For much of the season, Columbus Crew head coach Sigi Schmid has been pointing to the turnaround of his club as something he would like this year to be remembered for.
On Saturday night at Crew Stadium, that drive took another hit as D.C. United got the better of his team in a 15-minute span of the second half, netting two goals in quick succession and holding on for a 2-0 win.
After enjoying a resurgence of sorts in the previous two months, August has not been kind to the Columbus Crew having gone through the month without a win so far (0-1-2). Now the team must travel to Houston on the last weekend of the month to attempt to salvage their August, and in essence, their season.
"It's not a good time to take a home loss," Schmid said. "In the second half they came out with a little more energy than we did."
Columbus appeared to take a page from the D.C. playbook in the first half, holding possession of the ball for what seemed like eternal stretches of time. But with no goals resulting, they still went into the break on even terms.
"Overall, I thought we got into the habit of possessing the ball well in the first half, and in the last 25 minutes of the second half as well," said Schmid.
But Schmid knows, possession alone does not win games.
"In the second half we were a little bit of a different team," said goalkeeper Will Hesmer. "We game them a lot of space. They didn't have a lot of looks, we just made a couple of mistakes and we couldn't find a way to get one in."
After Fred drove home a piledriver after the Crew saw a couple of shots bounce around the penalty area, Luciano Emilio was able to sneak a ball through Hesmer's legs on a bit of a broken play in the Crew box. Ezra Hendrickson made a mistake on the ball with the prolific scorer breathing down his neck, after he tracked down a through ball and was dribbling toward his own goal.
"I was yelling at him to play it back but I don't know whether he heard me or not," said Hesmer. "Maybe if he plays it safe there and kicks it out of bounds and gives us a corner kick we can go from there, but I feel like that was really the killer for us."
Both coaches felt the Crew had the better of the opening 45 minutes, and after the two United goals, the Crew had the run of play. But it was that stretch that determined who would leave with the three points.
"A good team has to be able to absorb a little bit when the other team dominates," said Schmid. "Every team is going to dominate, you have to be able to absorb and not get scored on in that period of time to not lose complete control of the game."
Still, there is a reason that D.C. does what it does in the Eastern Conference on a regular basis.
"That's a good team," said midfielder Ned Grabavoy. "When they're on they are one of the best teams in the league with guys like Moreno, Emilio and Gomez, and they came out to play in the second half."
The Crew are still holding onto eighth place in the overall MLS standings and the final playoff spot. But after Chivas USA defeated Toronto FC earlier on Saturday, they are now four points ahead of the Crew, and Columbus is only two points ahead of the suddenly resurgent Colorado Rapids, and three ahead of the Chicago Fire.
"It's a growing process for us. To be a good team, you've got to be consistent. You've got to be able to do it over 90 minutes," Schmid said. " ... We've been pretty consistent over the last 10-11 games and we need to just find that consistency and so tonight was not a shining moment for us, but there will be better moments ahead."
Nathan Linton is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
