Crew welcome two-week vacation

COLUMBUS -- Unlike the previous time when the Columbus Crew absorbed a 2-0 away loss but were eager to get back on the field five days later to redeem themselves, the latest 2-0 road setback left the team happy to have two weeks before its next match.

Following Saturday's defeat at Houston many of the players headed to their offseason homes or vacation spots because coach Sigi Schmid does not have a practice scheduled until Aug. 11.

"For the mind that's going to be good," said Schmid, who will spend this week in southern California where his wife still lives. "We all need to get away for three or four days."

It's not just a mental break. A depleted starting XI against the Dynamo was reduced further when defender Chad Marshall and midfielder Brad Evans suffered knee injuries.

"Maybe it is a good time. It will help some guys get healthy," midfielder Brian Carroll said.

The Crew entered the match without injured midfielder Stefani Miglioranzi and defender Frankie Hejduk and forward Steven Lenhart were suspended (Lenhart will also miss the Aug. 16 match vs. FC Dallas). Also, starting midfielders Robbie Rogers of the U.S. and Nigerian Emmanuel Ekpo missed their second matches because of Olympic duty.

"We were hoping to get a good win or at least a point out of it going into the little break but now we have to regroup," defender Jed Zayner said. "We had half our starting lineup out. It's going to be nice to get people back, regroup and get set for our last push to the playoffs."

Columbus hasn't qualified for the postseason since 2004 but is in good position to do so despite a 1-2-2 record in its past five matches. The Crew missed an opportunity to jump over New England into first on Saturday and now have only a two-point advantage on third-place Chicago. The Fire have played one fewer match and New England two.

Still, the situation is a lot brighter than the previous seasons Zayner experienced in Columbus.

"It's been a tough two years. It takes time to build a team," he said. "Look at Houston. How long have they been together? Four years since San Jose. Now that we've built this core, we trust each other. We'll fight for each other and when the going gets tough we're still going to put in the minutes for each other."

The Crew failed to build on the momentum from a 2-0 win at Colorado. Against the Dynamo, the Crew had four glorious chances in the first 16 minutes of the second half to cut a two-goal deficit but Evans missed on a couple and Pat Onstad stopped Alejandro Moreno and Guillermo Barros Schelotto.

"We talked about it at halftime -- if we dug a little bit deeper, put in a little more effort we would create good chances," Carroll said. "We had decent possession. We had decent chances. Unfortunately, we didn't put them away."

"It's tough on your morale," said Zayner. "You work so hard to get the chances in the first place. You've got to keep plugging away. You can't think it's not going to be your night because if you do you've already lost the game."

Schmid said the match came down two things.

"We didn't finish well and making two substitutions because of injuries, we couldn't make the moves we wanted tactically," he said. "Last week we probably didn't deserve to be walking out with points. (Saturday) we deserved to walk off with points. Last week we got three, this week we got none so it all evened out in the end."

The Crew will have two consecutive home matches to get untracked and make the home park a fortress again. After winning the first four times in Crew Stadium, Columbus is just 1-2-2 in the past five.

Schmid has to sort through the injuries and decide if the recent move to a 3-5-2 formation will work with the personnel available for the Dallas game.

That will come later. For now, the training center in Obetz is quiet except for players rehabbing injuries.