The Columbus Crew will be looking to erase the memories of last week’s lackluster performance against the Red Bulls, but it won’t be easy against a Chivas USA team that has managed to get results despite not playing its best soccer.
Crew Stadium won’t have an army of visiting fans so look for the Crew to be pushed by a home team eager to see its team show the form that helped Columbus win the season opener against Toronto FC.
Chivas USA has managed four points from two games without Ante Razov and with Maykel Galindo still working his way back to fitness. The Goats will look to test a Crew defense that has plenty of question marks heading into the season.
If you are watching the Crew-Chivas USA match and will be online then please feel free to share your thoughts, opinions and some play-by-play from the match in the comments section below.
Enjoy the soccer.
57min.
Rogers onside when ball is kicked. Behind defense when he gets it. Linesman can’t tell the difference = offsides
Crew able to push a lot of diagonal ground balls through Chivas defense, and a more experienced Crew (get it, “crew” – I kill me) than Gaven, Moffatt, and Rogers would probably have another 2-3 goals by now.
Think about the Crew’s lineup.. Out of Moffatt, Gaven, Rogers, Marshall, and O’Rourke, they’ve only got 1 guy over 25.
54min
Nice pass on the wing to Carroll who makes touch cross to Rogers, who hits Guzan in the gut.
The Crew might have the slowest striker combination (Moreno – GBS) of any team that doesn’t include me.
50min
Padula takes a Kleijstan elbow off the face on an aerial 50-50 ball.
Play stops for the trainer, and on restart, Crew taps ball back to Guzan.
49min
GBS launches corner kick halfway to the airport, and Hejduk runs it down. The resulting pinball looks like much of the rest of the game.
Sideline reporter talked to Sigi going off the field at halftime, and even he admitted there was nothing the Crew could do about Chivas’ goal.
48min, nice cross from Rogers, headed by Gaven to GBS who makes diving header shot right at Guzan. Nice quick, touch soccer, but no goal.
GBS definitely on his game tonight.
46min
Quick chip over the back line for the Crew, but 3 guys all offsides. Even an American ref could make that call right.
Gallardo subs on for 2d half for Savage.
No sign of Razov. I guess he knows the fans here would, uh, “Raz” him if he shows his face.
The referee garb is gray with flashes of neon orange here and there. They look a bit like they escaped from Tron, the classic 1982 virtually-reality-before-anyone-knew-what-it-was movie (yes, I went there…)
(less detail coming after the half… wanting to get to bed at some point 😛 )
Chivas has managed to string together a lot of 4- or 5-pass triangle combos, but by the time they’re done with it, they’ve gone forward about 10meters, and either Carroll or O’Rourke blow it up.
45+min
Moffat carded for hard challenge on Kleijstan, who flies about like a stuntman, but was actually wacked pretty hard.
Free kick hits the wall, and…. HALFTIME.
three minutes extra time. seems short given the problems with the lights.
Commentators just described Kliejstan’s goal as a “wonderful solo effort”… it was anything but. It was a beautiful team build-up of one-touch passes and smart positioning.
43min
Chivas manage to string together 6 passes for the 2d time tonight
42min
Last few minutes have been a lot of pinball, with the occasional backpass to the GKs, followed by a long bomb and some more pinball.
Funny to watch GBS try to sprint. You could probably time him with a sundial.
40min
Curtin goes over the top of Moffat like he’s trying to catch a ride on his back, then wonders why he’s whistled for the foul.
Moffat comes back with a shot trying to recreate his week 1 goal that didn’t need to be taken.
39min
Dangerous back pass to Guzan, with 3 Crew players all in the way. They were so stunned that it happened they didn’t have a chance to get to it.
37min
Bornstein mugs Moreno as he’s about to break thru the defense. The commentators rightly point out that Marshall’s foul earlier should’ve also been a card, as Bornstein is booked.
GBS’s cross sails. Lay off the Wheaties.
35min
GBS gets a nice diagonal ball through the defense from Moreno. Curtin catches up to him (like that’s hard or something) but GBS holds it beautifully and lets an unmarked Moreno catch up, lays him a simple square ball, and Moreno buries the goal.
Free cookies for everyone.
Columbus comes right back with a cross from GBS that lands in the middle of 7 Chivas players.
33min
Chivas string together 8-9 passes that result in a sweet, sweet goal from Kleijstan, followed by a goofy kung-fu celebration.
Kliejstan gets a simple drop just to the left of the half-circle on the 18box and curls a nice ball into the opposite netting, right around Hesmer, who just admired it going by.
32min
Chivas gets off an intentional shot for 25 yards.
Hesmer saves easily, but goes down to his right to make sure the cameramen get a dramatic action shot.
31min
Nice cross to Gaven on right side in open space, but Gaven air-mails the cross over everything.
29min
Chivas pushing forward, but can’t string too many passes together. Funny to watch Kliejstan try to outrun Robbie ROgers.
Close-up of Padulla, who looks sort of like a before-he-shaved Gaius Baltar from Battlestar Galactica.
27min
more long balls out of the back for Chivas.
Marsch down for the Goats and ball out of play.
Chivas not linking through the midfield well at all, and forced to bomb down the flanks.
Normally not a great plan, but Columbus’ wingbacks tend to run up a lot and it’s not hard to get behind them.
25min
Curtin rolls up over Moreno’s back on a ground ball thru the box from Rogers.
The most fouled man in the league (two years running!) draws a PK for the Crew, and GBS coolly buries it. Guzan dives to his right, GBS puts is just barely to Guzan’s left.
24min lights are back on
23min
Curtain knocks Schelloto over. Crew fans want a foul, but with Salazar as the ref, that’ll only draw a whistle if it draws blood.
On the replay, it looks like Bornstein kicked the ball, and his momentum carried him into Gaven, who was trying to dodge him. It’s like calling a blocking foul on a guy trying to move out of the lane on a layup.
22min
Columbus dodges a bullet as Moffatt clears one off a line after Kliejstan takes down Marshall with a power move straight outta WWE. Ball caroms out to the front right corner of the 18 box and Gaven and Bornstein collide going for it. Neither gets it, but Bornstein makes the more dramatic flop and the result is a yellow card for Gaven. 2d card of the evening, and Salazar is in rare form.
20min
First of several bad offsides calls by the ref working south side. At least he was consistently bad.
19 minute – game on. A lot of rough, chippy play as every possession is challenged hard from behind.
Salazar stops play to talk to coaches about the lights. Play holds up for about 3-4 minutes while they discuss it. Play continues before the lights are back on, but they do eventually come back.
Meantime, everyone takes a water break and some players don parkas for the wait.
17 min
Northeast light tower loses half its lights
18min
Northeast tower loses the rest of its lights.
15 min
Padula takes down Pozniak and Chivas free kick is basically a corner kick… As it’s right in front of the hooligans, the ball is pelted with streamers.
17min
Northwest light tower loses half its lights.
14min
Crew gets a corner kick and Chivas’ counter on the clear looks like a jailbreak. Attack stops when Marshall wrestles down Mendoza and Chivas argues for a card.
Long punt that Padula couldn’t handle. Tried to head back to Hesmer, but not enough on the backpass and Hesmer has to make a great save on a Chivas shot.
11:30 Mendoza yellow card for taking down Schelotto after the corner kick is cleared.
Bornstein looks good in possession, but he seems reluctant to make many overlapping runs. Oddly, Bornstein and Hejduk keep running into each other.
Long shot from Robbie Rogers that amounted to basically nothing.
Chivas is just throwing long balls forward and trying to find someone to win it in the air. I guess they didn’t get the memo that Marshall’s back, and Carroll’s back there, too.
The crowd wasn’t huge, but the Hudson Street Hooligans drum section didn’t slow down until about 18-19 minutes into the game.
Lots of back and forth play, but neither team holding position for long. Both teams trying for quick strikes off of longish balls. About 3-4 touches, and then chip into the middle.
Oddly enough, the sideline reporter was talking about how Sigi’s plan was to try to hold possession. I have no idea what the possession stats on this game were, but it wasn’t until the Crew were trying to kill the game that they started trying to hold possession for an extended time.
8:00 mark and lots of pinball so far.
The new stage behind the north goal in the stadium looks like crap. I have no idea why you’d rip out the seats of your most ardent supporters and replace them with a giant concrete edifice with no character or feeling to it. It does give the dance team somewhere to stand during play, though, and a lil’ eye candy never hurt.
4-4-2 for both. Columbus hasn’t let go of the Danny-O’Rourke-at-center-back yet.
For those of you who don’t remember, Salazar was the ref last year in the Crew-Revs game when Andy Herron tried to remove Jay Heaps jaw with his elbow. Heaps had been beating on Columbus’ forwards all night and Salazar didn’t do anything about, so Herron did. Will we see a problem tonight?
Columbus has Padula in the starting lineup. Gino Padula is an Argentinian brought in to help shore up the defense. He’s not a replacement for Marcos Gonzales, as he’s a wingback, not a centerback.
From the stands, if Hejduk and Padula traded jerseys you wouldn’t be able to tell them apart: slender builds, long hair, never stop running.
I’ll comment as I watch, but it’s tape-delayed… 🙂
I just got back from the game. The “madness” was Ricardo Salazar as your referee…
I’ve got it on TiVo and I want to see why Padula got a yellow card near the end, since it appeared to be for dissent. But only moments before, Kliejstan was screaming at the ref and got nothing.
Both of Chivas’ red cards were players that picked up 2d yellows. The first red card was a borderline card. The 2d (on Kliejstan) was for taking Schellotto’s legs out from under him after the ball was gone.
The weather didn’t help the crowd, but neither had crappy teams for the last 3 years. What’ll bring the crowds back will be a team that doesn’t lose stupid games like they managed to the last 2 years.
Anyone watching? Scoreboard says that 2 Chivas players tossed in the 84th? What is this madness?
Wow, another underwhelming crowd at Crew stadium. And before anyone says anything, I don’t care about the weather. Crew fans always have excuses about why no one goes to their games. MLS would be well served by moving the team to an area that will support soccer.
Mssrs. Saputo and Gillett, are you paying attention?
Go Crew!!!