Crew Puts Up Two First Half Goals, Roll to 3-0
Win
by Dave Weissman, Columbus Wired
The
Columbus Crew returned home to face the up and coming Real Salt Lake
at Columbus Crew Stadium. Goals by Chad Marshall and Guillermo
Barros Schelotto in the 15th and 25th minutes and another by Brad
Evans in the second half fueled the Crew to it’s seventh home win
this year tying them with New England for the top spot in the
Eastern Conference win only nine games remaining.
Columbus came out attacking from the beginning of the match. You
could see their defensive line was pushed deep into Salt Lake’s
territory.
In the 15th minute, Schelotto took a corner kick that floated
towards Chad Marshall who was pinching in on the outside of the
defensive corps. Marshall connected with a header that beat the
goalkeeper. It was Marshall’s third goal of the season, all off of
corners delivered by Shelotto.
"He (Schelotto) served a great ball,” Marshall said. “I saw it was
going to the far post so I faked inside and went back. It was
perfect ball. It was a pretty easy finish."
In the 25th minute, the referee called a penalty kick when Nat
Borchers took down Eddie Gavin in the box. Shelotto took his fourth
penalty kick of the season and the Crew had a quick 2-0 cushion.
“We
scored two good goals on set pieces but they were set up because
people were getting behind their defense. It's one of those things
we really tried to concentrate on this week in practice," Crew head
coach Sigi Schmid said.
Gavin assisted on the third Crew goal when he put up a cross pass
that Brad Evans headed into the goal for the 3-0 win. It was the
fourth goal of the season for Evans and the 25th assist for Gavin.
"It was a ball from Guillermo to Eddie but Eddie made a run to get
behind. Eddie's cross was right in the box. That's the way you draw
it up on the board," said Schmid.
Will Hessmer earned his fifth shutout of the year. The defense was
strong and put up a wall as RSL did not get a shot on goal until the
second half.
The only blemish to the match was when Crew defender Danny O’Roarke
took down Javier Morales in the 65th minute. It was the second
yellow card for O’Roarke, who will sit for next week’s game in
Dallas.
After
losing to Houston two weeks ago, the Crew has played exceptional,
defeating a Dallas team that had been on a five game winning streak.
RSL (7-8-6, 27 pts) sits in second place as well right behind the
Houston Dynamos, falling to them last week 4-3. In the previous
match, July 12 at Salt Lake, RSL downed the Crew, 2-0.
With only 9 games remaining, the team knows that the playoffs are
within reach, but never a guarantee. The last time the Crew was in
the playoffs was 2004.
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Real
Salt Lake (7-8-6) vs. Columbus Crew (11-6-4)
August 23, 2008 -- Columbus
Crew Stadium
Scoring
Summary:
CLB -- Chad Marshall 3 (Guillermo Barros Schelotto 13) 15
CLB -- Guillermo Barros Schelotto 5 (penalty kick) 25
CLB -- Brad Evans 4 (Eddie Gaven 2, Guillermo Barros Schelotto 14)
55
Real
Salt Lake -- Nick Rimando, Chris Wingert, Nat Borchers, Jamison Olave,
Robbie Russell, Kenny Cutler (Clint Mathis 72), Robbie Findley,
Javier Morales, Yura Movsisyan (Fabian Espindola 64), Kyle
Beckerman, Kenny Deuchar (Andy Williams 46),
Substitutes Not Used: David Horst, Dustin Kirby, Tino Nunez, Chris
Seitz
Columbus
Crew
-- William Hesmer, Frankie Hejduk, Chad Marshall, Danny O'Rourke,
Gino Padula, Eddie Gaven, Brian Carroll, Brad Evans (Stefani
Miglioranzi 83), Robbie Rogers, Guillermo Barros Schelotto (Pat
Noonan 63), Alejandro Moreno (Jason Garey 90).
Substitutes Not Used: Andy Gruenebaum, Andy Iro, Duncan Oughton, Jed
Zayner
