Crew general manager Issa Tall has a team that isn’t tall enough.
At least, it wasn’t during a nightmarish second half May 2 at ScottsMiracle Grow Field that exposed the Crew’s mostly undersized roster in a stinging 3-2 loss to Minnesota United FC they’d led 2-0 in the match’s 56th minute.
Despite outplaying the Loons (6-3-2) in most ways, the Crew (3-5-3) came up short, literally, on all three Minnesota goals. Each play began with a set piece followed by a lob into the box, where the taller Loons gained air superiority on three straight goals after Hugo Picard put Columbus up 2-0 in the 56th minute.
“We know [that] maybe we don’t have, like, the tallest guys, but when we talked about set pieces, more the offensive set pieces, we know we are not at all on that level,” Crew coach Henrik Rydstrom said. “If you’re going to challenge for titles, you need to be at least among the top teams when it comes to set pieces.”
Until this debacle, the Crew were among the MLS’s top teams defending set pieces despite often going into them with a height disadvantage. Where did it go wrong against Minnesota?
“To answer your question, it’s a lot about mentality,” Rydstrom said. “It’s two things: how you give away set pieces … and then it’s the desire to at least not get beaten.”
That second one gave the Crew trouble, especially after Loons striker Kelvin Yeboah, who’s 6-feet with a great vertical leap, erased a 2-0 deficit on back-to-back goals in the second half that including an equalizer scored with a header off a corner kick.
His goals paved the way for Minnesota defender Anthony Markanich, who’s 6-1, to score the winner, also with a header, over Steven Moreira, a 5-10 wing back who’d already had Yeboah’s first goal bounce off his body and into into the Crew goal.
“We’re not, maybe, a big team physically, but it was a lack of communication in everything,” Moreira said. “It’s everyone. Me first. We have to communicate more, especially [if we want to] hold them to zero [goals].”
Midfielder Taha Habroune was blunter. Successfully defending set pieces against a bigger team like Minnesota comes down to one main thing in his mind.
“We just have to be dogs,” Habroune said. “We were just soft going into all those set pieces. They just wanted it more than us, and they got their goals from it.”
That can’t continue, which Rydstrom has reinforced with players.
“The players are professional football players, so [they] know how [to] make sure [the] opponent at least doesn’t win the duel,” Rydstrom said. “We lost too many of those situations in the air. Still, I don’t think they created anything in the open play, but it was three set pieces, three goals … and that’s what we need to improve.”
Brian Hedger can be reached at bhedger@dispatch.com and @BrianHedger.bsky.social
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus Crew come up short in loss to taller Minnesota United FC
Reporting by Brian Hedger, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
