COLUMBUS -- As the Columbus Crew head into the second half of the season with a burst of momentum and a jolt of confidence, the club has to be wary of not letting history repeat itself.
Saturday's 2-2 comeback tie against visiting Chicago marked the third consecutive season that the Crew have drawn in its 15th match. While the deadlock moved to the team to two wins and a pair of ties in its past four outings and an overall mark of 8-4-3 (27 points), the previous two years had not been kind to the club after that.
Last season, the Crew had 19 points at the midway juncture (4-4-7) but earned only 18 the rest of the way to finish at 37, three points out of the MLS Cup Playoffs. In 2006, when the league played 32 games, the Crew stood at 17 points (4-6-5) through 15 games, only to collect 16 more (4-9-4) in the final 17.P Just like this season, the previous two years saw the Crew on an unbeaten run through game No. 15. Two years ago Columbus had its third successive tie by playing to zeroes at New York. The streak continued with a 1-1 draw at Houston before three consecutive losses.
In 2007 a scoreless match at Colorado gave the Crew a 3-0-2 stretch. Columbus won its next outing against Real Salt Lake before losing to Chivas USA.
The Crew hope to add to their current point streak this Saturday at Real Salt Lake, but no matter the outcome, they appear better suited to avoid a second-half swoon than their two predecessors.
Foremost is its ability to overcome adversity. The Crew have the best winning percentage (.286) in MLS when allowing the first goal thanks to a 1-4-2 record and are tied with D.C. for the best percentage (1-3-2, .333) when trailing at the half.
"You wish you have a team like this as a coach that's going to fight to the end," Crew assistant coach Robert Warzycha said.
Of course, that also shows a weakness by falling behind often.
The match against the Fire highlighted the good and the bad. Chicago scored in the eighth minute; the league-high fifth goal allowed in the opening 15 minutes. After allowing a second goal in the 25th, Emmanuel Ekpo scored in the 36th to make the score 2-1 and reserve rookie Steven Lenhart got the equalizer in the 87th.
"It was kind of disheartening, disappointing but we have a lot of good players," midfielder Stefani Miglioranzi said of salvaging a point at home. "Good teams can come back from a 2-0 deficit. When you're down 2-0 and you battle back to get a point it's always a good thing and we can't look at being disappointed we put ourselves in that position in the first place."
Every point matters but the Crew might rue a missed opportunity at home, where they are 5-2-1 after winning their first four in Crew Stadium.
"After going 2-0 obviously it shows the fight in this team," forward Alejandro Moreno said. "We certainly would have liked to have gotten a better result at home. They way we were playing at times we looked quite sharp. We were getting forward, we were dangerous. We ended up scoring two goals. It's good we got the point but it's a little bit disappointing. I was frustrated the way we started. We got in a hole. We found a way to fight back."
The rally was reminiscent of the June 21 match at Los Angeles when the Crew trailed 2-0 and 3-2 before Lenhart came off the bench to score in the 88th minute to earn a road point. The Crew also trailed 1-0 at San Jose in the second half until exploding for three goals in nine minutes in a 3-2 victory.
Captain Frankie Hejduk is not surprised by his team's comeback capabilities after Saturday's match.
"We battled back. We never gave up. It's been this team's theme all year. We made it difficult on ourselves but we never stopped believing. Even halftime when it was 2-1 no one felt we weren't coming back," he said. "We knew we were going to get the second. Even after that I thought we were going to get another one."
There is concern, though. While Ekpo (two goals in two consecutive matches) and Lenhart are providing unexpected offense, leading scorers Moreno and midfielder Robbie Rogers are in a funk. Rogers had his fifth goal May 10 at San Jose but is goalless in eight. Moreno has two goals in 10 matches -- his fifth and sixth on June 14 at Kansas City.
Also, Ekpo has been erratic on the right flank and the defense is vulnerable to the counterattack as the Fire exposed on its two goals.
Still, the Crew would need an epic collapse to miss the playoffs a fourth successive season. They have the second-most points in the league and trail Eastern Conference leader New England by six points with two games in hand.
Next is a home friendly against Argentinean side Independiente on Wednesday. After Saturday's MLS match in Salt Lake City, the Crew return home to face Kansas City on July 17.
No comments:
Post a Comment