The Columbus Crew and New England Revolution battled through 88 scoreless minutes until Kheli Dube tapped home the rebound from Sharie Joseph's saved penalty kick, giving the Revs a 1-0 victory.
The win drew New England even with the Crew with 19 points at the top of the Eastern Conference, and put an end to the Crew's six-game unbeaten streak and also the team's perfect record at Crew Stadium.
"We've got to put it behind us and move on," said midfielder Brian Carroll. "We've got a U.S. Open Cup game Tuesday and then Chivas next weekend. We're disappointed but I thought we played halfway decent, and we can take that as a positive into the next match."
Columbus had plenty of chances to score throughout the match, but the New England defense and goalkeeper Matt Reis did just enough to keep the Black-and-Gold out of the net.
Veteran defender Ezra Hendrickson committed the foul on Steve Ralston in the closing minutes that set up the game-winner for the Revs. As Ralston was cutting across the top of the area, Hendrickson challenged for the ball but ended up instead stepping on the foot of the New England captain.
"It is something that is going to happen," said Hendrickson. "It's just unfortunate that it happened in the 89th minute of the game. I thought we played well enough to deserve at least a point tonight but it did not happen that way."
The foul occurred when the Crew defense seemed to be having trouble clearing the ball out of danger. The Revolution attack kept the pressure on and in the end it paid off.
"We were doing a good job of winning the ball but we weren't finding anyone with it and we were giving it right back to them within one or two passes," said Crew defender Chad Marshall of the team's lapse in the final minutes. "That's not how you do it at the end of a game."
"There was a period of time in the second that we couldn't get the ball out of the back," said Crew coach Sigi Schmid. "We surrendered a couple of corners in a row. I've got no problem with the penalty, but Dube is either very, very fast or was very early."
Goalkeeper William Hesmer almost literally saved the game for the Crew. Joseph took the penalty kick for the Revs, striking the shot low and hard but within the reach of Hesmer, who dove to his left to keep the shot out of the net. The saved penalty kick marked the third save in four penalty attempts faced by Hesmer this season.
"That is definitely something to be proud of," said Hesmer. "Maybe it puts a little more pressure on opposing forwards and gives them a little something to think about when they are lining up a penalty kick."
The Crew will not have much time to dwell on the loss. The team opens U.S. Open Cup play Tuesday at home against Real Salt Lake before taking to the road next weekend to face Chivas USA. Schmid thinks the busy week is just what his team needs to get the loss out of their minds.
"When you don't win a game you always want to get back out there and play, and I think the players will want to do that," he said.
Nathan Linton is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
