Now what? Columbus Crew trying to shake off 'poor' close in loss at Orlando City SC
There are occasional barriers for a deep thinker searching for the right words in a second language.
That was the situation Crew coach Wilfried Nancy found himself in Saturday night in Orlando. Less than half an hour earlier, the final whistle at Exploria Stadium set off a frenzy for the local fans and cemented a stunning collapse for the visitors. What had been a 3-1 Crew lead with less than 20 minutes to play instead turned into a 4-3 win for Orlando City SC, one sealed by a free kick earned in the final seconds of stoppage time that led to Ramiro Enrique’s 97th-minute winner.
It had Nancy, a native French speaker, trying to find a good word to summarize what went wrong. Ultimately, he settled on one.
Nancy called it “poor.” And on this night, he might have been generous not to land on other four-letter words that can’t be printed here. With a chance to climb from fifth to second in the Eastern Conference standings, a Crew team riding good vibes engendered by a win at CF Montreal that led into a two-week break instead enters a quick turnaround with a few pressing questions to answer.
Atop the list: what lead, if any, is safe? After taking a 1-0 lead into the half, the Crew gave up an early second-half goal but weathered the moment and went ahead 2-1 on a nice feed from Yaw Yeboah to Diego Rossi for his 50th MLS goal. Then, in what was shaping up to be a wide-open game, the Crew got that occasionally elusive third goal courtesy of an aggressive run by Alex Matan and pass to Cucho Hernandez in the 68th minute.
As the clock ticked upward, the game continued to open up. And rather than try and kill the game off, the Crew played along as Orlando continued to press.
“As soon as we got the ball, the space was there to attack so we attacked,” Nancy said. “This is difficult to tell the player not to attack. We finished the action but we didn’t have the time to step the line and be up the pitch. That’s why we have to be stronger when we have situations (so) that this is not a chance for them, but because of the way we act, this is a chance for them.”
Or, in other words, the Crew can’t allow its opponents to turn their aggression into opportunities like Orlando did. The Lions cut it to 3-2 on a play that started with a long ball played from Orlando’s defensive half of the field that left the Crew defense scrambling and unable to stop Facundo Torres from making an untouched attacking run into the box to finish a pass from Martin Ojeda in the 73rd minute.
Six minutes later, Orlando tied it after Crew midfielder Aidan Morris was called for a foul while challenging for another long ball, giving Orlando City a free kick from a dangerous spot along the right flank. That service was met by Crew defender Yevhen Cheberko, but he headed the ball back toward the center of the box where Ramiro Enrique beat Crew goalkeeper Patrick Schulte to tie the game.
The game-winner, again, was set up by a free kick after a Crew foul, and again it was Enrique who finished it.
“Yes, I can talk about we have to fight,” Nancy said. “We fought, but we conceded two free kicks because we fought. For me, this is not about fighting. This is about having more energy when it’s difficult. Be able to keep the score and stay on what we need to do to play 95 minutes defensively and offensively.”
There were specific decisions that could have prevented the goals. Morris’ foul. Cheberko’s header. Schulte’s attempt to punch the final cross out of the box that came up empty, leaving an open goal for Enrique to find.
Midfielder Julian Gressel, who scored the opening goal and was subbed out with the Crew still leading 3-2 in the 80th minute, said it’s a lesson about being more “ruthless” in killing off a game with a lead.
“You’re up 3-1 with 20 minutes to go and have the feeling of OK, we should win this game, we should see it out,” he said. “Then it’s 3-2 and maybe emotions and different feelings come up. It’s maybe about how we finish games and seeing out plays and being ruthless at certain moments, especially towards the end of the game. We’ll have a lot to learn from and we’ll take the right steps to get better.
“(Don’t) let one bad 20 minutes, one bad final stretch turn into a bad performance in three days. That’s going to be the message.”
They won’t have much time. After a two-week international break, this marked the first of three games in eight days for the Crew. Wednesday night, Chicago comes to Lower.com Field, giving the Crew a quick turnaround before one of only three home games remaining in the season.
Nancy said that’s a good thing.
“This one is really difficult to accept,” he said of the Orlando loss. “Now this is the kind of moment where it’s difficult we have to be better. I’m happy we’re going to be able to play Wednesday. The quicker we turn around, the better this will be for us.”
Or at least, that’s the Crew’s hope.
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: In Columbus Crew loss vs. Orlando City, 'poor' defending to blame
