D.C. United faces a Columbus Crew SC side that, generally speaking, everyone seems to think they have nailed down. There’s a style of play — possession-heavy, wingers drifting inside, fullbacks pushed high, defensive midfielder dropping between the center backs, a tendency to create chances in the goalmouth — that people identify with Gregg Berhalter and his side. The assumption is that while they’ll make tweaks in their plan, you generally know their starting point as well as you might know any team’s tactics before a given game.
That might not be the most solid assumption, though.