Sporting Kansas City almost made it.
Diligently minding their team shape, defending with care in and around their penalty box, the Midwesterners coped well with the Columbus Crew’s relentless possession and movement in Friday's Leagues Cup visit to Lower.com Field, working hard to protect their clean sheet. SKC were just one minute away from relief when the MLS Cup champions finally sliced them open in their Round-of-32 tilt.
One minute away from a victory? No – the initial task was simply to reach halftime with the score still deadlocked at 0-0. They’d leaked two goals in the first half of their last trip to central Ohio, after all, en route to a 4-0 thrashing on June 22.
“We spoke about how to take away their threats,” said Sporting winger Johnny Russell postgame. “We had a game plan in place, which we stuck to for 44 minutes, and then we give them one opportunity and they score.”
One fleeting moment of passivity from SKC, and the dam broke. Darlington Nagbe found Cucho Hernández in a pocket of space, the Colombian spotted Diego Rossi’s hard run into the space behind KC’s back line and laid a through ball into his path. Rossi’s angled finish past John Pulskamp was clinical: 1-0 Crew, and on a night when the visitors mustered a meager 0.1 expected goals, a feeling of inevitability soon set in.
“We were very organized and I thought we actually were good in the first half, and I don't think they really created all that much. I think in the second half, we just couldn't keep up,” said SKC manager Peter Vermes. “We couldn't keep up the work that we needed to do, and I think tactically, we got tired in our head a little bit, and we missed some very easy situations where they capitalize on those because they were moving very well off the ball.”
Columbus quality on display
This is what it’s like to play Columbus these days. Imposing their particular brand of death by a thousand passes, Wilfried Nancy’s side are 10W-3L-1D across all competitions since mid-May, one of those losses the Concacaf Champions Cup final, having coalesced into a well-oiled machine for whom dominance is growing routine. And thanks to some savvy summer transfer business, they’re deeper than ever.
By Friday’s final whistle the scoreline was once again 4-0, Rossi notching a double and new reinforcements DeJuan Jones and Dylan Chambost scoring on their competitive debuts. Afterwards Nancy spoke of the extra conditioning work he and his staff imposed on the squad this past week as they and their LIGA MX counterparts Club América enjoyed a bye to the Leagues Cup knockout phase, suggesting it was a factor in their relatively slow start.
“I'm really proud of my guys, because we pushed them this week physically, because it was the moment to do it - because after that, if we are going through, we won't have the time to work physically,” said the Frenchman. “So I knew that we could have issues or problem, and this is what happened in terms of the quality of the pass; we lost a few balls that usually we don't lose.
“But we found, they found a way to score the goal before halftime, and after that, we adjusted certain things, and they did it well. So I'm really happy because I can see the maturity of my group. They know why we do that, and this is for them, but also I like the fact that they're able to stay all the time on the next action, next action, next action.”
That methodical process of probing, stretching and unlocking tests adversaries like few in MLS, and Russell readily added himself to the growing list of opponents who’ve tipped their caps to NancyBall.
“It ends up the same as the last time; we get dragged out of position, we're probably ill-disciplined in our shape, and credit to them,” said the Scot. “I've watched them a lot, second time I've seen them live, and for me they're the best team that I've played here. And it sucks, because you know when you're playing games like that, it just shows you how far you are as a team off that level of quality. And that's disappointing as a player, as a competitor, to know that you're so far off a team like that.”
Bring on Inter Miami
With their current run of form and the benefit of home-field advantage throughout this tournament, the defending MLS champs have every reason to goose the throttle – to say nothing of the motivation they’ll surely feel when Inter Miami, the reigning Leagues Cup holders, visit downtown Columbus for a Round of 16 tangle on Tuesday (7:30 pm ET | MLS Season Pass).
The Herons beat the Crew 2-1 in Fort Lauderdale several weeks ago, even with Leo Messi, Luis Suárez and Matías Rojas away on international duty, and while Nancy soft-pedaled the idea of retribution, he and his squad can only be eager to give a better account of themselves under the bright global spotlight that shines on IMCF.
“Listen, this is a good game to play against a good team,” said Nancy. “Last time that we played, we could have done better, but they did it well also. So this is not a revenge, this is nothing, this is just another game to go through.
“Now the time is to rest, and after that to prepare the game and try to have a good performance to go through, simple as that.”
