Steve Clark makes a diving save attempt in Columbus Crew SC’s 2-1 loss to the New York Red Bulls. Photo/Greg Bartram (Columbus Crew SC)
[dropcap]A[/dropcap] lackluster second half that was highlighted by bad turnovers, poor execution, and a lack of movement, resulted in a 2-1 loss for Columbus Crew SC to the visiting New York Red Bulls, snapping a seven match regular season home winning streak.
The first half of tonight’s match was a wide open affair with both teams pressing high and allowing their midfield to try and force the issue, resulting in chances for both clubs. The first true chance of the match came early on a Sam Zizzo attempt in the tenth minute which went high off the crossbar. Crew SC recovered quickly from this and went on the counter, getting a chance of their own as Ethan Finlay had his attempt blocked at the last moment.
The uptempo pace of the match continued for most of the half, only calming down around the thirty minute mark when possession became more important to both clubs.
The best opportunity for Crew SC came just before the end of the half as Federico Higuain put a shot just over the crossbar, resulting in a scoreless first half.The second half was almost all New York, with the breakthrough coming just four minutes in. Emmanuel Pogatetz attempted to clear the ball from Lloyd Sam, but fouled him in the penalty area instead. There was little argument from the Black and Gold and Bradley Wright-Phillips slotted the penalty kick past Steve Clark to make it 1-0.
Crew SC would get the equalizer ten minutes later off of a corner kick that managed to go through the box all the way to Tony Tchani, who calmly put it past Luis Robles to make it 1-1.
Things would go south from here as the Crew simply did not play well from that point on as NYRB would get the winner just eight minutes later as Michael Parkhurst gifted a poor back pass to Mike Grella, who had been on the pitch for all of thirty seconds. Grella pushed forward with one touch and then lofted the ball past Clark, who attempted to recover from being high off his line, but could not stop the shot.
Gregg Berhalter talked about the second half play in his press conference.
“We didn’t play well. We didn’t pass well. We didn’t compete well. The end result is what it should be.” Berhalter stated, obviously frustrated with the second half play by his club.
Things would go from bad to worse late as Federico Higuain was called for a ridiculous foul on a break and would be sent off for some dissent to center official Sorin Stoica. Berhalter disagreed with sending off his #10.
“I’m not a big fan of that type of getting a yellow that way, but what I would say is that it was clearly frustration from a foul that, in my eyes, was 50/50,” he said. “That’s a hard one to call. In my eyes, I feel it was light dissent and, to give a second yellow in that situation was harsh.”
Crew SC would get two excellent chances at the very end of the match, one on an Adam Schoenfeld flick on that almost went into the net far post, but was saved at the last moment by Luis Robles. The final chance was on the last play of the match where Kei Kamara failed to win a header that Luis Robles would come down with, and eventually all crashed together into the post. Full time would be blown shortly thereafter, sealing the victory for New York.
Missing from the lineup was Wil Trapp, who was questionable for the match and was kept out of the lineup. Berhalter confirmed that Trapp will not make the trip to Denmark to meet up with the U.S. U-23s.
Next up for Crew SC is a cross-country trip to Cascadia to take on Vancouver Whitecaps FC, followed by another road trip to New England next Saturday.
[infobox color=”eg. light, green, blue, yellow”]
FINAL STATS:
OFFICIAL SCORING: Crew SC – Tchani (58′), NYRB – Wright-Phillips (PEN 49′) Grella (67′)
SHOTS: Crew SC – 13 (3), NYRB – 13 (5)
FOULS: Crew SC – 18, NYRB – 12
POSSESSION: NYRB – 51%
CORNERS: Crew SC – 10, NYRB – 4
OFFSIDE: Crew SC – 1
DISCIPLINE: Crew SC – Higuain: Yellow – 39′, Yellow to Red – 83′ NYRB – Perrinelle – 17′, Duvall – 90’+4′
ATTENDANCE: 10,302[/infobox]
