Bunker ball - the new defense vs. Crew?

I don't think it's a new defense against the Crew. The Revs did it to perfection against the Crew in the Semis last year and DAU was also effective in Panama using that strategy to beat the Crew 2-1. It's a hard nut to crack if done well, just ask the Dutch. I would imagine it kind of feels like the British soldiers felt about the Americans during the Revolution, "Why don't you come out behind the trees and face us on the open field like men."

Here's the problem as I see it. The Crew are a speed team. They use their speed to create mismatches up top, maybe get a defender one v one with some support coming. Speed is great and it will kill quickly, but it means jacksh!t if the people are already there waiting for you. Imagine running from a cop for two blocks and then running smackdab into a squad car. It hurt us in the NE series and it hurt us in the Metros game.

That's what happened to the Crew and will keep happening to the Crew unless they get a little more creative in the midfield. When you face something like what the Metros did, you got to switch the point of the attack often, from side to side to the middle every time you have the ball. The Crew have a very bad habit of attacking down one side of the pitch at a time. It makes them predictable and susceptible to bunkerball tactics. Go back and look at the comeback win against KC in the US Open Cup. The Crew franticly switched sides of attack and came from every angle trying to get back in the game. That's what is needed to break the bunker.

Of course that's the creative way to get around the problem and the most interesting to watch. Another way is to play bunkerball yourself and, like two counter punching boxers, see who takes the bait first. Kind of a game of chicken. The team that gets tired of Pu$$yfooting around the mid 3rd of the pitch, usually is the one that gets hurt. I like to call it the "nap offense" because you might as well take one. But it worked in England for a long time.

 

I was thinking the same thing yesterday watching the match. The Metros really didn't attack much at all, but made the most of their opportunities. They had 8 or 9 behind the ball all game, but I think we also didn't attack where we had openings. It's very hard to play an effective bunker system across the entire field, and the Metros proved that. There was quite a bit of space on the flanks that we couldn't exploit. We tried the force the attack up the middle too much, and when we did go down the flanks, our crossing was terrible. There's no question in my mind you'll see the Wizards try a similar plan this weekend, and how we respond will say a lot about this team.

 

Just to throw a wrench into all of this...

It would be nice to have a player like Dante to bust up some of the central defenders when they start playing like this. They'll get tired real quick, and then we can get thru a bit easier.

Ok, had to play the provoker for a minute.

But seriously, I thought we really looked out of sync this weekend. I don't know if we were so tired from all the midweek games prior that we got lazy during last weeks prep-time or what. It occured to me, that Greg is a decent coach, but certainly not one of the best. I think if the Crew, with the talent they currently have, had a world-class coach, that we'd be unstoppable this season.

 

I think now everyone is saying hooray for Dante now that he is gone.

The Dante I remember was the one who would shoot over the goal 6 yards out with an empty net.

 

Maybe so, but I've been a Dante Washington fan for a long time and have been very consistent about it.

The game on Saturday was boring, terrrible. As unexciting a match as you'll see. But get used to it because that's the way it's going to be this year.

Teams don't think they have the talent to compete with us, so they're simply going to pack it in and hope for either a draw or a counter and a 1 0 win. Somebody (hang maybe) made a comment that in his opinion the Metros goal was just lucky. Well I agree. The ball bounced around off some people. It certainly wasn't part of an offensive scheme.

That's because there wasn't one. What did they do, or try to do, offensively the entire game? Next to nothing.

And it's not that hard to clog up your opponents' misfield when you have 9 people behind the ball.

It's the new curse of soccer and nobody anywhere has figured out exactly what to do about it. It sucks, but it's pretty much what we're going to see all year long. Nobody is going to be willing to open it up and run with us, so they're going to bore us to death.

Everybody, fans included, is going to have to learn some patience this year.

It's a pity because we could show people some attractive soccer, maybe help some people become fans and demonstrate how much fun the game can be. Instead we're going to have to sit through a lot of 1 - 0 borefests, watching our forwards get manhandled like a cheerleader after the Prom.

This crap is wrecking the game, not just here but everywhere.

 

Thank goodness I didn't see this mess. Instead, I got to watch the replay of Man City - West Ham, which seemed to be much of the same scenario.

The Crew might be a speed team but it seems that they found a few ways to be bunker ball last year, albeit in the last 20 minutes of matches.

It would seem that bunker ball has been a problem through the history of the sport, and similar to the offside trap, if it really was that effective, all matches would be 1-0.

I always had the impression that a lot of midfield possession and making the defenders chase just a bit to open up some lanes - a lot of forward/backward passes was the way to cure it.

I also think a reason we are seeing more bunker ball is because the coaches running these clubs have little concept on how to play attacking footy.

 

You're all turning into a bunch of Paul Gardners. You want to break down a team? Put more players into the attack.

Seems for such at "attacking/attractive" side, Columbus is kind of timid about leaving itself open for counter attacks (this is called "playing smart" see: Galaxy, LA). Also, think Metro-Crew games might look a little bit different when Guevara and a healthy Mathis/Moreno tandem are injected into their lineup?

 

the only time I ever want to compared to Paul Gardner is when referring to that team in Jersey as the Rotmasters.

 

Raoul,

Let's hope Jeffy keeps this up so that no one on the Crew will be "surprised" in future matches.

 

I don't think there's a more attack-minded, aggressive, take-chances team in MLS than the Crew. Every time down they send at least one and often both outside backs, plus Garcia, Martino and the forwards and sometimes either Paule or Mais.

Timid my ass - they send everybody but Andrulis.

And speaking of timid, when did the Metros ever have more than two (three once or twice) guys upfield? They packed it in and held Mathis up top. Everybody else was playing scared bunny.

I don't care who you "inject" into the lineup, if they're standing in your goal they aren't going to score. You're just crazy.

 

Pretty soon you're going to start sounding like Octavio Zambrano circa '98, complaining about how the Fire didn't allow the Galaxy to run wild. You guys have a fast exciting team, but don't expect other MLS teams to play into your hands. If you don't like tactics, you're watching the wrong sport. Though many on Bigsoccer would like soccer to be "judged" like figure skating for artistic merit, some times it's also necessary to defend. And the Crew do that pretty well, too.

 

I thought that if the Metros had Guevara, we would have seen a better game. Without him, the Metros had absolutely no midfield and I knew, JUST KNEW, they were going to play bunkerball. That had on other choice. If they came out to play soccer, we would have destroyed them. But they get the lucky bounce and we go away with no points. Sucks.

 

I think in previous games we did a good job of spreading the teams out switching the ball from left to right. This match we didn't. Our passing was way off.

 

I think you're right about this. You have to spread the field side-to-side to create some cracks. We played a very middle-of-the-field game. Some of that was due to the defense channeling us that way, but we needed matchups like Hajduk/Leitch out near the touchline and we just weren't getting them.

 

Yes, our flanks were shut down. Paule and Hejduk would get stopped from going down the flank. The defenders pressured them back to the middle. Then when we gave the ball back to Martino he was marked up and knocked to the ground.

We need to be able to change formations in these kind of situations. Maybe that 4-3-3 isn't a bad idea after all.

 

The Crew seemed to lack a couple of things.

First they need better set piece work. The best chances against a bunker come off of corners and free kicks. You need to be able to score off if you expect to win. I didnt see anything from the crew that looked very threatening on their set peices.

Second they needed to be more active off the ball and work better combinations. Lots of circular passing that worked the ball incrementally to the goal and trying to attack off the dribble, but put 0 pressure on the defense. Think the crew needed to do a better job running off the ball to break down the defenses shape and open up gaps for players.

The biggest thing is the set pieces, you should be able to get plenty of opportunities, once you get that first (before they get their first that is) the rest of the game should open up for you.

 

Bunker ball usually won't work against you guys. It's just that we had Clark, Williams, Pope, and Jolley playing amazing defense.

 

There was one play in particular where we needed Dante. After Howard saved Westie point-blank, McBride got to the loose ball and flicked it right into the six-yard box. Dante would have been there drooling; the rest of our team weren't and the opportunity was wasted.

 

You should actually watch the game before posting this nonsense. The Crew had 7-8 players in the attack most of the game. Both Denton and Hejduk made consistent deep runs into the attack with only Clark and Dunseth sitting back. And even Clark stayed up a few times after set pieces (even tried a dribbling move like Jeff Cunningham with a similar result - dribbled it out of bounds).

 

.....and shooting it over the top bar