Wessam Abou Ali

Joseph Martinez this was his like third US Open Cup final with three different teams I don't think he has a goal in the competition goodness he had his chances on Wednesday night and You know, that was what last night Condor, as he was editing my copy, Tom Reed, you know, as I said, we watched the game next to the Norddeck in the corner of the concourse there, the standing room, with some St. Louis fans, as a matter of fact.

He said, just imagine this team now with Mendez, Santi Rodriguez, at the top of that Diamond Taha and at the bottom, Wessam Abu Ali next year.

Yeah.

My understanding is Wassam Abu Ali, his knee surgery went well.

There was large stretches of this game where I felt the absence of the players you mentioned, where I felt...

For Columbus, Wessam Abu Ali is in this group.

Now Joseph's coming off the bench.

And it was on both of them where the knock-on effect of missing these attacking pieces was.

I mean, just think

about it.

If Wessam Abu Ali is out there and he's playing as a true nine, he's sucking in those – St. Louis center backs, and he's making them play a little bit more narrow, and then suddenly Bryce Mendez and Sebastian Rodriguez have space.

Santiago.

This was a defensive approach from the Crew, which was interesting to see because we don't see that very often.

We saw it some under Henrik Rydström as he sort of tweaked, uh, this team and, and tried to get better defensively, especially after the injury to Wesam Abu Ali.

But under Wilfried Nancy, we certainly rarely saw it.

Uh, the...

They had one player listed out previously with a season-ending injury, not unlike Celio Pompeu.

For us, it was Wessam Abu Ali.

He had five goals and one assist in his seven MLS starts before going down, but they figured out a way to progress without him.

This past weekend, we saw Mohamed Farsi and Joseph Martinez not play, not feature, and get rest prior to Wednesday's match, so we expect both of them to be on the field.

Well, there's one notable one.

It's, it's, it's I, I guess out of sight, out of mind, but with Sam Abu-Ali-

Yeah

... uh, who's their DP striker, has been out all season and won't be back till the spring season, and he would go to that tip of the spear, as you called it, uh, when he is healthy.

But, uh, why would you wanna put yourself through another type of search again when everyone's starting to- Find their comfort zone with each other again and showing their true potential here over the, uh, the last couple of games.

Right, and you wonder what happens when you plug in Wissam Abou Ali up there-

Oh

... at the starting next year.