The Columbus Crew has hit a few speed bumps as the MLS season rolls on into the summer. With only one win in the team’s last 5 matches and only one win in MLS play in the last month, the Black & Gold are desperately looking to get back on track.

With Columbus’ current injury situation, including injuries to three center backs Milos Degenek, Josh Williams and Gustavo Vallecilla, it doesn’t seem likely to get much easier for the Crew any time soon. Thankfully for the Black & Gold, the opponent on Wednesday night is also struggling to find consistent form.

The Colorado Rapids come to Columbus having lost their last five matches in all competitions and are winless in the MLS since the beginning of May. It will keep getting worse for one of these sides on Wednesday night in a matchup at Lower.com Field

Here’s what you can expect from Colorado and how the Crew can take three points and get back to winning ways.

Colorado Rapids at a Glance:

Record: 2-6-7, 12 points

League Form: L-L-L-L-W

Leading Scorer: Kevin Cabral, Lalas Abubakar, Michael Barrios (2)

Assist Leader: Connor Ronan (3)

Player to Watch: Connor Ronan

With forward Diego Rubio out, the focus for the Black & Gold will shift to midfielder Connor Ronan for this game. Ronan has been one of the few bright spots to an otherwise dismal start to the Rapids 2023 campaign.

Playing in the central midfield, Ronan is very much the engine of this Colorado team. Ronan joined the Rapids earlier this year after leaving Wolverhampton Wanderers of the English Premier League. The 25-year-old Irishman rarely featured for Wolves and instead bounced around the English and Scottish leagues on loan. Now having landed in Colorado, Ronan has quickly adapted to MLS and is becoming a pivotal part of this Rapids team.

Ronan is important for Colorado both in and out of possession. In possession, Ronan has the ability to both circulate the ball side to side, as well as play the final ball to lead to scoring opportunities. Defensively, his positioning and defensive bite help the Rapids regain possession in central midfield and launch attacks.

How Colorado plays: 

Former Crew defender Robin Fraser is in his fourth season as the Rapids’ head coach after taking over in August 2019. Fraser has been successful with Colorado, including winning the Western Conference only a few years ago.

In his time with the Rapids, Fraser has stuck to a few key principles that are his signature. In the past, Colorado played with four defenders in some variation of a 4-2-3-2 or 4-1-4-1 formation. However, this year, Fraser has relied heavily on playing a system with three defenders. In fact, while it varies from time to time, the Rapids and Columbus shapes are pretty similar. What is not similar is how each team plays in this shape. 

When defending, Colorado very rarely apply pressure up the field. In fact, the Rapids’ Passes per Defensive Action (PPDA) is fifth highest in the league at 13.7, meaning that Colorado doesn’t win the ball back quickly upon losing possession. The Rapids also have the fewest Gigh Turnovers, how often a team wins possession in open play within 30 yards of the opponents’ goal.

Instead of high pressing, Colorado looks to defend deep with wing backs retreating into the backline to form a five-man defensive unit. Despite their focus on being compact defensively, the Rapids are tied for third-most goals against and have the second-highest amount of xG against them, indicating that the team is not particularly strong defensively. 

In possession, Colorado is capable of keeping the ball, but would much rather counter attack quickly. It is largely dictated by how the Rapids win possession back. When Colorado puts the ball back in play from a restart, or if the team wins the ball deep in its own half, the Rapids are happy to try and keep possession of the ball and break down their opponents. However, if they win the ball in open play and have a chance to counter attack quickly, they will try and do so.

Colorado one of the slower teams in terms of attack speed, but has the third-highest number of direct attacks this season, which indicates the team’s yin and yang style offensively.

How the Crew can win:

The Crew needs to get back to winning ways Wednesday night. A midweek loss at home to a struggling Western Conference side would be a real cause for concern. Conversely, a win can build some momentum for the Black & Gold as the schedule slows down a bit and the team gets healthier.

Here’s what Columbus needs to do in order to take three points on Wednesday.

Use the wide areas well. Colorado defends the central areas of the field really well. The Rapids do this by having a lot of numbers centrally and forcing the ball out wide. Thus, there is time and space in these areas for the Crew to exploit. If the Black & Gold can use this area of the field well, they will be able to either penetrate the 18-yard box from these wide areas or pull Colorado out of the central areas and open up space in front of the goal. Both of those are good outcomes for the Black & Gold and both come from being threatening out wide.

Defend the counter. The Crew tends to be open to the counter due to the numbers the team pushes forward in attack. Colorado will be happy to live off the counter Wednesday night. The Black & Gold need to do a good job organizing themselves to defend the counter and defending in transition in order to keep the Rapids from threatening in this phase. 

Defend set pieces. Colorado (and probably the whole league) will be licking their lips after watching Columbus struggle to defend set pieces Sunday against Nashville SC. The Crew will need to be much better in these moments on Wednesday. If not, it could hurt the team again. The good news is the Black & Gold have only conceded four goals from set pieces this year, so the adjustments needed after the Nashville game shouldn’t be too over the top.