Sporting Kansas City kicks off a stretch of four games in four weeks Saturday evening against the Columbus Crew SC at MAPFRE Stadium. The match will kick off at 6:30 p.m. CT with pregame coverage beginning at 6 p.m. CT on 38 the Spot and SKCTV across the Midwest.
To preview the match, we spoke with Columbus Dispatch reporter Adam Jardy who covers Crew SC for the local paper:
Jonathon Feyerhem: Columbus Crew SC are coming off a midweek draw against NYCFC after a road win against Colorado, how would you describe the team's recent form?
Adam Jardy: It’s tough to pin down where the team is right now. Their record is about as close to .500 as you can get. They haven’t played exceptionally well in a while. This is the time of year where you like to see a team find it’s identity and solidify who they are and how they like to play. Columbus knows how they like to play, but they just can’t stop other teams from scoring. Defensively, they continue to find themselves chasing the game. Their marking on set pieces has been poor and we saw it again on Wednesday night as New York’s second goal came off a set piece. They have a knack for losing track of guys and the teams have made them pay for it all season long. They are allowing the third most goals per game in the League and some of that is just a product of how they play. They like their defenders to get forward and be part of the attack and the result is that you occasionally leave your defenders in difficult positions as your midfield gets stretched. In the past, they were able to overcome that but since [former Crew center back] Giancarlo Gonzalez left, they haven’t been able to figure out how to close down attackers when they are in difficult positions. With nine games remaining in the regular season, you wonder if they will be able to figure it out. The defensive issues are the same ones we have been discussing since week four so they still have answers to find.
JF: Why is there such a stark contrast in Columbus' form at home compared to on the road?
AJ: The Crew’s only road win has come at Chicago and at Colorado, two of the bottom feeders in MLS. It’s just a case where some of the games haven’t gone their way. They have given up some late goals. One game, Michael Parkhurst got a red card 20 minutes into the first half so now you are playing down a man for 70 minutes away from home and that will be tough for anybody. For a while, you look at the road results for the Crew and there wasn’t a common theme in every game, there was always weird qualifier to it. At some point, however, you become what your body of work is and the body of work for this team is that they just play better at home. Maybe some of that is just across the League teams don’t play well on the road. The Crew play well at home and feel confident there. It seems like at home, you don’t wonder if they are going to find a goal here or there, you just assume they are going to score a goal. On the road, you just don’t know.
JF: Do you expect many changes in the Columbus lineup from midweek?
AJ: Earlier this week, when we were speaking to [Crew SC head coach] Greg Berhalter, we asked him about planning for two games in four days and how it will impact him making the lineup. He said that at this point in the season they have their first group and he expects those guys will be fit enough to play two games in a week. Don’t expect much in the way of changes from here on out. He said the team knows who their starters are and they aren’t going to change that. Having said that, they weren’t happy with the mentality of some of the players against NYCFC. They felt they didn’t have a killer instinct, they weren’t able to close the game out. They let NYCFC take control for most of the second goal and it took a late goal from the Crew to salvage a tie. That could bring about a change or two to the lineup, but Berhalter said at training that he didn’t seem super committed to changing the lineup because they weren’t happy with the result.
JF: To what do you attribute the success of Kei Kamara and Ethan Finlay this year?
AJ: Well when it comes to Kei, and you guys know this from his time in Kansas City, he is just an athlete. He can go up and get the ball. He can out-leap anyone you put on the field against him. He finds himself in dangerous positions. When you look at the team from last year to this year, they are pretty much the same team except this year they have a proven goalscorer. That’s something they sorely lacked last year and what held them back. He has really seized on that role and once he saw the quality of service he was going to get and the fact that there would be opportunities every game, he just followed through with it. He has been so consistent. He hasn’t really had a drought this year and has consistently carried this team and found ways to stretch opposing defenses. A lot of the credit has to go to Ethan Finlay. He has speed on the right flank and can consistently test the back line. He consistently gets into open space, gets the ball into dangerous positions, and finds guys like Kei crashing through the box. Their success is intertwined in many ways. If Ethan runs the defense his way, it opens up space for Kei and because Kei is so dangerous inside, it allows Ethan more space to pick out passes for his teammates. He is one assist away from breaking into the top 10 of the Crew’s record books.
JF: What are you most looking forward to seeing on Saturday?
AJ: I’m curious to see how Sporting KC responds. Both teams are coming off midweek results they are not super excited about. So I'm curious to see the type of effort and bouceback that we see from Sporting KC. Off the top of my head, they have beaten Columbus in their past five matches. It’s not a team that Crew SC have typically matched up against. When you take a team coming off such a lopsided loss - missing such an important player that Kansas City will be - I’m more interested to see how they respond as supposed to how Crew SC responds. I'm also curious to see how Columbus approaches the game because of their final nine games, after Saturday they only have three more home games for the rest of the year. After letting points slide on Wednesday, they need a win in this game. They are probably going to make the playoffs, no matter what happens, but when you look at playoff position and getting points down the stretch and putting yourself in a position to have playoff success, the Crew really need a result from this. It’s going to be a lot of fun with both teams having a lot to play for.
