Anatomy of a goal: Accam runs in front of Columbus Crew

Welcome to Anatomy of a Goal, where every week we dissect a goal from the previous week. Columbus Crew SC meet.

For the fourth game of the MLS 2019 season, we look at David Accam's goal in the 31st minute, against a Philadelphia Union counter-attack, which allowed the Union to climb 1-0 in its victory. 3-0 on the crew.

Here is the arrival of the Philadelphia striker.

Lacking three key starters who form the backbone of their team (Zack Steffen, Wil Trapp and Gyasi Zardes), most expected the crew to fight on the road against the Union. Columbus was not expected to look as defensively unorganized and offensively invisible as he was at Philly. Steffen's ability to organize his defense has never been more obvious than when he was out of the match and a typical rock-solid defense was on several occasions.

Accam's first goal, while being a remarkably effective counterattack by the Union, is how vital the three missing Black & Gold starters are. This objective directly implies that each of their substitutes does not necessarily perform a mediocre game, but does not play in the same way as the three missing ones.

The goal begins with a crew roll in the Philadelphia half.

Gaston Sauro sees Federico Higuain open on the midfield and shoot an excellent ball towards his fellow Argentine.

The Sauro pbad grabs Alejandro Bedoya without knowing it and goes directly to Higuain. When receiving the pbad, Columbus No. 10 will have three options: a pbad for Robinho on the wing to settle the ball and raise the pitch, or a quick pbad or half-turn for Patrick Mullins.

Higuain decides to play a heel shot for Mullins.

However, Mullins is higher than expected by Higuain and the midfield pbad does not have enough speed to reach the attacker. Mullins should move back towards the ball, as Higuain gets on the field.

The center back of the Union, Jack Elliott, can stand in front of Mullins and win the ball, immediately starting a counter-attack.

It's hard to say if Zardes would have been better placed to receive Higuain's pbad, but his more physical play could have given him an edge against Elliott, which Mullins clearly missed as he was easily beaten.

Elliott's momentum allowed him to reach an extra goal, giving Higuain time to apply defensive pressure. Higuain tries to trigger the Black & Gold counter-press after returning the ball. If successful, his pressure will force Elliott to make a pbad or a turnaround.

With the pressure exerted by Higuain, Elliott can play either a pbad or a bad pbadage on the ground that leads to Bedoya.

Elliott is somehow able to reorient his momentum and pbad an excellent pbad to Bedoya, breaking the pressure of Higuain.

Bedoya receives the ball in a pocket without pressure. He immediately has four options while Artur tries to recover a defensive position. He can play a pbad on the wing for Ilsinho, get on the pitch and carry the ball forward, hit a long diagonal pbad for Accam or play a quick pbad for Haris Mendunjanin.

Bedoya plays safe for Mendunjanin, preparing his midfield counterpart for a brief field run.

As Mendunjanin gets closer to the center line, he has multiple options with his counterattack team. The midfielder can perform a diagonal pbad to Brenden Aaronson, a tough ball around Ricardo Clark to Fafa Picault, continue to carry the ball forward or make a deep pbad to Accam.

Mendunjanin is able to thread the needle around Clark to Picault. Clarke is stuck in a difficult situation here, not far enough back to provide a defensive cover and not close enough to Mendunjanin to make his pbad more difficult.

Picault will recover the pbad with room to run while Accam continues to climb on the left side of the field. Jonathan Mensah reacts briefly to Picault but has the presence of mind to try to run with the most dangerous Accam.

Picault makes his appearance and Accam runs right in front of him. Jonathan is stuck between the two attackers of the Union without any defensive help.

Jonathan manages to upgrade with Accam but is still likely to get through it.

That's exactly what Picault does, by slipping a pbad in space in front of Accam.

Accam runs on the ball while Jonathan tries to narrow the distance that separates them or force the wing of the Union to shoot from a difficult angle.

Jonathan cuts the Accam road in the middle of the field and Joe Bendik leaves his line to cut the angle of the goal.

Accam fired a shot at the outside pole.

Bendik pulls out a leg but is just missing the ball towards Sauro or Harrison Afful.

Accam's shot is close to the goal as Columbus hopes he's only a few inches to the right.

The ball hits the post. . .

. . . bounces back to the goal. . .

. . . and at the back of the net.

Results:

1. The crew attack fails with Higuain's film attempt towards Mullins. Who knows if the movie worked better, or less horribly, with Zardes in the field, but it clearly did not work here.
2. Philadelphia played a tough game – Elliott's pbad to Bedoya – and some small, simple games to cut Columbus' defense. When the pressure of Higuain did not slow down the Union, they quickly exposed a team that was not prepared to defend a quick attack.
3. Bendik really did well to cut the angle of Accam at the first post, leaving it only to try a chip or hit a right roll. It is always possible for a left foot shot sent right to continue curling on the right, but Accam hits it perfectly.