Columbus Crew SC have maximum points from its first two matches at the MLS is Back Tournament and have already secured safe passage into the Round of 16.
Caleb Porter’s squad close out Group E Tuesday (8 pm ET | ESPN2, TUDN In US; TSN in Canada) against a winless Atlanta United side.
But Porter isn’t overlooking Frank de Boer’s side or downplaying the match’s importance.
“Our goal coming in, I said it time and again, is to get nine points in the first three games. We’ve got six and nothing’s changing,” Porter told reporters in a conference call Sunday. “We want to get another three points in the league. We want to be fighting for the top of the table. We know we’re fighting for two trophies right now and this game is a regular season game. So irrespective of the tournament and us being through and Atlanta only winning one game, this is a league game so nothing changes.”
Porter said the struggles for Atlanta, which suffered a pair of 1-0 defeats to the New York Red Bulls and FC Cincinnati, have more to do with being “unlucky” than tactical difficulties, citing Pity Martinez and Ezequiel Barco as “still two of the best, most dangerous players in the league.”
“They’re a difficult team to play against. I think they’ve been unlucky honestly,” Porter said. “They’re a very good team. We’re not taking them lightly because we know in MLS every team is capable and this team is certainly capable. So we’re remaining very humble, we need to continue to improve and get better.”
While other teams in the league have gone with mostly unchanged lineups in the tournament, Porter is proud his side have gotten the sought after results despite some squad rotation. In a 2-0 win over the New York Red Bulls, Porter made five changes to his side that thumped FC Cincinnati 4-0 in their tournament opener.
“I think that helped us in the match, it also means that we have some guys coming in for the third game that didn’t play a role in that first game,” Porter said. “So that’s a really good situation to be in. Around the league, a lot of teams went with a lot of the same guys in the second game, we rotated and fortunately it worked out and now that means that we do have some guys that we can bring back in.”
One player not likely to be replaced is Darlington Nagbe. Porter knows the midfielder better than most — going back 16 years to when Nagbe was just 14 and then served as his first professional coach with the Portland Timbers in 2011.
Nagbe still possesses some of the same skills that impressed Porter back then, but the “true modern midfielder” also become better defensively.
“I think that’s one area he’s grown and matured and improved, in. I think you have the give some credit to Tata Maritno and Frank de Boer,” Porter said. “He was under two very good managers in Atlanta and they highlighted his strengths just like I did at Portland.”
