The Columbus Crew were back in action on Friday night, but it was a match to forget for the Black & Gold faithful. Columbus welcomed Orlando City SC to a rain-delayed match inside of Lower.com Field in typical Crew fashion, dominating possession and generating decent attacking chances. At the end of the first 45 minutes though, it was still deadlocked at 0-0. Jacen Russell-Rowe and Daniel Gazdag had a few golden chances in front of the goalmouth that went begging, but the Black & Gold were trending upward in the first half. That pattern continued in the second half, with Diego Rossi opening the scoring from the spot to give the Crew a 1-0 lead with 24 minutes to go. From there, everything went downhill for Columbus. Orlando equalized thanks to an uncontested header that looped over Patrick Schulte, and then took the lead when a defending nightmare gifted the visitors a tap-in. The Black & Gold pushed for the tying goal deep into stoppage time, but Orlando doubled their advantage on a counterattack to take all three points.

In an utterly abysmal collapse by the Crew, let’s dive into the tactics.

The overall game plan

Columbus had a chokehold on this matchup for the better part of 65 minutes until everything unraveled. During that hour, the Black & Gold did some aspects very well, but Orlando made it easy on them.

Starting with the Crew’s tactics, Columbus opted to go for what Wilfried Nancy teams always do: overloading a side, finding the numerical advantage, and combining through quick passing. Of course, there are caveats to this flexible plan. The Black & Gold can go quick if they want or slow it down. They can attack down the flanks with wingbacks or up the gut with Darlington Nagbe and Co. The Crew has plans on top of plans, which were showcased in the first half.

When overloading a side did not work, Columbus made a smart move and decided to attack Orlando’s backline vertically. By having Ibrahim Aliyu and Max Arfsten high and wide, the Black & Gold always had a one-versus-one option against Orlando’s defense.

The Crew tended to look the most dangerous on offense when they found Aliyu over the top and in behind the defense. The visitors resorted to recovery defense, leaving passing lanes to create chances. Unfortunately for Columbus, the attack squandered those promising attacks with poor finishing.

Another tactical nugget for the Black & Gold was the outlook of the midfield. Early on in the game, Dylan Chambost tended to move forward into the attack. This left Nagbe as a lone no. 6, but he was not by himself for long.

As the Crew progressed into the attack, Steven Moreira and even Yevhen Cheberko would step in alongside Nagbe to make runs into the inside channels. This left Sean Zawadzki to deal with Orlando’s center forward, but he was used to that by now.

When Columbus opted to combine and pin Orlando in their half, one attacking movement stood out above all others. The Black & Gold were most successful when they played clipped balls over the defense to diagonal runners. Orlando had a propensity to ball-watch, so having a runner slip through on the defender’s back shoulder became an incredibly dangerous option.

But again, the Crew could make all the perfect passes they wanted to; what went begging was the final finish. Russell-Rowe could have bagged three goals in the first half, and Gazdag missed two really good chances as well. Even converting one or two of those opportunities could have been the difference in the game.

The truth is, Orlando adapted, and Columbus faltered at the finish line. For how much beautiful soccer Nancy’s men play, none of it matters if the ball does not end up in the back of the net.

The downfall

After the 66^th minute, the wheels fell off for the Black & Gold. In an epic collapse, the Crew conceded three goals in 24 minutes. What looked like three points soon faded to possibly one and then ended up being none.

So, what happened? How does such a well-coached team fall apart?

For starters, the signs were always there. There were moments leading up to Orlando’s goals where Columbus’ defense switched off and left Schulte in some hairy situations. Although the goalkeeper stood on his head on a few occasions, this matchup with Orlando might be one of the worst games Schulte had in a Black & Gold shirt.

So, to kick off the reasons why the Crew lost this game, we need to look at the goalkeeping. There are a few core tenets of goalkeeping that shot stoppers all over the world must heed. One of them is being decisive. Another is not getting beaten at your front post.

In the span of half an hour, Schulte managed to commit both cardinal sins of goalkeeping. On Orlando’s second goal, he was indecisive on whether to go for the cross or scramble across his goalmouth to make a save. That half-second of hesitation cost Columbus a goal. On the third goal, Schulte gets beat on a low shot to his front post – inexcusable for a professional goalkeeper of his quality.

Despite the less-than-lackluster performance, Schulte is not the only one to point fingers at. The Black & Gold defense’s love affair with lazy aerial defending reared its ugly head again on Friday. After Aliyu was caught with his head turned, Orlando got a cross into the box to an attacker who headed the ball into the back of the net with ease.

A simple switch of the point of attack caught the Crew’s defense napping, and a subsequent poor job of marking in the box – with no one goal side to the goal scorer – allowed Orlando to even the game without virtually any real resistance. Not a single Columbus player jumped to meet the ball or the attacker, leaving Orlando with almost a training exercise to score.

Finally, the third reason the Black & Gold blew this game rests with the Crew’s inconsistent offense. In the first half, Columbus created chance after chance but could not finish for the life of them. In the second half there were too many sloppy mistakes, missed passes, poor touches and lack of shooting that sunk the Black & Gold for good.

The Crew’s trend of making the extra pass when sometimes it would be better to shoot continued, never really challenging Pedro Gallese into making any difficult saves. On top of that, too many passes were out of reach of the targets, and Orlando picked Columbus’ pocket more times than fans can remember.

The fact of the matter is that the final 30 minutes of this contest showed every imperfection this Black & Gold squad still has to work through. Sloppiness, aerial deficiency, and occasional offensive ineptitude are all issues that the Crew had at prior points in the season. Tonight was the perfect storm of all of it to allow Orlando to claim all three points.

Columbus will need a quick reset before Tuesday’s Leagues Cup matchup with Toluca. Reinforcements are on the way, but they will need an adjustment period before they can elevate and alleviate the Black & Gold’s issues.