ORLANDO, Fla.—Anyone looking for the final verdict on Columbus Crew SC's season will need to look at the next four games – not the last four – as the definitive spell for a club that went to the 2015 MLS Cup final but has not come close to matching that form this year.
Columbus did put together Saturday night's impressive 4-1 win at Orlando City, in what head coach Gregg Berhalter said was likely their most complete performance of the year, and climbed out of last place in the Eastern Conference with six matches to go. Still, they have a long way to go in a short time to make the playoffs.
Now back within seven points of the red line, with two games in hand on sixth-place New England, Berhalter said his club's destiny will play out in the coming weeks, with trips to D.C. United and last-place Chicago as well as home fixtures with the Fire and the Revolution.
“When you look at the schedule coming up, the next four games are against direct competitors, so we will have the ability to put ourselves in place,” Berhalter said. “We might need a little bit of help, but it is going to be up to us. It could still be in our hands.”
That hope seemed distinctly unlikely after last week’s 3-1 home defeat to Vancouver that dropped Crew SC to the bottom of the Eastern Conference. It turned out they just needed 45 minutes to put things right, racing out to a 3-0 halftime lead on the way to handing the Lions their worst home defeat since they joined MLS as an expansion side in 2015.
“If you put the two halves together, I am very proud of the guys tonight,” Berhalter said. “It was very good in the first half; the attack was excellent. In the second half, we defended with everything. Everyone gave every last ounce of energy, and that added up to a complete performance.”
Well-placed through balls out of the midfield from Justin Meram and Nicolai Naess set up two of Columbus' first-half goals, with Ethan Finlay and Ola Kamara taking advantage of the resulting mismatches to record a goal and assist each before the break. Kamara later added a second goal late in second-half stoppage time.
Finlay, who also assisted on Kamara's second tally, delighted Berhalter with his all-round performance.
“Ethan has been very good us,” the coach said. “He has been threatening and he looked extremely dangerous in the first half. It was good to see him have such good movement and threaten their back line so much. Our final execution was excellent as a result.
“The thing about our brand of soccer is that it needs everyone playing together. It is a collaborative game. It is a lot of passing and combinations, and when you have guys who are dribbling too much or playing for themselves, it doesn’t look good. Today was an example of guys being completely unselfish, looking for the right guy and the right ball, and it had a good effect.”
