"Now we're done."
With that simple phrase from captain Frankie Hejduk, the Columbus Crew put a wrap on the most successful and unlikely season in the team's 13 years of existence.
For weeks, the players had been reminded by the fans and from within the locker room that earning the Supporters' Shield for the best record over a 30-game season was just not good enough. The Crew had already done that once before but a first-round exit in 2004 left a lingering bitterness among the fans and probably helped seal the demise of coach Greg Andrulis the next season.
Enter Sigi Schmid to rebuild the club in 2006. The coach did an extreme makeover over the next three seasons and when the Crew entered the 2008 MLS Cup Playoffs -- the team's first appearance in four years -- only starting defenders Frankie Hejduk and Chad Marshall and reserve midfielder Duncan Oughton remained from the previous regime.
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SIGHTS & SOUNDS
So, when the Crew were presented the Supporters' Shield trophy after they defeated D.C. United in the season finale on Oct. 26, a chant arose from the fanatical Nordecke section in the northeast corner of Crew Stadium.
"We're not done yet! We're not done yet!"
The players heard it. Schmid listened and the Hunt Sports Group ownership led by Clark Hunt joined in the refrain.
"We're not done yet. I thought it was very apropos because we still want more," Schmid said at the time.
The Crew got what they wanted. After surviving a scare against Kansas City in the Eastern Conference Semifinal Series, the Crew had to defeat not only the Chicago Fire to win the Eastern Conference Championship, but a field full of ghosts that haunted the organization.
Columbus had been in position to advance to MLS Cup four previous times but couldn't get over the hurdle. Facing former Crew forward Brian McBride and goalkeeper Jon Busch, two second-half goals forged a 2-1 victory to exorcise the demons.
Getting to the MLS Cup Final and winning it were two different stories. No team since Schmid's 2002 Los Angeles Galaxy had won the Shield and the MLS Cup in the same season.
"We're not done yet."
As had been the case throughout the season, the Crew rode the brilliant play of Guillermo Barros Schelotto, who had an MLS Cup-record three assists as the Crew downed New York 3-1.
"Every goal we set, we accomplished," Hejduk said. "We wanted to make the playoffs. Then we wanted to get win the Eastern Conference and get home field for the playoffs. Then we wanted to not only go far but make the MLS Cup and win it. That's what Sigi said in the locker room before the game: 'This is the only goal we haven't reached. Let's go do it.'"
Said Schmid: "We believed early on in the season, about after six or seven games, we were a team that had a chance to win the MLS championship."
The genesis for his optimism actually was the final two games of the 2007 season when the Crew needed to win at New England and D.C. United to stay in the playoff hunt. Columbus did its part, but still fell three points short.
Prior to the start of this season, Schelotto told the squad that just one more home win last season would have made the difference. The Crew set out to improve on their 37 points and tepid 5-5-5 mark in Crew Stadium.
The turnaround was remarkable. The Crew had 20 more points (17-7-6) and set team records for points, wins and goals (50) in the post-shootout era. They went 7-0-2 over the last nine regular-season home games to finish 11-2-2 and added two more home victories in the playoffs.
Schmid was named coach of the year; Schelotto was the league's season and playoff MVP and Chad Marshall was MLS Defender of the Year. Midfielder Robbie Rogers joined the latter two on the MLS Best XI.
"It was a dream year," Hejduk said.
"Our team knew last year that the way they were playing, had we gotten to the playoffs, we would have scared some people," Schmid said. "That confidence we had, we talked about that at the beginning of this year, what we accomplished last year and building upon that and we were able to carry it on."
The season started on a good note when Adam Moffat and Alejandro Moreno scored and Will Hesmer stopped a penalty kick during a 2-0 win against visiting Toronto.
As a sidelight, the match was the first with the new concert stage that displaced the supporters from the north end zone. The front office made an effort to get all the fan groups into one area. It would take several months to percolate but the three main factions came together to form the Nordecke (German for northeast corner or deck) and a massive following was created.
After a 2-0 loss at New York, the Crew reeled off four wins in a row, including a wild 4-3 triumph over Chivas USA.
Rogers scored his fourth and fifth goals in a 3-2 win at San Jose in the fourth game of the streak that was a foreshadowing of the Crew's ability to overcome any deficit. On 11 occasions the Crew rallied from down 1-0 or 2-0 to garner points. Against the Earthquakes, the Crew scored three times in a 12-minute stretch of the second half.
While a 0-0 tie at Toronto gave the Crew a 6-1-1 record, it also started a string of four consecutive games without goals. Included was 2-0 loss to San Jose on June 7 that proved to be the last home loss of the season.
Despite the drought, the Crew exhibited a calmness and belief in themselves that would become the trademark for the club.
"It's not like we're not getting shots or chances," forward Jason Garey said before the June 14 game at Kansas City. "We're getting shots on goal, hitting the crossbar, having shots blocked. It's a matter of keep playing well and the goals will come. A little more concentration in the final third is all it takes."
The team-record shutout streak reached 370 minutes before Marshall headed home a corner kick by Schelotto in the third minute against the Wizards. The Crew won 3-0 and were shutout only twice the remainder of the season.
A 3-3 tie followed at Los Angeles with the help of rookie forward Steven Lenhart. It would be the first of three times he would come off the bench to get the equalizer from the 87th minute on.
"What I'm most proud of is the way we were able to win," Schmid said. "We won, it seems to me, in every possible scheme. We had a game at Colorado where we were down a man and yet won. We had the shootout against Chivas early in the season. We had games where we led early and kept the lead and we're able to get a positive result even in games we didn't play well."
It was truly a team effort. Moreno had a team-high nine goals in the regular season but 14 players scored in all; 10 had at least two and six netted four or more goals. Then there's the incomparable Schelotto, whose 19 assists in only 27 games tied for the second-highest number in league history.
"He makes everybody around him better," Rogers said.
The Crew returned from L.A. to beat Colorado 2-1 then rallied from a two-goal disadvantage to tie Chicago 2-2 in Crew Stadium on July 5. Columbus reached the midpoint with an 8-4-3 record, good for 27 points and a real possibility of making the playoffs.
A loss at Real Salt Lake started the second half on a downer and then the Crew fell behind 2-0 to K.C. in the opening 24 minutes but managed a 3-3 tie at home heading into the All-Star Game.
Columbus returned from the brief break to win 2-0 at Colorado despite losing Lenhart to a red card just before the half and played well at Houston but dropped a 2-0 decision on Aug. 2 before having a bye week.
Two significant things happened in the two weeks before the next game: defender Gino Padula returned from injury and the Crew obtained the rights to forward Pat Noonan from New England. While Noonan was not in the best of shape after playing sparingly in Norway before deciding to return to MLS, he provided the Crew with a veteran player with playoff experience who could play multiple positions.
Just as importantly, it was a psychological boost to the Crew and their fans after McBride decided to finish his career with Chicago following a long and successful stint with Fulham of the English Premier League.
Signing Noonan showed that the Crew was serious about a long playoff run. Getting Padula back in the lineup helped as well. The Argentinean solidified the left back spot that had seen four others start there after he was injured in the third game.
Injuries dominated the Crew the first three months with Moffat's the most serious when he underwent season-ending knee surgery in early May.
In mid-June the Crew had eight of its first 20 players sidelined but when August rolled around the team was getting healthy. Padula's return was the final piece that helped mesh a defensive unit that was third-best in the league.
Including the playoffs, the Crew were 14-1-3 when he played, with the lone loss a meaningless game at New York on Oct. 18. After the bye week the Crew went 11-1-3, including the playoffs.
"We grew as a team," midfielder Brian Carroll said. "We thought and believe we could do this at the beginning of the year when we set out to reach this goal but it really picked up steam and started to take shape as the season went on. We built on each performance and each win. It became a reality as the season went along."
It was an ominous start, though, when FC Dallas led 1-0 at the half in Columbus on Aug. 16. Goals by Carroll and Brad Evans three minutes apart gave the Crew a 2-1 win and started a stretch of four consecutive wins.
During that period, Schelotto contributed to 10 straight scores with two goals and eight assists.
The Crew followed the Dallas win with a 3-0 thrashing of visiting Real Salt Lake. The next week at Dallas, the Crew spotted the Hoops a 1-0 lead again but got the win on goals by Moreno and Eddie Gaven.
Columbus moved into first in the conference and overall going into a home showdown with New England. The Revolution were tired and hurting from a busy summer schedule but the Crew showed no mercy in a 4-0 thumping.
A hamstring injury to Schelotto could have derailed the Crew Express but they went 2-0-1 without him. Noonan scored his first goal in a 1-1 draw at Toronto FC. New York was a 3-1 victim at Crew Stadium and Marshall scored the lone goal in a 1-0 win at New England.
After beating David Beckham and LA 1-0 before a sellout crowd at Crew Stadium, the team clinched the Supporters' Shield following a 2-2 tie at Chicago. In the second-to-last game the Crew rested six starters and saw their nine-game (7-0-2) unbeaten streak end in a 3-1 loss at New York.
There were whispers that the Crew had peaked and they grew louder when D.C. hit the post three times in the regular-season finale but could not score as the Crew celebrated their Supporters' Shield with a 1-0 win for William Hesmer's 10th shutout of the season.
Columbus opened the playoffs at Kansas City and had trouble getting good flank play on the narrow baseball field. It took a stoppage-time goal by Lenhart to tie the game and the aggregate at 1-1.
"We still had all the confidence in the world," Hejduk said. "We knew we were playing at home and we had the support behind us. If we played our game we had no doubt we would win.
Evans scored on a nifty set-up by Carroll in the seventh minute and the Crew never looked back in a 2-0 victory to win the series 3-1 on aggregate.
Next up was heated rival Chicago. The teams had tied twice and the Fire had also knocked the Crew out of the U.S. Open Cup in June.
It looked ominous for the Crew after McBride scored in the 29th minute but Schelotto connected with Marshall for another header off a restart in the 49th and Gaven scored six minutes with assists going to Moreno and Schelotto on the winner.
The years of doom and gloom had been lifted and the Crew were on their way to California and a date with history.
Moreno gave the Crew the lead over the Red Bulls after being fed by Schelotto. After New York's John Wolyniec tied the game in the 51st minute the Schelotto-to-Marshall connection went at it again off a corner kick two minutes later. Then in the 82nd minute Schelotto flipped the ball to a breaking Hejduk and the captain headed the ball into the goal to complete a stunning season.
"It was a really special year, an incredible journey. We're sad it has to end," Carroll said. "A lot of us we're talking we wish it didn't have to end yet."
But it did with the hoisting of the Philip F. Anschutz Trophy and the celebrations that followed.
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