Crew Rennaissance?

Game two of the Robert Warzycha era of Columbus Crew history has come and gone. And so far, the interim coach of the Crew is showing that he may just have the right stuff to become the next head man of America's Hardest Working Team.

I can't remember if I've said so here, but I was never a huge fan of the Robert Warzycha style of play. I recognize his excellent free kick ability and the danger he poses on dead-ball situations, but his tendency to go for the long-ball play has too often left me cold. I'm much more of a fan of teams that work the ball through the midfield and show good posession, rather than teams who loft it into the penalty area and hope for the best.

But given our coaching situation over the past ten years, that's what we've seen, more often that not. The Crew has had defensive-minded coaches who relied on individual skill in the forwards to put balls in. When you have forwards like Brian McBride, Stern John, and Jeff Cunningham, who work hard and have good foot and air skills, this sometimes pays dividends. But when your forwards are lazy and look for the easy ball too often, as Edson Buddle has been known to do, then long-ball does not work.

However, in Warzycha, the Crew has gone with a whole new outlook - an offensive/midfield minded coach. And it's already paying dividends. Kyle Martino has looked excellent in the past two games, and the forwards are moving off the ball like we've never seen them in Crewville. Part of the reason for this may be the benching of Buddle, whose lack of hustle has done more to piss off the fans than anything else.

And movement off the ball may be one of the best indications of how coaching changes can bring about change on the field. In the past, we've seen lots of back-passing and floundering around in midfield as the midfielders make ill-advised runs, the forwards flop back and forth across the offside line as they try to make attacks that are unrewarded, and the defenders show confusion as to where they're supposed to pass other than to the guy next to them on the back line. Now, we're seeing Eric Vasquez and Simon Elliot making moves and Martino pushing around the field to make things happen. We're seeing good runs and overlaps and such from Chris Henderson and David Testo on the outside, and most importantly Knox Cameron and Cornell Glen moving around and forward to create openings for passes. It's fun to watch, and almost even more than a win as we saw last night, it's giving Crew fans hope that things have changed.

From the sounds of it, based on a Steve Sirk report from the previous game in Chicago (the Polish Rifle's first as interim head coach), Warzycha has turned up the pressure in practice to ensure that his players react as they are supposed to come gametime. Chris Henderson gave his impressions before Saturday's match:

Henderson has noticed a difference in practices under Warzycha. "When people make mistakes in practice...if you make a bad pass, you are going to hear about it. It's like 'You are a professional player. How could you make a pass like that? You are a better player than that pass.' In a way, it kind of reminds me of playing Germany. When I played there, it wasn't just coaches. If you did something wrong in practice, your own teammates would be screaming at you to get it right. There were a lot of expectations and it was very demanding. The intensity in practice has been very good the past few days. I know American players aren't necessarily used to that approach, but it has been going well and I think the guys are responding."

This is something that Crewville has needed for a long time. It seems that for too long, the former college coaches that we've had (Fitzgerald and Andrulis) haven't pushed hard enough to emphasize proper gamesmanship - they've pushed too hard to play HARD. Warzycha, as a former pro himself, has seen what a professional practice is supposed to be and is pushing the players as professionals - to play smarter. And that's what we've been missing here. Yes, the Crew is America's Hardest Working Team by moniker, but when hard work takes the place of smart work, you're going to fail. But the combination of hard and smart work that we saw on Saturday and particular last night are what is going to drive a team to better results. So far so good.

I'm not going to completely jump on the Bob bandwagon. This was only game #2 out of the 16 that were left at the beginning of Bob's tenure. There's a lot of season left to evaluate our new interim coach and the changes he's making. And with the crowded portion of the season we're entering right now, it's going to be hard for him to really put his stamp on the team. Hopefully during the All-Star break he'll have a chance to put his mark on things more - he reportedly (according to the Dispatch's Craig Merz) has some changes he wants to make but simply doesn't have time given the game schedule.

One change I'd particularly like to see is trying to adjust the game of forward Knox Cameron. Long-time fans of MLS will remember the power and strength of Tampa Bay forward Mamadou Diallo, who led MLS in scoring in 2000 and was nearly unstoppable due to his sheer size and strength. His injuring of a couple of players left him somewhat hated in the league, but few players would deny that he was a powerful force. I think that, with some training, Cameron could become just that sort of a player. He's big and strong, and has good speed. He just needs a little bit of aggressiveness. Cameron had a fairly good game last night, helping to set up the only goal of the match, but he could use his size to more effect and create more chances for the Crew with just a little bit of testosterone.

So far, though, I'm pleased with the Robert Warzycha era. Columbus Crew fans are a surly lot, but there was very little surliness last night as the Crew dominated the game and got the late goal instead of giving it up. It feels REALLY good to be excited about our team again, and I can't wait for Saturday to see how we do against our division rivals from Kansas City.

GO CREW!!