Soccer <\/p>\n
It\u2019s the battle of the last unbeatens! The Columbus Crew<\/a> are 5W-0L-3D so far in 2025, and they\u2019ll be hosting Inter Miami CF<\/a> (4W-0L-3D) this Saturday in front of a packed house up in Cleveland, winning hearts and minds up in northeastern Ohio (4:30 pm ET | MLS Season Pass<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n The Crew have played the league\u2019s most attractive soccer over the past few years. Miami have Lionel Messi<\/a>.<\/p>\n What I\u2019m saying is that you don\u2019t really need me to sell you on watching this. If you\u2019re a soccer fan, you\u2019re tuning in.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Columbus Crew<\/strong><\/p>\n Inter Miami CF<\/strong><\/p>\n The Crew are still unbeaten, obviously. Through eight games, they\u2019re atop the East on points and points per game, then league-wide they\u2019re second in points per game. They will want to have home-field advantage at the end of the year, and they will want to win the Supporters\u2019 Shield. This game matters a lot in both of those races.<\/p>\n And as I wrote last week after the cash trade for Gazdag, maybe we\u2019re not just talking about winning the Shield; maybe we\u2019re talking about breaking the single-season points record (74) this Miami team set just last year. The Crew are that good.<\/p>\n So yeah, we\u2019re still in the \u201cevery point matters \u2013 a lot!\u201d part of the season for Columbus, and we\u2019ll most likely stay in it right up to (and through) Decision Day on Oct. 18. This team, even after selling MVP finalist Cucho Hern\u00e1ndez and trading goalscoring sidekick Christian Ram\u00edrez<\/a> this past winter, is always in the hunt for trophies. This year\u2019s no different, and they\u2019ll want to prove as much in front of a massive crowd at Huntington Bank Field, home of the NFL’s Cleveland Browns.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n It\u2019s somehow come quietly \u2013 weird, when you consider how much hoopla there\u2019s been around Miami for the past two years \u2013 but the Herons have hit something of a rough patch in April. They entered the month atop the Shield standings, but have taken just two points from two games and are suddenly in fifth. Overall, they\u2019ve won just once in four outings across all competitions (a memorable win, to be fair) since March ended, and have looked vulnerable in a way they just didn\u2019t over the first six weeks of the season.<\/p>\n They\u2019ve logged a lot of miles and haven\u2019t done a ton of squad rotation, so their legs are looking a little heavy. That\u2019s hurt them in attack (just four goals in four games), but also in defense, where they\u2019ve been gappier and easier to play through than in February and March.<\/p>\n Expectations entering this season were high, and this team expects to win every single game they play. So the stakes, as always, are enormous.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Columbus Crew<\/strong><\/p>\n Crew head coach Wilfried Nancy pretty famously doesn\u2019t gameplan specifically for each opponent. Or so he claims, anyway, and to be fair to him, it was hard to identify any differences in how the Crew played against Messi\u2019s Miami side last year and how they played against, say, Nashville SC<\/a>. They believe that if they execute, they can crack open virtually any opponent, no matter what their defensive shape is (it\u2019ll likely be a 4-4-2 for Miami) or where they draw their line of confrontation. They have a lot of data to back up that dogma.<\/p>\n So expect them to build from a 3-4-2-1 that becomes either a 2-3-5 or a 3-2-5 in the attacking third, and if you come upfield to try to press them, good luck!<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Diego Rossi strikes from deep! ????@ColumbusCrew<\/a> take a 2-1 lead in St. Louis. pic.twitter.com\/iIIGIRXLhY<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Major League Soccer (@MLS) April 14, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote><\/div>\n That\u2019s Gazdag, Chambost and Rossi ripping apart a good St. Louis<\/a> defense this past weekend to score a textbook Crew goal: the small passes from the back (they hit more short passes and fewer long-balls than anyone in the league, and play more passes in their defensive third than anyone in the league), followed by the dynamic back-to-front ball-carrying from a midfielder (no team progresses the ball via the dribble more often than Columbus), and finally finding one of the attackers in the half-space to have a rip against a retreating backline.<\/p>\n This type of soccer doesn\u2019t just happen. It has to be downloaded and installed by every single player on the field.<\/p>\n Gazdag was a quick study in this moment. He was fairly anonymous for the rest of his 45 minutes, though, as he seemed to struggle to find the game and get on the ball in good spots.<\/p>\n I bet he\u2019ll make visible progress this week. All three attackers in Nancy’s system are space interpreters who need to know when to toggle between half-space merchant and goalscorer, and that’s literally the thing Gazdag’s best at.<\/p>\n Inter Miami CF<\/strong><\/p>\n When Messi\u2019s been on the field this year, they\u2019ve played out of what I\u2019ll call a 4-4-1-1. What I mean by that is Messi\u2019s nominally a forward \u2013 they\u2019ll usually defend with a front two and banks of four behind him, so it kind of looks like a 4-4-2 \u2013 but he\u2019s totally free to drop in and become a playmaker, or flare wide to become a winger, or even, yes, do forward things running off of Su\u00e1rez’s movement and hold-up play.<\/p>\n The thing I\u2019m wondering about here is whether Obando gets in from the start, and if he does, will this turn into more of a 4-2-3-1 with Messi as a classic No. 10? Put him in that spot with Obando stretching the line, a true winger (Robert Taylor<\/a>, Faf\u00e0 Picault<\/a>, maybe Tadeo Allende<\/a>) on the right and young Venezuelan Telasco Segovia<\/a> (who started out well, but has faded recently) pinching in from the left, and you have the kind of structure that should get Messi on the ball in great spots with multiple runners to choose from.<\/p>\n That last part seems like a good idea!<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Probably don’t want to give this guy too much time on the ball in midfield pic.twitter.com\/pwOns9emXE<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Matthew Doyle (@MattDoyle76) April 16, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote><\/div>\n The Crew play a high line. They are fearless, which means there\u2019s often \u2013 always? \u2013 space in behind. No one in the history of the game has been as good at picking out those runs as Messi.<\/p>\n And he doesn\u2019t need much of the ball to do it, which is good for Miami since this team\u2019s not as possession-oriented as they were last year. They\u2019re very content to play out of a mid-block for big chunks of the game, and even selectively press for a bit. It\u2019s not 2011 Barcelona; it\u2019s more like 2022 Argentina.<\/p>\n They can get a bit complacent when they\u2019re not actively pushing for goals, though, and young Tom\u00e1s Avil\u00e9s<\/a> remains mistake-prone at center back. As talented and experienced as they are, they can\u2019t let themselves go flat.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n No reason to think that Gazdag won\u2019t be in the XI this week, and as far as I know, Yevhen Cheberko<\/a> should be good to go, which maybe spells a bit of rest for Sean Zawadzki<\/a>? So it\u2019ll be the usual 3-4-2-1.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n I\u2019ll probably be wrong about this, but I\u2019m calling the 4-2-3-1 with Messi as a 10, Obando up top and Su\u00e1rez getting a breather. Getting rest for at least a couple of regulars ahead of the first leg of Miami\u2019s Concacaf Champions Cup<\/a> semifinal series against Vancouver<\/a> seems prudent.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n
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