Back on track! Columbus Crew snap winless skid against West-leading Vancouver | OneFootball

By Ben Wright

The Columbus Crew ended a six-match winless rut on Saturday night, grabbing a commanding 2-1 win over Vancouver Whitecaps FC in a clash between two of the top sides in MLS.

It all happened so fast as Columbus opened the scoring inside two minutes, conceded four minutes later and scored the winner before the 25th-minute mark. While the scoreline was a roller coaster, head coach Wilfried Nancy wasn't surprised. In fact, he's adamant that the Crew have deserved more from the last month of matches.

"We deserve more wins, but we didn't do it," he smiled. "Today, I cannot explain really. We did a good game like the many games that we did, but we scored two goals and we defended better also."

Halting one of the league's best

Nancy and the Crew had a full two weeks to ruminate on a stunning 5-1 loss to Inter Miami. They responded with a statement win at home, handing the previously league-leading Whitecaps their first road loss of the season. Unsurprisingly, the manager gave all the credit to his players.

"I'm happy for the players, because obviously they were not happy for the last game," Nancy said. "But like I told you, the spirit and the intensity during the practice was really up. And tonight, they showed that it was an accident and they deserve that and I'm really, really happy for them."

Tactical experimentation

The Crew got a pair of match-winning performances from unexpected positions. Ibrahim Aliyu opened the scoring via an assist from Lassi Lappalainen, who made his first start in Columbus colors. Playing as inverted wingbacks, the two took to their new roles quickly, needing only two minutes to link up for a goal. As you would expect, Nancy was pleased.

"[Aliyu] played in the position that he almost never played, as a wingback. But I'm really pleased with the goal," he said.

"Why am I really pleased? Because again, this is what we want to bring with the wingback. And also Lassi, right wingback, made the assist for the left wingback. This is exactly what we want to do to attack. So good movement. Lassi speeds up the play, and also the action was really interesting."

Off and running

Dániel Gazdag arrived in Columbus two months ago with high expectations. The Hungarian international was an automatic goalscorer with the Philadelphia Union and was expected to fill a similar role for the Crew after his transfer. His start in Ohio was significantly slower than anticipated, though, failing to record a goal or assist in his first nine matches.

The 10th proved to be the charm as Gazdag set up the game-winning goal, pouncing on a loose ball to spring Diego Rossi free in the box for a simple finish. While the stats haven't been there for Gazdag just yet, Nancy says Saturday's effort merely highlighted his impact.

"I think that he was involved. Obviously not goals or assists like today, but before the assists," he reflected. "Like I said, I'm not concerned by Dániel. He just needed a bit of time. He was able to play between the lines, also to go wide when this was the good moment, to play in front of the line and to make the running behind.

"So good for him. This is only the beginning."

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