Thanks to a second half goal from Marino Hinestroza, the Columbus Crew snatched a point on the road in Nashville this past Saturday. Hinestroza’s equalizer coupled with Sean Zawadski’s opening goal was enough to ensure the Crew a result despite an outburst of attacking play from Nashville in first half stoppage time.

Columbus played the entire match without star Cucho Hernandez who was kept from participating due to “team policy” as Wilfried Nancy informed the media after the match. The Crew now face their biggest match of the year so far as Mexican club Tigres travels to Ohio’s capital for the first leg of their CONCACAF Champions Cup (CCC) quarterfinal. The Crew are up against it as they will be without Rudy Camacho, Christian Ramirez and Sean Zawadski. It is also unclear if Cucho will play a part in this match as Wilfried Nancy refused to clear the air on what the situation is surrounding Cucho. Regardless, the Crew need to set themselves up well for an incredibly difficult trip to Mexico a week from Tuesday with a good result in the first leg. Here is what to expect from Tigres and how Columbus can gain an advantage in leg one.

Tigres at a Glance:

Record: 7-3-3, 24 points

Recent Form (All Comps): W,W,W,L,D

Leading Scorer: Francisco Cordova, Juan Brunetta, Nicolas Ibanez (4)

Assist Leader: Nicolas Ibanez (4)

Player to Watch: Juan Brunetta

Brunetta has scored 4 goals and recorded 3 assists in 13 Liga MX matches and is the ringleader of the Tigres attack. Primarily operating in the center of midfield, Brunetta is the main source of creativity for Tigres. An excellent passer, Brunetta excels at receiving the ball in space and spraying the ball to isolated wide attackers or playing penetrating passes behind the backline. The 26 year old Argentine also has the ability to score himself and is a threat to shoot with time and space in the attacking third. Brunetta also drops a bit deeper in possession to create an overload and help Tigres progress the ball into the attacking third. Oftentimes, Liga MX teams will rotate their squad when they come to play in the States in the CCC, but with Brunetta only playing 65 minutes in Tigres’ last match, the Black & Gold should be prepared to contend with Tigres’ number 11 for a large part of the match on Tuesday. 

How Tigres plays: 

Tigres head coach Robert Siboldi has Tigres flying at the moment. They are firmly in the Liga MX title race and in the quarterfinals of the CCC in large part thanks to two factors. They are extremely talented and Siboldi knows the right way to steer the ship. Siboldi is not reinventing the wheel with Tigres, but he has proven his ability to manage his side and set them up for success. 

Siboldi’s side are similar to Columbus in terms of their principles of play, keep possession when possible, press high to win the ball back and strike in attacking transition. However, their respective formations and shapes are a bit different. Siboldi prefers to play out of a 4-2-3-1 formation and almost exclusively plays with a back four, no matter what the midfield or attacking lines look like, making it unlikely for the Crew to see a formation that matches theres on Tuesday.

In possession, Siboldi asks his outside backs to push high up the field and for his wingers to move inside to central areas. This is especially important to Siboldi when his team enters the attacking third. This shape allows Tigres to have a solid base of 2 center backs and 2 central midfielders to circulate the ball and prevent counterattacks, with numbers in advanced central and wide areas to stress opposing defenses. This system is similar to how Nashville set up in possession last Saturday and is similar to what Columbus fans saw from Caleb Porter during his time in Columbus.

Out of possession, Tigres typically defend in a 4-1-4-1 shape with the press being initiated by a lone forward. Tigres usually look to press high up the field, although they may drop their line a little deeper against Columbus. Tigres will have their wingers press high up the field as well when the ball goes to opponents outside backs. For this match, my presumption is that these wingers will look to occupy the passing lanes between the Columbus center backs and wingbacks. This 4-1-4-1 shape is built to be very solid and relies heavily on the Tigre’s central midfield covering ground and winning the ball back. Tigres are the fourth best defense in Liga MX giving up 1.1 goals per match.

How the Crew can win:

This is the biggest match of the year so far for the Black & Gold and a good result here will make their trip to Monterrey next week a bit easier. Here are a few things the Black & Gold must do in order to gain an advantage in leg 1. 

1. Dominate Possession: This is always a part of the Columbus game plan but is especially important today. Both the Crew and Tigres are teams that keep possession for large portions of games and thus, don’t defend for long stretches very often. If the Crew can keep the ball the majority of the time tonight they’ll be able to control the flow of the match and make Tigres uncomfortable defending. This uncomfortability could lead to mistakes for Columbus to punish.
2. Defend Crosses from Wide Areas: Three of the last four goals the Crew have conceded have come off crosses from wide areas. In fact, of the seven goals that the Crew have given up this year you could argue that four of them come from service in wide areas. This will be especially important with Camacho’s absence. The Crew backline and goalkeeper will need to defend this service effectively and the midfield will have to help in winning the second balls to limit any potential goal scoring chances off of crosses.

Find the Free Player in Possession: The Crew will be up a man in the midfield area in possession. The Crew typically commit anywhere from 4-6 players to central areas of the field in possession. Tigres typically only defend with three central players in midfield. This means the Crew will have a numerical advantage in these areas tonight. This advantage is only useful if the Crew can find this free player in possession. Look for the Crew backline, wingbacks and even goalkeeper to try and find the free player in possession. If the Crew do this well, they will be able to break the Tigres defense down and run at the backline all night long.

Headed to Lower.com Field for the contest? Gates now open at 8 PM with kickoff scheduled for 8:30 PM.