The high-flying Columbus Crew host the New York Red Bulls on Saturday night. New York travels to Lower.com Field with some confidence after a 4-0 victory against Atlanta United last week. Columbus is undefeated in the last five matches as the team has found its groove at the start of the summer.

The match against the Red Bulls will be the healthiest the Black & Gold have been all season. The only player on this week’s availability report is defender Will Sands, as he continues to recover from his season-ending ACL injury. While the Crew is bolstered with reinforcements off the injury report, midfielders Kevin Molino and Aidan Morris and forward Jacen Russell-Rowe are all on international duty at the Gold Cup. 

Taking all this into account, let’s look at how we project the Black & Gold to line up against New York.

With the return to health of many players, especially defensively, head coach Wilfried Nancy will have to make difficult decisions for this game. 

One decision seems to already be set, as Nancy will continue to start goalkeeper Patrick Schulte over Eloy Room. Room has been missing for his club for some time, and there’s no reason to think Nancy will change his goalkeeper now.

Defensively, there are many questions about the Crew’s starting 11. Is center back Milos Degenek healthy enough to start? What about center back Gustavo Vallecilla? Where should defender Steven Moreira play after a fantastic game against Nashville SC in the middle of the back three? Does center back Josh Williams factor into this match after returning to action for Crew 2 last week? 

While Moreira and midfielder Sean Zawadzki played well to shut down a Nashville SC attack with reigning MLS MVP Hany Muhktar last week, NSC did not have the team’s full group of attacking options to occupy the center backs, which worked in the Black & Gold’s favor. In this game, Moreira will move back out as a right center back with Degenek anchoring the line in the middle. Wing back Malte Amundsen will continue to start over Vallecilla for this match. Moreira will look to improve upon his brilliant defensive performance as a right center back, where he will enjoy more freedom to move into the attack. 

With Amundsen as a center back, Yaw Yeboah will continue to play as the left wing back and Mohamed Farsi will start at right wing back. Over the course of the season, Nancy might move Amundsen to left wing back, but Nancy will opt to have as many possession-oriented players as he can on the field, leaving the Dane to play a bit deeper. 

Captain and midfielder Darlington Nagbe will have his work cut out for him against New York, as the Crew will rely heavily on him to keep possession and prevent the Red Bulls from getting quick transition moments. He will be partnered with the attack-minded midfielder Alexandru Matan in Morris’ absence. The partnership between Nagbe and Matan worked wonderfully well against Nashville and both players are talented at keeping the ball, a trait that will be valuable against New York. 

The Crew has found its most productive front three in forwards Cucho Hernandez and Christian Ramirez and playmaker Lucas Zelarayan. Arfsten has made an impact as a substitution in the attack, even starting as a right wing back when necessary, but he will continue to come off the bench in this game, as the chemistry and production between Hernandez, Ramirez and Zelarayan have powered the Black & Gold to a league-leading 38 goals on the season.