The Columbus Crew looked primed for a blowout loss after falling behind 2-0 to Toluca in CONCACAF Champions League action, but the MLS power climbed off the mat and sent yet another Mexican team away from Crew Stadium without a win.
Missing several key players due to injury and suspension, the Crew didn't look to have the weapons to recover from the early two-goal deficit, but Steven Lenhart stepped up and scored two goals to help Columbus salvage a 2-2 tie in the first-leg of their quarterfinal series.
The Crew will now head to Mexico for next Wednesday's second leg in Toluca needing a win or a draw of 3-3 or more to advance to the Champions League semifinals. Columbus will be attempting to become the first MLS team to win a competitive match in Mexico.
Here are some other stories to get your Wednesday going:
JONES TARGETS WORLD CUP AS PAIN LINGERS
Jermaine Jones is still feeling pain in his surgically-repaired leg, but he revealed that playing in the World Cup in the United States is still a dream he is holding on to.
Jones is currently in Munich, where he is undergoing laser therapy to try and combat the pain he is still feeling in his legs. While Jones admitted uncertainty about whether he would play for Schalke this season, Jones told the Frankfurter Rundschau that is still hoping to play a part in the U.S. national team's World Cup plans.
"The World Cup is my goal. I want to jump on this train," Jones said.
Jones spent time with the U.S. national team last week during its visit to Amsterdam for last Wednesday's 2-1 exhibition loss to the Netherlands. He is still considered a long shot to make the team, having been out of action since undergoing surgery for a hairline fracture in his leg last summer.
ESTUDIANTES HELD IN LIBERTADORES
Defending Copa Libertadores champions Estudiantes failed to find the net in settling for a 0-0 draw against Bolivian side Bolivar in Libertadores group action on Tuesday.
Ecuadorian club Deportivo Cuenca downed Mexican side Morelia, 2-0, while Chilean rivals Universidad Catolica and Universidad de Chile played to a 2-2 tie. Racing club of Uruguay defeated Cerro Porteno, 2-1, in other Libertadores action on Tuesday.
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What did you think of the Crew's performance? Think Columbus can get a result in Mexico? Still holding out hope that Jermaine Jones will get healthy in time to be considered for a World Cup place?
Share your thoughts below.
Tired of this J Jones baloney. Dude doesn’t deserve to walk on to the team that others have fought hard to make a place in. Too Late, better luck next time.
That isn’t true, he lived in the states for a while until his parents got divorced. According to Wiki (for what its worth) he lived in Chicago and Mississippi.
I’m kinda confused. Why is your comment a reply to mine? You don’t even mention Renteria or the refereeing, which were the only things I mentioned.
Very nice!
Donovan wasn’t injured. Not really the same thing at all.
True. But the conflict will probably come with the players that would have seen field time and don’t because of Jones. Hey, it may not happen that way but I think everybody has to at least acknowledge the risk.
It’s difficult to speculate how players are going to pan out, but 2 guys that I’ve been very impressed with are Tyler Polak at LB and Alfred Kamora at forward. Polak is impressive technically and shows great awareness on the pitch (reminds me a lot of Leyton Baines), while Kamora is a very athletic forward with a hammer for a left foot and a little attitude as well. I think they would be 20 and 18 respectively in 2012.
Fair point, Manny, but I think that when they played for the US, it was a different time. To even fill a reasonable roster, we had no choice but to take guys who had never even been to the US or played here.
Again, that’s just my take on Jones. He’s using the US as a fallback position.
I hear what you are saying regarding cardio, but nothing replicates running and actually playing for sharpness. IMO, he has to see the pitch in real games (i.e. friendlies in May) to make the squad. The WC is no time to shake out the rust.
I understand that the rules changed. I also understand that he has never spent any time here and never until recently figuring out he wouldn’t really make the German team, that he wanted to play World Cup. I don’t blame the guy but it IS a different situation than an actual American soccer player.
One injury and one red card to a keeper is not far-fetched at all.
what’s sad is I bet he could play LB better than Bornstein : (
I can’t see adding him to the roster if he does not take the field for Schalke before Bradley has to name his team. If he does play for Schalke, I expect he will be on the squad and then,whether or not he sees playing time in SA will come down to the coaching staff’s assessment of his form and fitness during the camp. So he could lose out in many ways, but if he can get healthy in time, I think he will be on the squad. (His visit with the US team in the Netherlands is a positive.)
Yeah, except FIFA mandates 3 keepers.
Ironic that we are a top 15 national team so to answer your question, all of them!!!!
Obviously no injury situations are identical, but mikel arteta has shown that it’s possible to come back from a long injury layoff (over a year) and find form in a relatively short time.
Of course it’s also common for long-injured players to return only to find they weren’t ready (rosicky) or injure themselves further (eduardo).
I wouldn’t put a firm deadline on either jones or davies for world cup inclusion. The group stage is a two week affair, so they’ll get some extra time to be ready for algeria. If one of them is even close, I say bring him at the expense of the current 5th cm/4th forward.
Jermaine Jones is, in fact, an American.
I agree he belongs on the squad if healthy and match-fit, but if he manages to pull that off, I will eat Werner Herzog’s shoe.
Thanks. Looks like there were some great goals in the game. Also looks like one of the Crew defenders should have gotten a red card.
Good luck to the Crew next week. Hopefully they play well in Mexico.
Indeed, or swimming w/o fins, or using a crank bike, etc.
Couldn’t agree more. Jones is a born leader both with attitude on the field and through pure drive. Bradley can’t hold a middle, Clark can’t pass, Edu isn’t creative, Torres can’t dig into a game, and Feilhaber can’t tackle. Jones does all of these and scores. No one is man enough to step up to players like Sneijder, Jones would make him earn those creative passes.
Jones outclasses all these players and although I hate seeing non-Americans on the team, I put the team above the players and say he’s in if fit. It was a good show from him and the team that he went to the training camp and hung out with the guys. Shows he cares about getting on the team and Bob is welcome to having him.
I can’t comprehend how a simple hairline fracture has turned into such an issue… Those German doctors just aren’t what they used to be. Can someone just inject him with painkillers and get on with it : )
I prefer players who perform in important games…or at least those who haven’t been shown to wither, Jose.
Mexican reserves like reserves in most leagues were their payrolls are higher than MLS are going to be very good. And Mexico’s young talent always seems to be very good. I thought the Crew performed great for the league last night.
Toluca’s 2nd goal and Steven Lenharts 1st goal were world class finishes. All 4 goals were great. Toluca’s fist goal through midfield was a thing of beauty and the way the crew punished Toluca for turning the ball over on their 2nd goal was well done. Did Lenhart step up or what!
The trouble for the Crew is not so much the talent level but the altitude for next weeks game. I am a D.C. United fan and we played Toluca in Mexico. I remember reading quotes from guys that after 20 minutes and then then after 15 minutes int othe 2nd half that the guys could barely breathe due to the altitude. Some said the air was so thin that they felt like they were going to pass out and if you watch highlights from that game you can see how Toluca got their PK by easily going around a DC defender that looked like he was walking he was so tired or out of it due to the thin air. I remember seeing them run by our guys the 10 minutes leading up to that goal thinking something bad was going to happen. The Crew will have Schelotto and his experience playing in these conditions going for them and I hope they play a young line up like last night minus Schelotto. The Crew did win at Saprissa which was rarity for MLS and Toluca almost deserves to be knocked out of the tourney in a surprise fashion after leaving DCU out to dry by allowing Marathon to beat them after they had trounced them 7-0 at home 10 days earlier in the group stage. That is what kept DC from advancing.
I know MLS has the charter rule but I wish they would step up or allow the Crew to charter a flight for this match and go down there inthe next day or 2 to try and adjust to playing at altitude. they mentioned that Toluca chartered to Columbus last night so why not the Crew!
My bad Hahnemann will be the oldest on the team at 38 by the time the world cup gets going. But he will most likely be riding the pine unless drastic injuries come
That’s NOT absurd. You want a guy who probably won’t have played a competitive game in more than a year to make his return to the field in a World Cup match? Terrible idea. We don’t need him and I don’t want him.
Ach…too soon, too soon.
But valiant attempt.
Just checking the ages, Bocanegra and Howard will be the oldest on the team at 31. There may only be 3 players at 30 years of age by the world cup. And 6-7 players over the age of 25 competing.
i dont get this “we are loaded in CM” talk also. “Loaded”? really guys? Which of our CM’s would start on a top 15 national teams in the world?
I have watched a good amount of Bundesliga on GolTV througout the past couple of years. Jones is the real deal. So real that their version of “S.I.” rated him 4th best midfielder in the bundesliga last year
Bob should take Jones. he has the one thing that the US team is lacking and thats experience. This team is built more for 2014. They should be good now, but overall this is a very young team. Jones has that experience that you want. If not, I would try bringing in Mcbride or Friedel as part of the staff or something if they cant play.
I disagree. When healthy and in form, Jones is the best central midfielder in our pool, and significantly better than Clark, Edu, Torres, or Feilhaber.
I think all this talk of chemistry is a little ridiculous – Torres, Holden, Rodgers, Goodson, and all of the fourth striker candidates (Johnson, Cunningham, Findley) were barely involved in qualifying, and yet nobody worries about taking them along. Donovan and Beasley played huge roles with the 2002 team in spite of the fact that they had barely been involved prior to the WC. Three players – Onyewu, Cherundolo, and possibly Davies – might make the roster in spite of having not played with the team for roughly 8 months when camp begins. The full roster will play exactly one game in 2010 (the Netherlands game last week) prior to camp being called in May. Chemistry is nice, but always difficult to achieve on a national team. As long as Jones can prove that he’s 1) Healthy and in form, 2) Not clubhouse poison, he should go.
Regis didn’t poison the clubhouse in 1998; Harkes did. And Sampson didn’t help. And Lalas has never been known to shy away from an argument. For God’s sake: we were playing a 3-6-1 with Brian Maisonneuve starting in central midfield. David Regis was the least of our problems.
And to all of you debating not taking a third ‘keeper: three ‘keepers is a FIFA requirement. You cannot replace the third ‘keeper with a field player.
You can take my spot, amigo. Bob prefers Euro-based players.
Im pretty sure its 23 and under with three overage players.
Altidore, Adu, Brek Shea, Jared Jeffrey, Arguez, Gyua, Renken, Mix Diskerud,Kyle Davies, Dilly Duka, Daniel Williams (if he chooses to), Gregory Garza and anybody on the list below and three overage players. If clubs let the players leave. Also other players who havent made a mark yet.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_U-20_men%27s_national_soccer_team
It could be a pretty impressive team
FIFA requires 3 goalkeepers to be part of every country’s 23-man roster.
Bob has made it (non verbally) clear that JJ will be in SA. At 80% fitness he will still be miles ahead of our other mids…….someone mentioned this already but his trip to Holland with the rest of the healthy and not so healthy A squad was a good sign of things to come for JJ. Its not like you saw Kyle Beckerman hanging out by the bench….for good reason and hes been playing for US for years.
Good point Sarah but we have all seen the MLS players Bradley has thrown out there and it wouldn’t take much talent to look better then most of them…Its mute because there is no way “this coach” would take anyone that has not seen some club action before the WC. Not his style!
I do agree that we need to pressure the other team, and not sit back defensively. That is the one thing I have hated the most with the US team. If we don’t pressure, eventually the other team will find a hole. We should play the way we did the last 10 minutes against Holland for the whole game.
It’s called a stationary bike and that’s just one of the few ways you can do Cardio with shin pain. I’ve been there and the beauty of it is that you have minimal stress on your joints, so not only are coming back fresh but like new.
Those of you counting him out are probably the same clowns whom doubted shots at Charlies Davies being able to make it back.
I’m too damn optimistic and have seen way too many things happen in my lifetime to ever doubt someone when they’re determined.
If he makes the team, he’s starting. He has talent that Edu, Clark and others on this team wish they had and in a midfield with Donovan and Beasley instantly gives us one of the fastest and most skilled midfields in the World. The upside of him playing for us is worth the wait.
Interesting thing is that it may not be his direct competitors for DMid who might be left off the team – Clark and Edu might be going no matter what. It’s entirely likely that one or another of our central mids will get carded out of a match (either from a red or from an accumulation of yellows), so DMid might be the most important area to have depth in. If Jones is on the team, it might well be in place of an Eddie Johnson or Robbie Finley.
yeah, i would prefer we pressure the whole game, much more fun to watch, and we are supposed to be fit… At least step it up to high gear right after half time like Brazil seem to do.
im with you on the ‘do we really need 3 keepers’ thought. but to think of it from a BB standpoint. if he does only take 2 gk’s and somehow they both get hurt or suspended, even as unlikely as it is, they are basically out of the tournament and would be laughed at for fielding a field player in the net.
its unlikely, but if it did happen, oh man BB would be fired and never ever stop kicking himself
Then by your standards Dooley isn’t either or Earnie.
Yeah, but Howard is not the guy that would not be making the trip to South Africa, due to Jones inclusion.
Surprisingly physical. Campbell let him get away with a lot of pushing and shoving. We’ll see how he does with tighter officiating.
He was American the day he was born. He was ineligible when he played for Germany. FIFA changed the rules, and he chooses to play with us now. What could be more natural for a kid who has one parent in Germany and one parent in the U.S. to play for two national teams in his lifetime?
Sure, that definitely could be the tactics in use. However, I just think to do that against them with Van Persie in the lineup or against England would be suicide. We definitely defended well in the final third.
And Bobby Convey just behind him!
The only one who’d be dropped is Torres. It’s the national team — there are no injustices. That’s the kind of nonsense thinking that had Kasey Kepper playing instead of Brad Friedel 4 years ago in Germany. We need to have our best players.
The concerns about Jones are health, fitness and sharpness. I doubt they’ll be there for him. If they are, he comes.
what are the age eligibility rules? Would many of our young starters be eligible (Bradley)? Did they throw out all those stupid amateur rules?
give them some space, try to hold them back there, and then pressure the last 20 of the game. If that was his tactic, it kind of worked! Dutch had no answers at the end.
Shins. Not knees.
funny, all these people making statements about jones. I wonder how many have actually seen him play. I would guess most have never seen him play or have only seen him play once or twice. Great to see people making grand statements based on nothing other than reading about how good he is. This doesn’t just happen with Jones, happens with other players in the USNMT pool also.