[dropcap]S[/dropcap]unday evening, a sold out MAPFRE Stadium will host leg one of the Eastern Conference Finals as Columbus Crew SC welcome in Supporters Shield winners New York Red Bulls.
This will be the first time since 2008 that Crew SC will play host to a match this deep in the playoffs when the Black and Gold managed to take home the MLS Cup.
The weather at the stadium is expected to be rather abysmal, with a game-time temperature of just 30 degrees, though no precipitation is expected as Columbus had the rough weather come through the state on Saturday evening. While this may sound like a rough night, the atmosphere in the stadium is expected to be electric.
What to expect for lineups
Crew SC (4-2-3-1): Clark, Afful, Parkhurst, Wahl, Francis; Trapp, Tchani; Meram, Higuain, Finlay; Kamara
NYRB (4-2-3-1): Robles; Zizzo, Miazga, Zubar, Lawrence; Kljestan, McCarty; Sam, Martins, Grella; Wright-Phillips
There will not be much of a surprise for either of these lineups unless a late injury occurs. Crew SC defender Gaston Sauro, who was tasked with shutting down Didier Drogba in the conference semi-finals, will miss the first leg on yellow card suspension. Harrison Afful is currently on a warning, so he’ll have to be careful in this first match.
Sauro has been critical to the strengthening of the back four for Columbus, so he will be sorely missed as Tyson Wahl has been inconsistent for most of the season. Parkhurst has experienced a good run of form lately, so Crew fans will hope that continues.
Tony Tchani had to come off in the second leg against Montreal Impact due to a knock, but the word is that he should be ready to go for this match thanks to the international break providing him much needed rest. With a healthy Tchani and Trapp, the pivot pairing controls the match as well as anyone in the league.
The attacking four for Crew SC will want to get out of the blocks quickly in the same way they did against Montreal. Kamara’s amazing season continued two weeks ago with a pivotal brace against Montreal and one has to believe that he’ll need to keep scoring for this team to continue on its path to the finals.
For New York, the Supporters Shield winners managed to avoid any yellow card suspensions against rather hapless D.C. United in their 2-0 aggregate win, but the club has four players who could serve a suspension with their next card with Miazga, Zubar, Wright-Phillips, and Kljestan all on the brink.
Crew SC will see a different style of attack on Sunday in comparison to their previous round opponents. BWP is still a scary attacked, though he is not the hold-up striker that Drogba is. Wright-Phillips likes to make smart cuts behind the back four and try to get the ball in stride, so Parkhurst and Wahl will have to be on alert and watch for those passes, especially with Lloyd Sam on the wing looking inside.
Luis Robles didn’t have much to do in the previous series as he only had to make two saves in the second leg against D.C. United, but he is far from the perfect keeper. A tad undersized at just six feet tall, the key to beating Robles is to test him on movement. Peppering the goal with shots is one thing, but making him move side to side and try to lay out for saves will be the key as he is not the best at stretching to get shots aimed for the corners. Miazga and Zubar are excellent defenders and hard to crack, but Crew SC have done it in the past this season, scoring four goals against this defense in three matches.
Prediction
All three regular season matchups between these two clubs ended in a 2-1 scoreline, with NYRB taking home two of the victories. Neither of these teams are perfect, but they love to play attacking football and are willing to give up counter-attacks if it means getting an extra attacker or two into the box. This should be an insanely fun series to watch, and with Crew SC riding an emotional high after knocking off Montreal in extra time two weeks ago, it isn’t hard to say that Crew SC could pull this out.
Crew SC – 2
NYRB – 1
