FOXBOROUGH, Mass.—Columbus Crew SC are just over a third into the 2018 season, but captain Wil Trapp assured that their latest result – a 1-0 road win over the New England Revolution – is momentous.
“It’s just more separation for us, right? We just keep moving up the board and that’s important for us,” Trapp said. “The more you can separate yourself from the bottom line and teams in the Eastern Conference, it’s good for us.”
And while the proverbial playoff line is still months away from consciously entering the fray, goalkeeper Zack Steffen agreed that this latest win is massive. It gave Columbus six straight results, four consecutive shutouts and 405 minutes without conceding a goal.
“It gives us more confidence to continue to keep working hard at training and to continue to grab shutouts and three points each game,” Steffen said. “It’s adding up.”
That positive vibe came to fruit in a tactical matchup between Gregg Berhalter’s side and Brad Friedel’s Revs.
Earlier this season, the Revs visited MAPFRE Stadium, emerging with a 2-2 draw. That game featured two teams who push their outside backs up high, and are adamant in staying true to their respective systems.
From that stalemate, the Revs and Columbus – two Eastern Conference clubs that sit in playoff position and could realistically meet again come the fall – each made adjustments. For Friedel, the shift was going into a 3-5-2 system to counteract the advanced positions of Crew SC outside backs Harrison Afful and Milton Valenzuela. The shift was nuanced, and Friedel felt it largely worked, outside of losing a mark on Lalas Abubakar’s 85th-minute game-winner.
“I think a lot of you guys get caught up in a number system, but our philosophy did not change one bit in the game,” Friedel said. “I thought it was a better formation so we could match up more 1-v-1 against the players out on the field.”
Then, during the halftime walkoff interview, Friedel said it was clear the visiting side "did their homework on the press."
Trapp, speaking in the locker room postgame, made clear that intuition was spot on.
“They like to come after us,” Trapp said. “It’s a little different when you’re away from home and how you try to address that, but for 90 minutes they tried to press us each and every time. I thought we did a good job of managing those expectations as well as when they do win the ball, their offensive transitions and limiting chances with them moving forward.”
All that added up to a playoff vibe at Gillette Stadium, where one chance was going to separate the tactical chess match. For the Revs, that nearly came in the 88th minute when striker Brian Wright, appearing for the first time in 2018, appeared to be fouled in the box.
Head referee Sorin Stoica didn’t point to the penalty spot, but Friedel was adamant that it indeed should have been a penalty kick. Those weighty decisions prove pivotal over the course of a season, and Friedel - who reiterated his support for Video Review - expressed frustration with what he felt was a lack of clarity on the status of a given call/review.
Friedel is trying to steer the Revs to their first playoff appearance since 2015, and with five wins in 11 matches, he’s turned the culture around. Berhalter praised how committed New England seem to be.
In Columbus’ camp, though, all focus fell on building forward. Their upcoming stretch includes games against Sporting Kansas City, Toronto FC, New York Red Bulls, Atlanta United and LAFC – all teams currently in playoff position, aside from defending MLS Cup champ Toronto.
Crew SC, therefore, aren’t getting too far ahead of themselves, despite winning the regular-season-with-playoff-intensity battle against the Revs.
“To us, it’s one game at a time,” Berhalter said. “I’ll look at this game and analyze it, same way we did last week and the same way we’ll do next week. For us it’s about continuing to progress as a team, continuing to progress our style of play and can we keep improving.”
