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Columbus Crew at D.C. United: Running Commentary

Dc_united_logo_2 Columbus_crew_logo

Good evening folks. It is a clear evening at RFK Stadium in Washington D.C. and tonight’s match between the Columbus Crew and D.C. United should be a thriller. The fans at RFK are in full voice and will be hoping to help D.C. forget about last week’s ugly loss to Real Salt Lake.

The Crew come in feeling confident after last week’s 4-3 shootout against Chivas USA and will look to take advantage of a D.C. defense that has looked extremely vulnerable this season.

If you will be following the match and will be online, please feel free to share your thoughts, opinions and play by play in the comments section below. I will be providing some commentary as well.

My prediction? D.C. United 2, Columbus Crew 1.

Enjoy the match.

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FINAL- Crew 2, D.C. United 1. Columbus moves its winning streak to two while D.C. loses a second straight match. Share your post-match thoughts in the comments section below.

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59th minute- Franco Neill is a speedy option who should give the Crew’s back-line some problems.

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54th minute- Gonzalo Peralta has looked shaky all night long. You wonder if Tom Soehn saved his receipt and plans on returning the Argentine defender.

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51st minute- The Crew’s second goal has been ruled an own goal by Peralta. Legit decision.

D.C. has yet to show much this half. No sense of urgency from the home team yet.

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HALFTIME- D.C. finally showed some life late in the first-half but Columbus has shown it all match. The Crew is playing well and the team defense is the difference here. A BIG question for D.C. is how do you make up for the fact that players such as Moreno, Emilio and Gallardo just aren’t going to help you defensively (not that Gonzalo Peralta has tonight either). D.C. sure could use Ben Olsen, whose energy and bite usually serve as the catalyst for D.C. Without him, D.C. United falls into these flat spells that cost them.

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45th minute- This game has definitely picked up intensity, much better stuff from both sides.

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43rd minute- GOAL COLUMBUS. And it’s Alejandro Moreno with the finish on a great run and cross by Adam Moffat. The Crew is just out-hustling D.C. tonight. Crew 2, D.C. 1

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42nd minute- GOAL DC UNITED. Finally, a quality build-up by D.C. finishes with a strong Namoff shot that gets deflected past Wil Hesmer. D.C. United 1, Crew 1.

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38th minute- D.C. United looks flat out mediocre tonight. Not what I expected considering how soundly they were thrashed by Real Salt Lake.

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36th minute- Emilio gets a ball on a platter in front of goal but can’t get a good shot off. Emilio hasn’t looked right yet this season.

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32nd minute- GOAL COLUMBUS. Alejandro Moreno finishes off a great ball in from Schelotto to Hejduk, who crosses for Moreno. Nice sequence for the Crew and D.C. United’s defense is beaten again.

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29th minute- WOW. SAVE ZACH WELLS. Schelotto has a wide-open look but Wells stops it.

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27th minute- JP with the note that this game is being shown in Argentina. I think the folks in Argentina have probably fallen asleep already waiting for some good chances to be created.

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25th minute- Can somebody get D.C. United a jersey sponsor so their uniforms can stop look like warm-ups?

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22nd minute- I have to say that there hasn’t been the good combination play in the final third you would hope from these two teams.

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19th minute- The crowd in D.C. has died down a bit but D.C. United actually looks to be waking up a bit with some more possession. Now if they could find the pass in the final third.

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17th minute- Somebody get Eddie Gaven a razor and does anybody else think John Harkes sounds like Christopher Sullivan tonight?

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8th minute– Columbus is the road team but look a little more composed early on. The D.C. crowd sure isn’t lacking for a noise factor tonight.
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5th minute– Robbie Rogers comes very close with a shot on goal. D.C. already looking a tad shaky in the back.

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Comments

  1. Too bad Rogers had a stomach flu (from what I gather). Want to see him when his is 100% like in the Chivas game. Crew is a real surprise this year. Moreno? Could not belive he had it in him but he does. His hard work is paying off.

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  2. Rogers did look lacadasical on some of his attacking runs, but there were several times where he still looked dangerous and made some really good runs and passes. Also, I can’t criticize his workrate because he almost always gets back on defense, which is impressive for a young winger. He is still extremely green as a professional, so I am not really worried about some of the other posters’ concerns.

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  3. Ease? Didn’t the Crew have something like 20 shots in that game? At least 2 hit the woodwork…

    RBNY got a decent shot from VDB that skipped odd and caught Hesmer off-guard, and a pinball scrum bounce in front of the net that might’ve had a foul in it.

    Then they turtled for 85 minutes.

    “Ease”? We’ll see what happens in Columbus.

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  4. Well, it looks like Ives will really have to give Columbus credit in his rankings now. Leading the league in points and have now beaten Chivas and D.C. United, and beat DC in DC. (Although I think it’s quickly becoming obvious that beating DC is no big deal despite what Ives seems to think of them.)

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  5. I watched the game on ESPN360. I actually saw both these teams play last year in Columbus and I have to say that Columbus has made a quantum leap in quality of play. They are much much better now.

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  6. Solid win by the Crew on the road, it’s early but I’m still solidly on their bandwagon to make some noise this year, they’ve got talent all over the field, decent depth, and no obvious dogs in the lineup (while their healthy, at least).

    Someone said that Brian Caroll seems to steady them, even if it’s not totally obvious what’s so great there, and I agree. Plus, Moffat looks like one of the steals of the year, that diamond in the $18k rough that can totally transform an MLS team.

    Plus, they’ve got other good young guys in Iro and Jason Garey who they haven’t even brought out of the closet yet this year.

    The key in Columbus is getting strong and aggressive play on the wings from Rogers and Eddie Gaven’s beard, and Schelloto not getting too depressed that he lives in Columbus and pulling a Yuri Djorkaeff.

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  7. I’m not quite ready to call him lazy, I think Harkes said it right when he said Rogers didn’t play with urgency. I think that is spot on.

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  8. man, I haven’t seen a player lazier than Rogers in quite awhile. For someone who is so fast, he sure jogs to a lot of balls and then fails to get to them. What a waste of talent. Oh, yeah, and he has a habit of falling down easily.

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  9. Heres what I’d tell Rogers. See there is a lot of money in Europe that they are willing to pay a quality player like you. But the thing is you need to work harder. You can stay always be making a lot less than you could potentiallly have. But yeah RR is a good player, but needs to work harder.

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  10. I miss Nowak as DC’s coach. They used to be a possession team under him, Arena, and even Rongen. Not so much under Soehn…

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  11. I love Moreno – he’s a hard worker who never gives up on anything, and he never quits running. I wish the Jakob Thomases and Ryan Coiners and Joe Ngwenyas of the world had learned more from him (yes, I know Ngwenya was traded for him… in large part b/c Ngwenya loafed more than people realized)

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  12. eric – agreed

    Brant – Yeah Moreno is slow and that shows that you don’t have to be fast to work hard. The thing I would say to Rogers is what are you saving you speed for, it doesn’t do you any good unless you use it.

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  13. I’d make Hejduk by RR’s running partner. Sure some people are born with more endurance, but it’s definitely something you can also build pretty easy if you just train at it. I know plenty of not-so-athletic people who worked up to run marathons. I, on the other hand, turned down the invitation to train for it – but I’m not a pro athlete.

    Decent night from McTavish despite the substitution, I’m warming to the idea of him as a serviceable starter.

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  14. Kind of disapointed in this ref. I’ve seen plenty of obstruction tonight which hasn’t been called. We should be rewarding skill, not physicality.

    Anyway, the good news is that he’s calling it equal both ways, so it hasn’t hurt anyone.

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  15. Wally –

    Got to disagree with you. I never said I expected players to sprint for 90 minutes. I do expect player, especially forwards and wingers to close down and put people under pressure even if they can’t get to the ball. I don’t expect them to chase the ball when it leaves their area . Also I think it is not hard to tell when a player has nothing left and when a player is taking it easy with something left in the tank, but with Rogers it happened right from the get go, he shouldn’t be tired after the first 20 mins. If Rogers emulated his teammate Moreno’s hustle I would have no complaints at all.

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  16. Steven –

    re your comment that “there is no reason not to have a high work rate,” — you try sprinting non-stop for 90 minutes. Most people get tired. Having a high work rate in a top league is not merely a matter of effort, it also requires an insane combination of speed and endurance. Maybe RR will never have it.

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  17. I mean half-hearted because half the time, he looks unstoppable, but once C-bus has their numbers, his passes seem to go nowhere (with the exception of the goal). I’m not saying he’s playing badly, he just doesn’t seem to be into the game.

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  18. Weak sauce again by Rogers, I’ll take Holden as my winger of the future right now.

    Good to see Frankie HeyDude getting up and down the field!

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