After a strong opening match last Saturday against Atlanta United, the Columbus Crew hit the road for their first road match of 2024. This time, the Black & Gold travel north to take on Western Conference foes Minnesota United.

The Loons, who also won in week 1, are in the midst of a coaching transition after a long search that stemmed from the club’s dismissal of long-time manager Adrian Heath. Minnesota announced earlier this week that current Manchester United assistant Eric Ramsay has been appointed as the next head coach for the Loons. Despite this announcement, Ramsay will not be on the bench for Minnesota on Saturday as he awaits his work visa. Interim Manager Cameron Knowles will continue in this role in the Twin Cities until Ramsay’s arrival.

On the other side, this match marks the beginning of a busy period for the Crew as they will look to continue gathering points in the league before beginning their CONCACAF Champions Cup run next Wednesday in Houston. After a strong performance in week one, the Crew looks to gain maximum points again as they push for more silverware in 2024. Here’s what to expect from Minnesota and how the Crew can bring three points back to Columbus.

Minnesota United at a Glance:

League Record: 1-0-0, 3 points

Form: W

Leading Scorer: Alejandro Bran, Robin Lod (1)

Assist Leader: Tani Oluwaseyi (1)

Player to Watch: Teemu Puki

The 33 year old Finnish international has made a splash after signing for Minnesota last summer. Puki, who is best known for his time with Norwich City in the Premier League and Championship, scored 10 goals and recorded two assists in just 19 matches for the Loons last year. Now in his first full year in MLS, Puki will be looking to build off his fast start and be atop the goalscoring charts in 2024.

What really sets Puki apart is his movement off the ball and his ability to threaten the opponents goal with his attacking movement. While he is not super involved in his side’s build up play, Puki is adept at drifting into space off of the defenders shoulders and running in behind. In addition to creating space and opportunities for himself, Puki’s movement also creates space for his teammates as defenders struggle to track Puki across the pitch. On top of his attacking movement, Puki is an out-and-out finisher in the 18. The Fin has the ability to score from distance, with both feet, and his head as well as being one of the best one-on-one finishers in MLS. Since the Crew play a high line in defense, and don’t typically play natural defenders, expect Puki to be a handful for the Black & Gold on Saturday.

How Club Minnesota plays: 

As previously discussed, the Loons just announced a new head coach, but that new head coach will not be on the bench this weekend. Thus, there are a few question marks around how the Loons will set up tactically and play on Saturday.

How much influence will new coach Ramsay have on the side? How many changes will be made? Or will it be business as usual under interim coach Cameron Knowles until Ramsay’s arrival. We will get most of the answers to these questions shortly after kick-off on Saturday. However, there are a few things I think you can expect to see no matter what from the Loons.

In their first matchup of the year against Austin, Knowles and the Loons lined up in a traditional 4-3-3 formation, this could be tweaked to a 4-2-3-1 against Columbus, but regardless, I expect to see Minnesota play in a back four Saturday. When the Loons have possession, they typically look to move both of their outside backs into advanced wide areas, while their wingers drift into the half spaces. This helps them create overloads in both central and wide areas with the ball. Perhaps a bit of a surprise was how direct the Loons were last week. All four members of the Loons back line attempted double-digit long passes in order to progress the ball up the field. When these long balls are played, Minnesota looks to win the first and second balls before attacking a disrupted back line.

Defensively, the Loons 4-3-3 shape shifted into more of a 4-5-1 shape last weekend. Despite this defensive change, the United regularly pressed Austin high up the field and had members of the 5 man midfield line leaving their line to press higher up the field when appropriate. Knowing the the Crew are a heavily possession based team, I expect Minnesota to try and apply pressure high up the field as much as possible to try and disrupt the Black & Gold rhythm on Saturday, and maybe force a dangerous chance via turnovers as well.

How the Crew can win:

1. Find Cucho, Rossi and the striker in Possession: When Columbus has the ball on Saturday, the back three, wingbacks, and central midfielders will all be tightly marked due to Minnesota’s 4-5-1 defensive shape. Despite this, Cucho and Rossi will be able to create an overload in the midfield by checking back to the ball from the front line. When they do this, the Crew will more than likely have an overload in the central midfield, which is incredibly dangerous. It’s even more dangerous when those two players are Cucho and Rossi. The Crew backline and wingbacks will need to look to play these forward, line-breaking passes to beat the Loons pressure and kickstart attacks on goal.
2. Clinical in Transition: When Minnesota has possession of the ball on Saturday, they will push lots of numbers into the attack. This will open up loads of space for the Crew to attack in transition. The Crew have shown glimpses of strong counterattack play under Wilfried Nancy and could do with a good counter-attacking performance on Saturday, as the space and opportunities will be there for the Black & Gold.

Defend the Long Ball: It’s no secret that the Crew plays with very few “natural” defenders. At times in the past, the Crew have struggled to deal with long and direct balls as a result of having players in the backline who aren’t used to dealing with these types of passes. The Crew will face a good amount of long balls on Saturday and need to be able to handle them defensively to keep the Loons at bay and collect the victory.