Crew shutout at home against the Wizards
by Justin Boggs, Columbus Wired, Photos by Joel Torres (7/14/10)

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The Kansas City Wizards needed only one goal with a little Buckeye assistance in a 1-0 victory over the Columbus Crew in Columbus Crew Stadium on Wednesday evening.

Kansas City looked like the strongest team early in the game and held onto a 1-0 game for the final 76 minutes of the game.

Kansas City came out firing and played with nothing to lose early. An early Wizards’ goal put the Crew behind the eight ball for the majority of the match.

“They didn’t have anything to lose,” Crew coach Robert Warzycha said. “I think if you looked at their record, it would be a bit deceiving.”

The Wizards scored the game’s only goal in the 14th minute when Teal Bunbury beat Crew goalkeeper William Hesmer through his legs. The goal was assisted by Ryan Smith and Roger Espinoza. Espinoza is a former member of the Ohio State Buckeyes’ soccer team.

 

The Crew had a rough looking first half. Columbus could only place one shot on goal in the opening period.

The Wizards nearly made it a 2-0 game later in the first when Crew defender Gino Padula had a strong clearing attempt go off his foot and nearly into his own net. Hesmer was there to deflect the ball out of bounds. On the ensuing corner kick, Eddie Gaven flushed the ball out of harm’s way with a goalmouth block to preserve the 1-0 tally.

After a nearly offensively anemic first half, the Crew had a number of good opportunities in the second half.

“We didn’t get behind the defenders, we didn’t get behind the defenders in front, we didn’t have that many crosses,” Warzycha said.

The Crew had more shots on goal in the second with six compared to the Wizards’ one.

Steven Lenhart and Adam Moffat both had shots on goal in stoppage time. Moffat had a game high three shots on goal. Guillermo Barros Schelotto had the best opportunity of the game for the Crew in the 73rd minute as he had an opportunity go off the right foot of Wizards’ goalkeeper Jimmy Nielsen.

“I think (the Wizards) were trying to keep playing the same way,” Hesmer said. “They came into this game with nothing to lose and their backs against the wall. They came out here and said ‘let’s go for it’ and ‘let’s give everything we’ve got.’”

Perhaps playing a team with a nothing to lose attitude is more difficult, but not according to Hesmer.

“I think we should be disciplined enough and organized enough and this is a veteran team, we should know that and say ‘okay, okay’ and sucker them in and pop ‘em,” Hesmer said.

During the final two minutes of stoppage time in the second half, Moffat and Lenhart had a nasty collision as the pair were going up high for a ball in the box. Lenhart and Moffat both had a head-on-head collision and Lenhart was unable to finish the game.  Lenhart has a possible broken nose and had a number of stitches to patch things up.

“I think we all wanted to score,” Lenhart said. “We were pushing for the goal. We had to. Just bummed we didn’t score. That is sports. Just deal with it and move onto the next game. Obviously we wanted to at least get a tie after they scored early but we have to bounce back.”

This was the second match in a row the Crew was shutout in. On Saturday, Columbus had a scoreless tie against the Houston Dynamo. Warzycha tabbed his same starting 11 and the result did not pay off.

“I thought that was the lineup that was going to win,” he said. “As a coach, you are trying to put out the lineup that will win the game for you.”

Columbus only has three day to wash its mouth after this game when it has a match against the New York Red Bulls on Saturday. The Crew still remains in first place by two points over the Red Bulls.