The Columbus Crew rounded out their preseason schedule Saturday afternoon with a chilly 1-0 win at Crew Stadium against El Salvador's AD Isidro Metapan. Despite winning the 2007 Clausura title in El Salvador's top league, Metapan was unable to mount much of an attack against the Crew but withstood a decent amount of pressure from the Black and Gold to minimize the damage and lose by just a goal.
"Obviously we got some of the guys to be able to play 90 minutes, which is important," said Crew head coach Sigi Schmid. "I thought we created a number of chances and could have had some more goals in the first half. At the end we got a little bit shakey but we got through it."
Sub-40 degree temperatures at kickoff did not deter the crowd in attendance from being boisterous, and it had much to cheer about early. The home side was on the attack for much of the game and held the majority of the possession of the ball. Crew goalkeeper Will Hesmer was barely involved in the match, aside from the occasional pass back to him from teammates.
"Sometimes in games like this it does get a little cold back there," said Hesmer about staying sharp in a match where there is not a lot of action. "You try to just keep moving and stretched out, but you can never complain about a shutout."
Said Schmid: "We wanted to step up and pressure them and not allow them to get into a rhythm. For the most part I thought we did a good job of that."
Coming into the new season, the defense is the one area of the Crew roster where there has been the most turnover in the offseason. The only defender starting in Saturday's game who was a regular last year was Frankie Hejduk. Danny O'Rourke, Chad Marshall and Stefani Miglioranzi rounded out the Crew back line.
"It is always our goal to keep them at zero points," said O'Rourke after the match. "When we can make [Hesmer] have an easy day and he can go out there and feel like he did nothing ... that's our job. We should go out there and do that every day."
One cliche running through sports is "defense wins championships," but the Crew made another one a truism against Metapan, that "the best defense is a good offense." It was difficult for Metapan to score without possession of the ball, and the Crew attack was often free-flowing and aesthetically pleasing, especially when the squad could create space on the wing where it can take advantage of some of the young skill players such as Robbie Rogers.
"I thought Nico [Hernandez] brought a lot of energy to the game and Robbie did as well," said Schmid. "My expectations for Robbie are really high and we still expect more from him."
"My natural position is a winger so they want me play out there and swing in as many crosses as I can," said Rogers. "I can be dangerous if I can use my speed and get guys behind me, and it worked out well today."
Hernandez showed that he should fit in nicely in his new black and gold jersey. He paired very well with Alejandro Moreno at the front of the Crew attack, and he proved it by tallying the game's only goal.
Next for the squad is week of light preparation before the season opener at Crew Stadium on March 29 against Toronto FC. Fans will certainly be looking for similar results at the opener in a week.
"We won at home, which through the whole year is going to be very important to us," said Duncan Oughton, a veteran who knows the value of three points at home. "I'm sure the boys would have liked to ring up the score a little bit, but we created some chances that were real good and we kept them out of the net, which is always good."
Nathan Linton is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
