Sunday, September 16, 2012

Crew Round 28, NY Win

The Columbus Crew jumped on top early but end up losing decisively 1:3 to the NY Red Bulls.

1ST HALF
Because of a reported injury to Federico Higuain, Robert Warzycha moved Milovan Mirosevic up from is normal defensive mid roll to a forward roll for the evening. Three minutes in to the match Mirosevic scored and had Crew fans changing their perspectives on life. Night was now day and instead of a kaleidoscope of rainbow colors the visible spectrum of light was now only black and gold.

Six minutes later Rafael Marquez dropped a long pass over Chad Marshall and the Crew backline to Thierry Henry for a goal.

The rest of the first half saw the Crew probing and testing the NY midfield and NY soaking it up.

2ND HALF
NY didn't seem too interested in playing through the Columbus MF and was happy dropping long balls over top of it and try to beat the high Crew backline. Nothing came of it but it did loosen up the Crew who, as the match went on, got more and more disjointed.

By around the 75' NY was in full control of the match. Out of that, and off a corner from Henry, Dax McCarty scored (79th minute). Andy Gruenebaum's face collided with the goal post in attempt to make the save and had to leave after laying on the pitch for some time.

The ensuing 9 minutes of stoppage gave Thierry Henry time to line up a gol olimpico on substitute Crew 'keeper Matt Lampson.

GAME OVER
Thierry Henry now has 4 goals and 2 assists in two games against the Crew this year.

• I'll take another look at this game but no real standout performances from the Crew. NY focused on Eddie Gaven's side of the field and had no interest or worry in Dilly Duka. They gave Duka yards of space. Anyone who has played sports competitively knows what it is like to be seen as a non-threat or the weakest link. I was really pulling for him to make something happen.

• Not sure where to go with Chad Marshall ($341k) and Milovan Mirosevic ($233k) anymore. Good players who are not performing anywhere near where they should. With Mirosevic it could be that he just doesn't fit the Major League Soccer game.

• Away at NY isn't a great place to start; but 10 games now that Columbus hasn't had a shutout. They had 7 in their first 18 matches this year.

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