprayed a lot of balls and missed a couple of chances to make an incisive pass.
But he's so smart, unpredictable and relentless off the ball that even when he's bad, he's good.
2. False 9s and wide overloads
The opposite No. 10, Sebastian Giovinco, has actually lined up as more of a false 9 in his first two games with TFC. Obviously it paid off against Vancouver last weekend, though here's a warning sign: playing him there just encourages whoever the Reds are facing to attack the hell out of Jozy Altidore.
In Saturday's case, that meant plenty of attacking down the right-hand side even before the red card:
Jozy put in a good defensive effort at that spot, similar to he did against Chile for the USMNT in January. He's not averse to running, and given his underrated passing ability, putting him in spots where he can drop deep, cut inside with the ball on his foot and try to play Giovinco or Robbie Findley through makes a certain amount of sense. It's a useful club to have in the bag.
I'm just not sure it should be the club. Partially because it asks too much of Altidore (watch Johan Cruyff explain how much forwards hate to track back HERE) and partially because it doesn't ask enough of Giovinco. The Italian doesn't need to be a high-usage enganche like Higuain, but if he's going to start along with both Altidore and Findley, he needs to be more involved in midfield than has been the case so far. If he doesn't, TFC will end up running themselves into the ground before they even get back to BMO Field.
3. The final piece
To Gregg Berhalter's credit, he's built his team with flexible attackers, guys who can drift and adjust their movements to both Higuain and the always overlapping fullbacks. This is what makes Columbus so fun to watch.
There were just two things missing last year: playoff know-how and a No. 9 who could consistently threaten. They were able to play direct, but too often those chances went wanting.
Enter Kei Kamara:
Kamara's not going to win the Golden Boot, and he will squander more than his fare share of chances. But he'll find more chances than anybody in the league (seriously, I'd bet money on him leading MLS in expected goals from the run of play), and he'll score a bunch. Let's say 13.
Is that enough to make Columbus favorites in the East? I honestly think so. They will have a few defensive struggles and a few bad turnovers – any ball-playing team will have those moments – and they really need to spend some time in training to work on their set piece defense. They are not without flaws.
But just like Higuain, even when they're bad they're still pretty damn good. Feel free to talk about the red card, but don't forget to talk about that as well.
