Pablo Mastroeni battles with the Crew’s Emilio Renteria last season.
Before the Rapids face Eastern Conference foe Columbus on Saturday, we take a look at their opening opponent — the Crew.
Columbus Dispatch MLS reporter Adam Jardy helped The Terrace and Rapids fans this week scout the Crew heading into Saturday’s game in Ohio.
In turn, check out how we answered Adam’s questions about the Rapids at Dispatch.com.
1. The Crew and Rapids enter with the same number of wins and points. But Columbus seems on better footing this season. Is that fair? How’s the Crew’s run been so far? What are your early impressions? Who stands out?
Adam Jardy: The Crew is still finding out if it can live up to lofty expectations put forth by the front office. Team president and general manager Mark McCullers has said as recently as last Thursday that he thinks this team has a chance to host the MLS Cup, and technical director Brian Bliss has told me numerous times that there are no plans to upgrade or change the roster for the foreseeable future. What you see is what you get, but the problem with that is the Crew hasn’t quite lived up to those expectations just yet.
To be fair, the club has had significant turnover during the offseason and can be reasonably expected to experience growing pains through the early going. We’ve seen flashes of the team’s potential, but the players will admit that consistency has been an issue. This three-game homestand was supposed to be a chance for the Crew to come away with nine points, but a disappointing loss to a talented New York side last weekend has made this game a must-win. The thought is that once this team gets rolling it will be hard to stop, but something has to give it that first big push.
Aside from the obvious names, Dominic Oduro has been a standout from the standpoint of his early-season productivity. Crew fans knew about his speed and potential, but I’m not sure many knew he would have had as much success as he has experienced so far. Josh Williams at right back has proven to be dangerous in the attack, and designated player Federico Higuain remains one of the best dead-ball specialists in the league — when he’s not having penalties saved, that is.
2. The Rapids nearly worked a trade in the offseason that would have sent Jeff Larentowicz to Columbus for the rights to Robbie Rogers. Instead, the Crew made that trade with Chicago, sending Dilly Duka for Dominic Oduro. It seems like it worked well for Columbus and Colorado. Any reason to regret that trade? Oduro’s been stellar so far, yeah?
Zero regrets on the Crew’s side. As I mentioned before, Oduro has been a key asset in the Crew attack this season and actually has played well enough to relegate last year’s co-leading scorer Jairo Arrieta to the bench for three games. His speed, whether on the right flank or up top, has allowed Higuain to find space in the attacking half, and his goals have mostly been of the spectacular variety.
Whether he can continue to produce at this rate is anyone’s guess, but Oduro is on pace for his most prolific season. Duka has been slowed by injuries and has not made much of an impact yet with the Fire, and honestly it would be interesting to see where Larentowicz would have actually fit in the Crew’s lineup. It’s still early, but the returns so far have been positive for the Crew.
3. Columbus and Colorado have both struggled the past two seasons after winning hardware from 2008-10 (Rapids’ lone Cup win in 2010 and the Crew’s golden years in 2008-09). Do these teams have similar fates? Are they bound by the same so-called “small-market” limitations? For comparison, what should Crew fans expect from their team as far as front-office effort and national relevance?
To an extent, they are as bound by “small-market” limitations as every other team in the league. The Crew is basically maxed out under the salary cap, and it does not have the financial ability to go out and acquire multiple designated players. They have to be economical, and we saw that with last season’s signings of Arrieta and Higuain. Both players are paid well, but Higuain is the 11th-highest paid DP in the league and Arrieta is the fifth-highest paid player on the Crew roster. The Crew is not a team that can afford to miss with larger contracts, plain and simple.
The front office has never been known to be loose with cash for the Crew, and the team has been publicly touting a number of key financial objectives that will help it simply break even. Columbus will never be New York or Los Angeles from a national perspective — a fact played out each year when the national television broadcast schedule is released — and that leaves it with one chance to make a name for itself: just win, baby.
I truly believe having a winning, exciting team that is fully embraced by the city is the only way to increase the team’s national relevance, and I’m not sure that’s much different in Columbus than it is in Colorado.