Promising start groundhogs Crew in a 2 -2 tie
By Mark Hofmann, Columbus Wired
Contributor, Photos by Joel Torres and Dave Liggett (Columbus Wired)
For the third time in as many home games the Crew seized an early
lead only to relinquish it and settle for a 2-2 draw against the
Chicago Fire in front of over 16,000 fans at Crew Stadium. They can
still say they are undefeated at home but it is getting harder to
swagger when proclaiming the fact.
The day started as a beautiful football day. At noon, on TV, I
watched Manchester United (Man-U), who dominated England’s premier
league last year, showed why they are still champions. Being down 2
– 0 in the first half to Tottenham, they came back to tally five
goals in the second half. Just like last year they are still the
dominant force of the league. If Man – U had any special word
attached to encapsulate their success last year they could still
throw it around.
The Crew on the other hand can not longer use their one word tag of
[catholic celebration] + [contraction of “I have”]. The word that
starts with and M and ends with an e, and summed up how great their
run was last year. They sit at the bottom of their eastern division
and are tied for last with two teams in the western division.
In fairness to The Crew they have played well including the match
against Chicago. The game was fairly wide open during the first
half. Emmanual Ekpo had two early chances to put the team ahead as
well as header attempts by Chad Marshall and his under study Eric
Brunner.
“He opens me up a little bit, I had a couple chances where I
probably could have put one away” were Brunner’s words discussing
the tandem presence of Marshall and himself in the 18 yard box on
set pieces. “This was my first time playing with him and I think we
did a pretty good job together.”
It wasn’t until former Crew forward Brian McBride of the Fire tried
running through his namesake, Crew Midfielder Brian Carroll, that a
free kick was awarded to Guillermo Barros Schelotto. Schelotto’s
wind aided pass into the box found Chad Marshall, who started a run
out wide of the 18 yard box, then cut in between two defenders to
meet the balls flight.
Marshall’s snap down header sent the ball to the far right corner of
netting, just passed the outstretched left hand of Jon Busch. Busch
who was moving lateral to his right from that corner had no chance
of making the save.
This play was witnessed many times last season; the only thing
really unusual about this score in the 25th minute was it was
Schelotto’s first assist of the year, and Marshall’s first goal.
The Crew’s second goal, the assist that wasn’t, was scored in the
34th minute of play. Gino Padula cleared a ball harmlessly down the
left side of the field in reaction to a right wing attack from
Chicago.
Well it seemed none threatening to goal keeper Busch as he jaunted
out to his right side of the 18 yard box to nonchalantly wait for
the balls arrival. If he had recently reviewed any play tape of
Alejandro Moreno he would have known that he doesn’t give up on
routine plays and was screaming down field to apply pressure on him.
Instead Busch waited inside the box for the ball to make his way to
him so he could pick it up and clear it out. But he (The Moreno that
Could) beat Busch to the opportunity and deftly touched the ball out
of his grasp with a right toe poke.
With ball in tow, he turned stage left to deposit the ball in the
back of the net. Defender Wilman Conde tried to stop the inevitable,
but with a juke and faint, Moreno wrong footed Conde then beat him
to double the Crew’s lead, and score the unassisted goal.
Chicago, who had won 8 of the 18 meeting between the teams, did not
give up. “There are two plays we didn’t do well the first half” was
Chicago head coach Dennis Hamlett’s, summation of his teams’ first
half of play. The Fire had tested the Crew the first half, but had
not been able to close the deal.
The Crew seemed to be on the way to their first win. But then the
sequence of inopportune actions happened.
(1) The 42nd minute marked Adam Moffat’s second early departure in
as many games. Moffat and Carroll in the middle seem to be the best
combination this year for controlling the midfield.
Jed Zayner, Moffat’s replacement in the game, took Danny O’Rourke’s
defender position, and the versatile O’Rouke was slide out to
midfield to play next to Brian Carroll.
The score remained 2 – 0 thru the break. The Fire returned with the
same players at the start of the second half, but opened their
attack in an effort to try to come back on the score sheet.
The Crew almost extended their lead on a third chance from both
Emmanual “ I try to play the game 50 / 50 but sometimes most of the
game is defense, so I feel I am getting better on defense but I
think I need to improve more on getting offensively complete” was
Ekpo’s response on his finishing woes this season.
Chad Marshall also had another header opportunity to extend the lead
in the early second half. The attempted shot was hard but off frame.
(2) 56th minute, Eric Brunner delivers a hard tackle on Fire Forward
Patrick Nyarko. Brunner escaped giving up at the least a free kick
at worst a red card and early exit of the game.
The ball was cleared down the field and to the right side where the
Fire recovered it and tried working it back to Crew territory.
Schelotto surprised the defender and relieved him of possession.
(3) 57th minute, an alert Alejandro Moreno reads the play and starts
his run in sequence with Schelotto’s dispossession. Schelotto’s
perfect feed was timed perfectly to meet Moreno in full stride.
Wilman Conde, the last defender, slide tackles in on Moreno and
almost gets the ball. Because Moreno jumped over his legs or maybe
as a make-up for not calling Brunner’s tackle, no foul is given.
The fans respond to what, as the fifth official, they saw as an
obvious red card infraction by Conde on the Crew striker, with
dissent.
(4) 58th minute, ball played to Cuauhtemoc Blanco. (The anti-weeble,
because he falls down but never wobbles) Gino Padula raises right
foot next to Blanco, who on cue falls and writhes in pain.
This has to be worse then the injury delivered to Joe Theisman
during the super bowl.
A red card is issued to Padula, and a miraculous recovery ensues by
Blanco. It had to be a sign of divine intervention, because there
was not even a mark on the leg he was clutching not one minute
earlier, when the cameras took a close up of Blanco’s damaged knee.
Though Blanco only slightly resembles Jon Lovitz, he did a great job
reprising his SNL role as the Master Thespian, yeah that’s the
ticket its acting!
“I think we played very well, we were in control of the game until
we get the red card”,
was Crew head coach Robert Warzycha’s response on Chicago’s late
goals scored to get a draw in the match. “We did exceptionally well
even with ten players; it is always difficult to defend for over 35
minutes.” was what he offered in why the Crew could not secure the
win.
A header in the 86th minute by former Crew player Brian McBride got
the Fire on the board. “McBride was an extremely tough forward to
play against, and I thought I did a pretty good job against him” was
Eric Brunner’s assessment of his play against McBride.
Brunner limited McBride, the league’s leading scorer, to one goal
while playing his first game next to Chad Marshall in the middle
defender, then adapting to the difference in play when Gino Padula
was ejected and Jed Zayner was sent in to reinforce back line.
(5) Gonzalo Segares joined the Fire’s attack and was not accounted
for in the 88th minute. Left open at the top of the 18 made scoring
his goal a relatively easy accomplishment.
“It was my job to keep one of those out and win us the game” was
Andy Gruenebaum’s comments on the Fire’s late rally.
Well 20% of the season is gone, and the Crew is a cellar dweller in
the MLS. Yes they are no longer the one M word, but I think they
need a new M word. Since Man-U is still doing well a season after
their success it is obvious the moniker needs Ma in it.
Also since they have had issues playing in games a man down, twice
this season already, I am thinking the new term should be Man-Up.
The Crew need to “Man-Up” and start making their own luck. A shout
out to the 16, 628 fans that came to support their reigning
champions against Chicago. Next Saturday the Crew are away in
Toronto, for the second leg of the Trillium Cup, but they are home
again 9 May 2009 to play the Kansas City Wizards for “CREW TURNING
BACK THE CLOCK TO 1999.”
