A glance at the schedule suggests the Columbus Crew wouldn't be happy with a quick turnaround.
After playing Saturday at Real Salt Lake in high altitude on a hard artificial surface, the Crew face the Kansas City Wizards at home Thursday.
However, a 2-0 loss has the team anxious to put the end of its four-game unbeaten streak (2-0-2) in the rear view mirror.
"After the game everybody's minds shifted completely to Thursday," midfielder Brad Evans said. "It is a short week. It's a little different preparation mentally and physically. We have (Monday) off so Tuesday will be a really important day as far as figuring out a good game plan and where we want to attack. All the thoughts are toward Thursday. We'll be ready."
The Crew need to be ready from the opening kickoff because the propensity to yield early scores continues.
RSL needed only four minutes to get on the board at Rice-Eccles Stadium when Javier Morales nailed a free kick from the top of the arc. The dead ball was set up when defender Chad Marshall was whistled for a foul.
"If you look at the call, it was pretty questionable. I think Chad toe-poked the ball away," defender Danny O'Rourke.
Nonetheless, the Crew shouldn't have been in that position.
"We knew from the beginning they were going to turn us around," Evans said. "Unfortunately, we had a comedy of errors that led to the goal and got a little unlucky on the call."
Morales' strike went through the right side of the wall in gap created when Frankie Hejduk jumped and turned.
"The wall didn't do well on the goal. They scored and that's the reality at that point. If the wall holds steady we block the shot," coach Sigi Schmid said.
It was the third time in the past four matches that the Crew were scored on in the first eight minutes. Chris Rolfe gave Chicago a 1-0 lead in the 8th minute on July 5 but the Crew rallied for a 2-2 tie. At Los Angeles on June 21 Landon Donovan put the Galaxy up in the fourth minute and once again the Crew got a tying marker just before time expired.
The Crew have allowed a league-high six goals in the first 15 minutes. No one else has given up more than four, yet Evans had confidence in another comeback.
"We were only 3-1/2 minutes into the game so nobody was really down," he said.
In fact, the Crew had a chance to tie the score in the 50th minute but a shot by Guillermo Barros Schelotto hit the left post. Robbie Rogers got the ball off a poor clearance let fly with a miserable shot that wasn't close to the net.
"We knew it was going to be a tough place to play with the turf and the altitude. I don't think that affected us at all. The initial goal did," O'Rourke said. "We weren't playing our best but Guillermo hit the post. Alejandro had a chance. Robbie got free a couple of times on the left-hand side. With the attacking players we have I always think we have a chance. It looked like it wasn't in the cards."
The Crew was hampered by the loss of outside right midfielder Emmanuel Ekpo, who had scored in the previous two matches. He got sick to his stomach at halftime and was replaced by Duncan Oughton in the 51st minute.
"He's someone who can create something out of nothing. He's a great positional player," O'Rourke said of Ekpo. "It's a different dimension that we lost."
The other substitutions were Stefani Miglioranzi for rookie left back Ryan Junge in the 56th and Schelotto was replaced by rookie forward Steven Lenhart in the 70th.
"Ryan Junge was struggling on the offensive end of the game. We felt there was space to play out of the back so we brought in Stefani, who's a better passer," Schmid said. "It was one of those games that turned into getting the ball wide and crosses. We didn't think it was Guillermo's game per se. We wanted to get an extra body in front of the box to get on the end of something."
That didn't happen and Robbie Findley iced the match in the 78th minute and the Crew suffered their third consecutive shutout on fake grass this season after a 2-0 loss to New York and a 0-0 tie at Toronto.
"It's a coincidence," Evans said. "Last year we scored a few on turf, winning at Toronto. I don't know if it's a mental block. It's something that happens. The goals will still come."
They did in the previous meeting with the Wizards on the road June 14. The Crew broke a 371-minute scoreless streak with a Moreno goal in the eighth minute en route to a 3-0 victory.
"We'll see a different team. We might see a different lineup, we might not, but we'll see a different spirit out of Kansas City," Evans said.
Schmid expects the Crew to have new attitude on Thursday, too. "I don't think anybody on our team is happy with the way we played," he said. "When you don't have a good game as a player you want to get back on the field as soon as possible and turn things around."
Craig Merz is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
