Columbus Crew SC vs New York Red Bulls MLS Regular Season Match - Saturday, June 9, 5:00 PM - MAPFRE Stadium Broadcast: ESPN, WatchESPN, ESPN Deportes Links: MLS Match Center Vitals: Columbus Crew SC 26 P / 15 G / 1.73 PPG | 7W-3L-5D | 21 GF / 13 GA / 8 GD | L5: WWWDD New York Red Bulls 22 P / 12 G / 1.83 PPG | 7W-4L-1D | 27 GF / 14 GA / 136 GD | L5: WWWDL Goal Leaders: Columbus Crew SC Gyasi Zardes - 9 Federico Higuaín - 4 Lalas Abubakar - 1 Harrison Afful - 1 Ricardo Clark - 1 Alex Crognale - 1 Mike Grella - 1 Pedro Santos - 1 Milton Valenzuela - 1 New York Red Bulls Bradley Wright-Phillips - 9 Derrick Etienne - 3 Alejandro Romero Gamarra - 3 Daniel Royer - 3 Florian Valot - 3 Carlos Rivas - 2 Previous Meeting: September 23, 2017 @ MAPFRE Stadium Columbus Crew SC 3, New York Red Bulls 2 Notes: National TV. Players missing. Spirits crushed. Nothing exists; even if something exists, nothing can be known about it; and even if something can be known about it, knowledge about it can't be communicated to others. Oh, and it's the Grella Game. Discuss.
Funny thing is, I actually saw him when he was with Karlsruhe, though he did not play that day (he played later in that season).
Meara's been excellent in his absence, as he was in his rookie season. Really hard to believe the guy has stuck around so long waiting for the chance to prove himself again.
Crewster Point standings going into the weekend games: EAST NYC 9 Atlanta 5 NYRB 4 DC 3 Columbus 2 Philadelphia -3 New England -5 Orlando -5 Montreal -6 Chicago -7 Toronto -10 WEST Portland 6 LAFC 6 Kansas City 4 Dallas 2 Salt Lake 1 Houston 0 Vancouver -1 LA Galaxy -4 Minnesota -5 San Jose -6 Seattle -7 Colorado -13
Robles starting: https://www.newyorkredbulls.com/post/2018/06/07/luis-robles-will-start-saturday-columbus
What about asking the obvious question, why did Ketterer start the Open Cup match instead of Kempin? and more generally why doesn't Gregg take the Cup seriously?
That is the $1996 question. And its not that we dont, we just do what most teams do, play the B team in cup games and live with the result.
We all know Red Bulls press. They press hard, fast and as a team. They pounce on loose square passes like kittens at a laser pointer. The interesting thing happens AFTER they snag one of those passes or turn you over when you try to dribble. They immediately go vertical. The first pass after they gain possession is designed to hurt you, it's the plan from the start. It's not so much a counter attack, because they want to win the ball back immediately, before you really can transition to offense, but as you're moving to do so, caught in between those phases and out of shape defensively for sure. I figure it's likely to be Artur and Clark in the middle with Pipa. All will need to be sharp and quick in their decisions. The wingers too, we like to play square towards the middle, finding Pipa or the CMs when we switch fields, NY loves to grab those passes and go the other way. They don't like to do so in wide areas, they go right up the middle. Again, Artur and Clark will need to be ready for those immediate transitions and our center backs must stay close so as not to leave space for a through ball behind them. Tactically, NYRBs are my favorite team to watch. I wondered how they were going to replace Kleijstan, I've been impressed with how they've done it. Gamarra doesn't bring the experience or physicality that Kleijstan did, but he's got 3g9A in 11 games. He's the kind of young DP, like our own Milton Valenzuela that the league should be after. Ignore him at our peril.
It's for all of these reasons that this is the game I'm most excited for so far this season. I just love the way Red Bull play and I am really curious to see how Columbus matches up against them. I only wish that both Trapp and Adams were here for this as well.
If Kempin gets hurt, we'd have been down to Ketterer for possibly the next two league games. It's not they way I would have gone, to be sure. But it's defensible.
How often do GK get hurt? Fear of injury is no way to select a squad. I’d rather keep Kempin in form with active work than sit him. Play your B team not your C team
More often than you might think. Wasn't there a season the Crew went through 5-6 goalies due to injury?? And of course, Bayern played their no 2 and no. 3 goalies most of the season due to injuries to Neuer.
On the injury front: From what Berhalter said today, it sounds like both Pedro Santos and Jonathan Mensah will be available for selection tomorrow against #RBNY.— Patrick Murphy (@_Pat_Murphy) June 8, 2018