Preview: Can Grella lead the Crew midfield to a second straight win?

Columbus Crew SC versus Seattle Sounders FC 

May 5th, 4pm EST, 1PM PST, ESPN +

This will be Columbus’s third time playing a last placed team this year already.

The result hasn’t gone particularly well as Columbus were a launching pad for both D.C. United and the Chicago Fire to find their way out of the basement.

Columbus defeated D.C. earlier in the year at home, but lost to them and the Fire during a bad run of three straight losses.

Yet, I feel third times a charm for Columbus.

The return of Grella and Sauro not too far around the corner could be the boost to supplant Columbus’s bad run with a good one. 

For Seattle and their 45,000 plus fans they’re less likely to tolerate last place to a degree as the Fire or D.C. will.

The players have already been called out by fans on their commitment this year.

“I need to tell everybody that we, the players on the field, haven’t quit on the fans,” Head Coach Brian Schmetzer said. “They haven’t quit. They busted their ass in L.A. The fans who were there in L.A. did what they could to make the atmosphere great. That relationship is still there. Those players haven’t quit on the fans, and I don’t think our fans have quit on us.”

Schmetzer is a former NASL Sounders player and former USL Head Coach for the Sounders before gaining the MLS Sounders job after Schmid was fired.

Crewture’s projected Crew lineup:

It’s much more easier to pick after a win.

Just throwing Ricardo Clark on because when he is on the field twice this year, we win.

Abubukar was better than Williams back there and gets the nod again in my opinion. Unless Crognale’s recall slots him in the lineup straight away.

Grella was exciting. The Long Island Messi as Dax McCarty likes to call him…

Long Island Messi is back @MikeGrella10. Feel blessed @MLS https://t.co/CMmX7iZoR0

— Dax McCarty (@DaxMcCarty11) April 29, 2018

Looks very comfortable playing around with the ball at his feet similar to both Santos and Higuain, think he’ll fit in quite well there.

Seattle’s projected lineup:

Seattle ran out the following lineup last week.

I expect them to go with the same at home as they were just seconds away from a 0-0 tie at LAFC in front of a raucous first crowd which would’ve been a good result.

However, Laurent Ciman got a lucky ricochet and the win for LAFC in stoppage time.

PREDICTION: I’m feeling good vibes again.