by Sunday, June 2nd, 2019 – Detroit City FC 3 FC Columbus 0
Sunday was one of the most complete and dominant performances City has ever put together. If it were a baseball game, it would’ve been a no-hitter. If it were a round of Mortal Kombat, it would’ve been a Flawless Victory. If it were a battle, it would’ve been Cannae, with Columbus playing the role of the encircled Romans, unable to move, waiting all afternoon in the Italian summer sun until it was their turn to die.
The only remotely nervy moments came in the first half, when the ball from a Columbus corner bounced around in front of Owen Finnerty a few times, and when City’s dominance in possession failed to result in any real quality chances.
In the second half, though, they started to wear Columbus down, mixing in a few more long balls and crosses until one finally found the head of Shawn Lawson for the breakthrough.
The sender of said cross, Kervin Kenton, changed the game when he came off the bench and was the fenceline’s unoffical Man of the Match. I’m not privy to front office dealings, but if he hasn’t been offered a pro contract yet, it should happen today. Quality left-sided defenders are hard to come by, and those who are equally proficient in attack are even less common. Grab him with both hands, sign him up, and never let him go.
At the end, Cyrus Saydee’s goal to make it 3-0 resulted in a picture which summed the match up perfectly.
City calm and in contol, Columbus utterly defeated after huffing, puffing, and chasing all evening, coming away with absolutely nothing to show for it.
Trevor James’ 3-5-2 formation has been the most obvious tactical difference between him and his predecessor, Ben Pirmann. But another, more subtle one, has been his tighter rotation of players.
Pirmann frequently juggled starting lineups, especially on two-match weekends, and was far more liberal with substitutions. So far, James has shown a preference to stick with basically the same starting XI, and to limit subs to about three, unless a comfortable lead opens up as it did on Sunday.
With the relatively constant lineups, you can see chemistry building between the players as they get more and more used to playing with each other. This is something I felt was missing last year, as well as in 2016 and at the start of 2017. I’ve speculated in the past that the rapport built by playing regularly with the same people was one of the reasons smaller clubs were able to give City such difficulty. My hypothesis was, although they may have had less talent on paper, those teams had more stable rosters and less in-season player turnover, which allowed them to become more familiar with each other and perform better as a unit.
Frequent rotation is great for getting everyone playing time and building team fitness, but I think James’ approach will lead to more continuity and be more beneficial in the long run. You can already see it starting to pay off:
(1) Shawn Lawson is killing it. My preseason prediction of 10 regular season goals now looks like it might be too conservative.
(2) The Deakin-Todd-Goodman-Diop midfield has displayed crisp passing, fantastic first touches and turns, and has relentlessly swarmed to recover the ball whenever it’s lost.
(3) The defense has been suffocating, with Stephen Carroll using his mobility and instincts to step up into the midfield and break up attacks while Moussa Gueye and Jalen Crisler provide cover behind him.
(4) While Owen Finnerty has been solid in net, his biggest challenges may have come during the long stretches where he’s had nothing at all to do.
After the frustrating matches against Kalamazoo and Ann Arbor, City now leads the division in goals scored and fewest allowed, and looks to be firmly in the top group of three or four teams who will seriously challenge for the two playoff spots. Next weekend marks the midpoint of the season, after which the picture will be much clearer.
Gallery photos by Franzi Loetzner
Why do you suppose Ben rotated the starting lineup so regularly? Just a difference in Philosophy? Was he more “development focused” as a college coach not wanting to wear out the players for their NCAA season? Just curious your take on it.
I think philosophy has a lot to do with it. Ben’s background was college & NPSL, so he was probably used to more subs and rotation, whereas Trevor has spent his career at the pro level where there’s not as much of that.
Also, I’ve heard that Trevor is running the team as if it were already professional in order to see which players can hack it and which ones aren’t ready for that level.