The good news for veteran Columbus Crew defender Frankie Hejduk is he has gone against forwards Edson Buddle and Landon Donovan enough in practice to know what they can do when they have the ball in front of the net.
The bad news for Hejduk is he knows what they can do when they have the ball in front of the net.
Having played with Buddle on the Crew from 2003-05 and a U.S. teammate of Donovan's as recently as Sunday, Hejduk is hoping to glean his insider's knowledge to help Columbus mark the highest scoring duo in MLS on Saturday when the Crew face the Los Angeles Galaxy at The Home Depot Center.
"Playing against them day in and day out, you start to know their tricks of the trade a little bit and what they're comfortable with and not comfortable with and which things they're good at and which ones they're bad at," Hejduk said. "The problem with them is they're not bad at too many things. Even if you know them you have to be on the top of your game. We have to be totally 100 percent concentrated. If you go to sleep on them for a few seconds that could be the play they score."
As they have 17 times this season despite each playing only nine games. Donovan, who, like Hejduk missed last weekend's MLS play because of the USA's World Cup qualifier against Barbados, leads the league with nine goals. Buddle took up the slack against Real Salt Lake and had his second hat trick of the season to push his total to eight in a 3-0 win.
And they have some guy named Beckham lobbing cross after cross into the box. The Western Conference leaders have a league-high 28 goals in 12 matches, including 18 in seven home games. The Crew have 17 goals for the season.
"They're not going to go out hell on fire trying to score goals but once they get into the attacking third they're very dangerous," Crew goalkeeper Will Hesmer said. "Edson Buddle has really found his form and he's playing really well. Donovan is a threat at any moment and obviously if Beckham has a lot of time to serve balls it's going to be a tough task for us. But if we can do a good job in our offensive third and the middle third of really pressuring and if they do get in the final third, we have to make sure we pressure them."
The game would appear to be a mismatch: the star-studded Showtime on Grass vs. the conservative low-scoring Midwesterners. Don't be fooled. The Crew can put numbers on the scoreboard as well despite a club record 370-minute scoreless streak that ended last Saturday in a 3-0 victory against Kansas City. That was the second time Columbus has had three goals on the road and it also put up four at home against Chivas USA.
"They (LA) have good attacking players. It's important for us to be organized in the back but we need to exploit the abilities we have going forward and take advantage of whatever opportunities we create," Crew and former Galaxy forward Alejandro Moreno said. "We have to take advantage that they want to go forward and try to score goals.
"We will have the opportunity to catch them off balance and at that point we need to exploit them with (Robbie) Rogers' speed and we need to exploit Emmanuel Ekpo and his speed on the right-hand side. We need to find Guillermo (Barros Schelotto) so he can spray balls in the middle and get into the box and finish."
Moreno had a pair of goals at Kansas City to give him six this year and Hesmer recorded his fourth shutout without breaking a sweat, but there is little correlation between what transpired at the Wizards' narrow temporary baseball-turned-soccer pitch and the Galaxy's field that goes 75 yards wide and 120 yards long.
"We're not going there to defend ourselves. We're not going to take the air out of the ball but we're going there being smart and knowing what our skill set is and what are assets are. We have enough going forward to create opportunities," he said.
The Crew was able to pinch the outsides and smother K.C.s flank play and used the cramped confines to clamp down on services from the back with tight marking. That is likely not going to happen Saturday.
"Beckham is a great server so you want to cut out service as much as possible," Crew coach Sigi Schmid said. "You have to worry less about goal scorers if you take away the service. If you let the service come in you have to do a lot of work on the goal scorers. That's always the philosophy -- to take away the service."
Hejduk knows the task won't be easy. "It's going to be a totally different game. Kansas City's field was, what, 66 yards wide and very tight? It was very easy to put pressure on people the whole field because there wasn't that much space on the field," he said. "This field in LA is the exact opposite. It's wide and open. It's a good field for Beckham because he can put the ball on a dime and there's lots of space to find forwards and find gaps and spaces behind defenses.
"We've got to be on top of our game and make sure we're concentrated enough to know that at any time he's going to try to lay those balls behind the D. They have a good attacking duo with Landon and Edson. Landon's speed and Edson's speed with the ball and without the ball is dangerous. Their counterattack is dangerous."
Schmid thinks that type of forward thinking can benefit the Crew because LA has allowed 21 goals compared to 12 by the Crew.
"It's going to be a bit of a run-and-gun game. Beckham is a wide player who is not going to come real deep all the time so sometime he's more like a right winger. Donovan is a player who looks for his spaces on offense. Buddle is a player who also is not one to defend a lot. He's going to stay up top," Schmid said. "Right there, they've got three guys pretty committed to the offensive side of the field as a result of the field size and that attitude is going to open up the game a little bit. Our one-on-one defending has to be good. Our one-on-one attacking has to be good."
The key could be which forward finishes his chances. Right now, Buddle is as good as anyone with seven goals in the past five matches. He's found a comfort zone like he had for a time in Columbus when he scored 42 career goals, including a club-record four against New York on Sept. 18, 2004.
"He's having a great season. It seems like everything is coming together for him," Hejduk said. "From his time here, he's always been dangerous. We practiced with him day in and day out. Every practice he was one of the best players. He's a guy who can finish really well. True to every forward, they get on hot streaks and cold streaks. Right now he's playing hot and he's on top of his game. With Landon they're going to be a very dangerous combination."
A memorable evening could be in the offing.
"It's one of those games where you're not going to be able to relax," Schmid said. "For the fans it's going to be tremendous because it's going to be end-to-end but as a coach it's one of those where any lead is not going to feel real safe. It's a matter of putting on your seat belt, sitting down and watching the game."
Craig Merz is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
