Wednesday, May 29, 2013

US Open Cup, Crew 2:1 Dayton

Columbus took down Dayton at Crew Stadium 2:1 and advance to the next round of the US Open Cup.



In order to sidestep some of the mistakes made the past two years the Crew decided it was best to field an experienced lineup. MLS vets; Gehrig, Glauber, Wahl, Gaven, O’Rourke, Speas, and Higuain all found their numbers called to start along less experienced Matt Lampson, Konrad Warzycha, Chad Barson, and Schoenfeld.

Going back a bit further, Columbus was looking to not lose their 4th game in 5 years to a lower division team.

1ST HALF
The game started off with some promise as both teams looked to control the midfield but things went dark for Dayton in the 14th minute when Brock Granger took down Eddie Gaven when he was on his way to goal. He was shown red and Dayton went down to 10 men.

From there the half sort of went stale.



2ND HALF
Columbus seemed to come out of the break looking to snatch a goal but only a couple players looked into it. Fortunately, one of those players was Eddie Gaven. He was having one of his hungry games on the evening and placed a pretty shot across the front of the Dayton keeper for a goal. Higuain notched the assist.

After that, again, the game went into a slumber.

After looking like this one was going to end 1:0 Dayton's Shane Smith put one past Lampson to tie it up. Suddenly from there the game looked like an actual game as both teams felt they could win. Crew answered quick though as the Justin Meram was able to tee up a shot from about 20 yards out that bent into the bottom right corner to put the Crew up for good.

FINAL THOUGHTS
This was not the prettiest game and it may have come at some cost to the Crew. Eddie Gaven looked to go down on his shoulder after being knocked down. A handful of Crew players came over to check on him and a couple, including Danny O'Rourke put hands on head as if to know it was serious.

Word is out that it is his leg. Losing Gaven would be a blow to this years playoff chances.

Gaven was the bright spot of this game for the Crew as was Higuain. The Crew backline didn't have too much to do and Aaron Schoenfeld didn't get a lot of looks. Dayton's two CBs did well.

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