CARSON, Calif. -- Ho-hum. Another final for Emmanuel Ekpo.
Actually, it's been quite a year for the Columbus Crew midfielder as he's at a championship match for the second time in three months.
Ekpo, 20, played for the Nigerian Olympic team that earned the silver medal at the Beijing Olympics. He was on the field for the last 20 minutes of the 1-0 loss in the final to Argentina on Aug. 23.
He will be a reserve Sunday when the Crew face New York for the MLS Cup.
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• Hejduk adjusts style in MLS Cup
• Lewis: Right team took Cup
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• Wolyniec rewards Osorio's faith
• Red Bulls waste strong first half
• Cup win sweet for Crew's Moreno
• Red Bulls can't dodge final dagger
• Crew win Cup with team effort
• Crew notebook: Trio hope to return
• Red Bulls notebook: Still proud
MLS Cup Sights & Sounds
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• NY native Gaven still growing
• Sidelined Stammler supportive
Nov. 21 headlines
• Carroll is Crew's unsung hero
• Goldthwaite stabilizes Red Bulls
• Crew expect strong support
Nov. 20 headlines
• Backline is Crew's backbone
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• LA weather sweet as Crew train
SIGHTS & SOUNDS
"The crowd will be different but it is the same type of game playing in the finals of the Olympics and now I'm playing in the finals in the MLS," Ekpo said. "I don't think I'll have nerves. At the Olympics I was a little bit nervous in front of the crowd but I'm OK with that."
Crew teammate Robbie Rogers was also at the Olympics but the United States was eliminated in a loss to Nigeria in the last match of the opening round.
He said the MLS Cup has a different feel than what he experienced in China.
"You can't really compare it to the Olympics. There's 60,000-plus in the stands there. Just putting on your national team jersey means a lot," said Rogers, who expects to start in the midfield for the Crew. "I think at the beginning, maybe during warmups, I'll have some nervousness. You get used to it and it doesn't really affect you."
New heights for Hejduk: Crew captain Frankie Hejduk has been there and done that for both club and country. With all of his experience in MLS, the Bundesliga and the World Cup, Hejduk has never reached the pinnacle of domestic play.
That will all change when he leads Columbus out onto the field on Sunday afternoon.
"Definitely in MLS, this is my biggest game ever," Hejduk said. "This rates up there with some of the World Cup games I've played in. I've given nine years of my career to MLS and this is the first time I've had this chance in an MLS Cup. Whenever you give a bit of your life to something, it means a lot to you."
It means so much to Hejduk that he compared it to his roles in two World Cup finals with the United States.
"It rates up there with me in terms of being in a World Cup because you're together all year long just for one major goal," Hejduk. "It's finally here and we're taking hold of that and grasping that. We know what it's like now. We have that buzz and we have that itch. We're like bucking horses. We can't wait for tomorrow."
Last man standing: No one among the players, coaching staff or support team has been around as many Crew games as assistant coach Robert Warzycha.
The former Polish international joined the Crew in June of their inaugural 1996 season and has seen the club come close before, but never qualify for the MLS Cup Final until beating Chicago on Nov. 13 in the Eastern Conference Championship.
"It finally happened. I've been waiting 13 years for this to happen. We have a team this year that obviously can go all the way," he said Saturday after the team's final practice. "Tomorrow I don't want to be overly excited."
He's been to MLS Cups before as spectator and as part of his duties as an assistant but it was nothing like this.
"There's so much distraction on the field and off the field for the guys to go through," he said. "I'm very excited for them but the other stuff that comes with it, you have to put aside and think about the game but it's a great feeling. It's different than if you came here to watch the game. You're actually involved."
In attendance: On hand to watch their team practice Saturday at The Home Depot Center were brothers Clark and Dan Hunt, sons of the late Crew founder Lamar Hunt, and Hunt Sports Group president John Wagner.
The Hunts owned Kansas City when it won the 2000 MLS Cup in Washington's RFK Stadium and lost to D.C. United in 2004 at The Home Depot Center.
Blowing out the candles: Defender Danny O'Rourke answered a lot of questions this week so he had one for the reporters Saturday: "Can we play already?"
He also said he would be thrilled to celebrate goalkeeper William Hesmer's 27th birthday Sunday if the Crew take the title.
"I'll buy whatever he wants if we win. No, don't quote that," O'Rourke said.
Ready to entertain: Columbus and the Crew received some encouraging news Saturday when the draw for the final round of CONCACAF World Cup qualifying was announced.
The U.S. will open by playing host to Mexico on Feb. 11. That has fueled speculation that the U.S. Soccer Federation will hope to replicate the frosty reception its archrival received on Feb. 28, 2001, when Crew Stadium was the site that night for a 2-0 USA victory. Officials wanted a pro-U.S. crowd and wintry weather to disarm the Mexicans and they got it. A standing room only crowd of 24,624 braved freezing temperatures.
Crew president Mark McCullers had preliminary talks with U.S. Soccer in September and planned to broach the subject again Saturday night. He was thrilled by the February date, although noting the U.S. also won 2-0 vs. Mexico on Sept. 3, 2003, in Columbus in another qualifier.
"The things that applied in 2001 would apply in this situation," he said. "Also, people remember how great that crowd was. There's a lot of reasons why those two things marry up in our favor. We proved to be a great home-field advantage.
"It's our desire to get (a contract) wrapped up as quickly as possible if they're agreeable."
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