Columbus Crew fans celebrate the Black & Gold’s 2-1 victory over the Philadelphia Union Sunday night. Photo/Kirby Hines
[dropcap]I[/dropcap]t was never decisive, and certainly not dominating, but like much of this season for the Columbus Crew, it was timely.
Columbus led for 72 minutes, but it almost wasn’t enough to secure three points until Bernardo Anor’s game-winner in a 2-1 home victory over the Philadelphia Union in the regular season finale.
Waylon Francis generated a chance in to Tony Tchani, whose shot from 10 yards out was deflected off the goal line by Maurice Edu and tapped in by Anor to re-establish the lead in the 91st minute.
Jake Arrieta nearly put the Crew on the board with a shot off the crossbar a minute beforehand, but made amends to open the scoring in the 13th minute. Wil Trapp passed to Ben Speas, who easily forwarded to Arrieta just ahead of the midfield mark and almost the entirety of the Union’s defensive corps. Arrieta used his pace to stay in the clear and veered left around Union goalkeeper Zac MacMath for the easy finish.
Still, it was a less than impressive rest of the first half for the Crew with lackluster movement and left Philadelphia within range for the eventual leveler. It came when a long throw-in to Sebastian Le Toux, just wide right of the 18, was lofted several yards in toward Amobi Okogo, whose pass found Zach Pfeffer for an effort at the edge of the six-yard box that went through the legs of Steve Clark.
The victory, with the help of a Sunday night victory by the New York Red Bulls over Sporting Kansas City, allowed Columbus to secure a bye in the Eastern Conference Playoffs in front of a record single-game crowd at Crew Stadium.
With the other Eastern Conference result, Sporting KC, who fell 2-0, will look to overturn that result Thursday night in a rematch at Red Bull Arena in a pairing of the No. 4 and No. 5 seeds. No. 3 Columbus is set to face No. 2 New England Revolution, and will host the first leg either Saturday or Sunday. An exact date and time for that match, and the leg to be hosted by the Revs next weekend, is to be announced.
“It has been our goal during the regular season to make the playoffs,” said Clark, who finished the match with six saves. “I think the fans deserve it. The coaching staff deserves it, putting in the long hours and a lot of work to get us where we are now. And we [players] deserve it.”
“It’s been up and down at times, but our body of work throughout the whole season has been enough to get us where we are now.”
Story courtesy of Press Row Sports.
