As Federico Higuain goes, so go the Columbus Crew

Sep 25, 2012, 3:40 PM EDT

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Let’s not overthink the recent Columbus Crew struggles. It’s as plain as the midfield stripe:

Federico Higuain produced some August magic, and the Crew suddenly looked like a team that everyone preferred to avoid in the coming playoffs. He was so dynamic, so effective as a creator, tempo-setter and free kick striker, a few informed sources were even beginning to whisper about league MVP chances.

But Higuain got hurt and simply has not relocated that bottle of secret sauce that he was spreading so liberally across MLS in his first few weeks here. And with that, the Crew was in trouble again.

Here’s the essential breakdown:

So, what’s the issue?

The injury couldn’t have helped, short-lived though it was. Plus, his influence was so fierce that teams began to scheme around him. Previously, playing Columbus was all about breaking down the Crew’s well-organized banks of defending. Now, opponents had to pay greater attention to Columbus on the ball, too.

The result looked like what we saw the other day in the loss to Chicago, with Higuain drifting further into midfield to collect passes and pull the offensive strings.

It also pulled him further away from Jairo Arrieta, the lesser heralded summer signing, but one that was also key to the Crew summer offensive revival.

Post-season opportunity remains available around Crew Stadium thanks to a favorable schedule. Columbus has two manageable matches at home (against Toronto and Philadelphia), one real bugger at home (Eastern leading Sporting Kansas City) and a super-massive match on the road. That one is against D.C. United on Oct. 20, with a playoff berth quite possibly at stake in that one.

The opposition has clearly adjusted to Higuain; now comes the adjustment to the adjustment. We’ll see if Columbus has it in them.

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3 Comments (Feed for Comments)

oluckydayo - Sep 25, 2012 at 5:34 PM

I disagree with his assessment in the past few games.

To begin with, you can’t count a game against NY where he only played a few minutes, so throw that out the window.

So in his last 3 full games we are 1-2. He didn’t officially get an assist in the Chivas game, but he sent the ball in to Arrieta that led to the Meram game winner. In the NE game he disappeared, that much is true.

In the Chicago game he had more than a few good balls in that led to missed chances and shots that weren’t put away. The most notable being a beautiful ball to an unmarked Vargas late in the game, who inexplicably passed on putting the ball on goal and instead headed it down into traffic.

He is not going to have free kick chances at the top and corners of the box in every game to curl over the wall and score that way. In at least two of the three games mentioned he has still been sending in the same quality crosses and long balls to the feet of our strikers.

The real question should be whether Arrieta and the others will finish the chances he creates or if we will turn back into the team we saw at the beginning of the year that can’t finish.

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Steve Davis - Sep 25, 2012 at 5:40 PM

Fair enough. Absolutely correct about the NY match, but I disagree that we “throw it out.” It goes to this: Crew attack is very ordinary, at best, when he’s not in or not getting it done.

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bobinkc - Sep 25, 2012 at 6:04 PM

Seems to me that this is one of the problems with trying to pin your hopes on 1 or 2 or 3 high-profile players, expecting them to pull your mediocrity chestnuts out of the fire, instead of trying to build a balanced team with a well-conceived offense and a solid back line. I could compare this to another Kansas City sports team who kept hiring high-dollar, high-profile quarterbacks for one or two seasons trying to win a Stupid Bowl, but I won’t.

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