Columbus Can't Hold Two-Goal Lead, Ties Chicago 2-2

Matt Bernhardt
April 25, 2009

Columbus' search for their first win of the young season was stymied yet again by a late collapse, having to settle for a 2-2 draw against Chicago. The Crew led by a 2-0 scoreline in the 85th minute, but conceded twice in the span of three minutes. The draw leaves the team with a 0-2-4 record after six games, leaving them in last place in the Eastern Conference.

The team showed some solid play in the opening half, building a two-goal advantage at the break. Scoring first was Chad Marshall, who headed home a Guillermo Barros Schelotto free kick in the 25th minute. The Argentine's booming free kick found Marshall ghosting in toward the back post; Chad's header caught Fire goalkeeper Jon Bush coming the wrong way for his first goal of the season.

The Crew's second goal was the result of opportunistic pressure from Alejandro Moreno. The Venezuelan forward ran onto a back pass to Jon Busch, reading the ball just before the ball entered the penalty area. Moreno took the ball to the end line to get around Busch, and then dribbled to the top of the six yard box. Central defender Wilman Conde had recovered to man the net, but Moreno had time to wait for Conde to go to the ground to make a save, and tapped an easy ball into the net to double the Crew advantage.

Even beyond the two goals, there were several other promising Crew displays in the opening 45 minutes. Schelotto forced Busch to tip a shot over the bar inside the first ten minutes, and was unlucky that a later deflected shot from Logan Pause only kissed off the post. At the other end of the field, Andy Gruenebaum came up with some very good saves, stuffing two Fire players in the 31st minute and dealing with period of intense Fire pressure around the 39th minute.

One unfortunate event toward the end of the first half was the apparent injury to Adam Moffat which forced him from the game in the 42nd minute. Jed Zayner came on as a replacement, pushing Danny O'Rourke into midfield to play alongside Brian Carroll.

After the half, the Fire came out with much more intensity, holding the ball better in the opening five minutes. The Crew back line managed to prevent any clear-cut scoring chances, but were unable to mount much significant possession until the 52nd minute.

The game's physical nature took a few steps up in intensity starting in around the 56th minute. At that point, Eric Brunner tackled the ball through Patrick Nyarko on the edge of the Crew area, leaving both players down and disoriented for a few minutes. Three minutes later, Alejandro Moreno went down as he played the ball past Bakary Soumare as the last defender, but referee Jair Marrufo denied the Crew protests and signalled to play on.

Moments later the physical play reached a crescendo, leading to the ejection of Crew defender Gino Padula. The Argentinian left back's challenge on Cuauhtemoc Blanco was judged to be deserving of a red card; replays indicated that while there the contact was embellished, Padula did lead with exposed cleats at about waist height.

The Crew adjusted to being short-handed by moving Danny O'Rourke yet again, this time to left back. Leaving three players in the midfield, the team started to concede ever more possession to Chicago in the middle third of the field.

Both teams made offensive-minded substitutes after the ejection. Columbus brought on Robbie Rogers for Emmanuel Ekpo in the 66th minute, while Chicago countered by bringing on Chris Rolfe for Bakary Soumare in the 69th minute.

The physical play did not abate after the ejection either, with John Thorrington on the receiving end of a hard shoulder challenge from Danny O'Rourke. Thorrington's anger was still boiling a few minutes later, and resulted in a caution for dissent after Marrufo called a subsequent foul on Chicago in the 72nd minute. Schelotto attempted to sneak the resulting free kick in under Jon Busch's crossbar, but his attempt was tipped over for a corner kick.

Chicago kept piling on more pressure throughout the second half, forcing a number of Crew players to come up with big defensive plays. Eric Brunner blocked a hard shot from John Thorrington in the six yard box in the 77nd minute, while Andy Gruenebaum punched a dangerous cross clear moments before Patrick Nyarko could get a head on the ball in the 80th minute.

The damn finally broke in the 86th minute. Patrick Nyarko was able to get the ball to the end line, beating the Crew defense for the third time in ten minutes. This time, however, his ball across the six yard box found a waiting Brian McBride, who leapt up and headed home over Eric Brunner into the bottom right corner of the goal.

The goal gave even more motivation to the Fire, while the Crew proved unable to rally and hold possession to kill off the game. The Fire pulled level in the 88th minute as Gonzalo Segares blasted a low hard shot from beyond the penalty area, receiving a deft layoff pass from Chris Rolfe while the Crew defense were just unable to clear the ball.

With the score level, the Crew started to mount more consistent attacks, but even the insertion of Steven Lenhart for Schelotto could not produce a third goal. After four minutes of stoppage time, Jair Marrufo blew the game to a close, sending most of the 16,628 assembled fans home disappointed.

What's Next

The Crew's next game is next Saturday, at Toronto FC. Their next home game is May 9th against Kansas City.

Chicago's next two matches are at home, against Seattle on May 2nd and New England on May 9th.

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