OBETZ, Ohio – With the Eastern Conference Championship locked at 0-0 after the first leg, Columbus Crew SC faces the tall task of needing a result in the unfriendly confines of Toronto FC’s BMO Field if they want to host their second MLS Cup in three years.
But Columbus players aren’t feeling intimidated as they head to Toronto for Wednesday night's second leg (7:30 pm ET; FS1 in the US | TSN 1/4/5, TVAS in Canada). Head coach Gregg Berhalter isn’t preaching a conservative approach in a game where an away goal could change everything, but he’s emphasized the importance of control to his players.
“We want to manage the game, so that means managing the crowd, managing the moments, the stoppages of play,” he said. “How we want to deal with the game, we want to manage very carefully. If we do so, I think we’ll have an advantage.”
The crux of that crowd management will be to take the noisy Toronto fans out of the match.
In a game where Toronto will need at least one goal to avoid extra time and will require two to stay alive if Columbus can score, Crew SC players know that the longer they keep Toronto scoreless or hold a lead themselves, the more nervous the fans at BMO will become.
“That’s not just something that can happen in Toronto; that happens everywhere,” Josh Williams said. “That happened with Atlanta, in New York City you felt it. So the longer you keep that zero on the board, the longer it stays close, the more nerve-wracking the crowd gets and they’re not quite as raucous as they were from the start. That’s our job; that’s what the task at hand is: to go in there and snag a goal early or keep it 0-0 as long as possible.”
The players aren’t naïve, however. They know that the crowd can go in either direction, and if a push for an early goal results in Columbus allowing one themselves, the pressure will only increase.
“If we can go up 1-0 and we’re being good defensively, of course you can probably hear their frustration and then it’s going to turn into an advantage for us,” Ola Kamara said. “But of course if they get the 1-0 and they get going, the crowd is on their side.”
Berhalter isn’t banking on any crowd antics bothering the Toronto players. And with Sebastian Giovinco and Jozy Altidore returning to the fray from suspension, the Columbus boss knows the battle will be won on the field, not in the stands.
“This is a team that’s been through it before; I think they’re going to be patient,” he said. “They have good, veteran leadership on their team and they’re going to realize it’s a 90-minute plus game. So I don’t think they’re going to be too flustered by it, either way.”
But even with Toronto’s stars back, Columbus sees an opportunity to capitalize on a Toronto team that hasn’t looked as invincible as they seemed earlier in 2017, including in a stretch when they beat Crew SC 5-0 at BMO Field back in May.
“They’re very good in Toronto, we know that and we’ve had some tough battles there,” Kamara said. “But in this period of the year, maybe they’re not at their sharpest. So we can go there and maybe punish them. We have a good plan for it. Can we execute it? I don’t know.”
