For the third time in as many games, the Columbus Crew came with a single point after playing to their third draw of the year. But on Thursday night against the New England Revolution, there was one main difference: The Crew scored.
Ned Grabavoy gave the Crew the lead after eight minutes, but they trailed for most of the match when Andy Dorman and Taylor Twellman put the Revolution ahead in the first half. But Kei Kamara scored four minutes from the end to ensure the Crew would remain unbeaten on the season.
"It was nice to get some goals -- disappointing to give up some, but still nice to get some goals," said Crew coach Sigi Schmid. "It was definitely an exciting game."
While the Crew hadn't scored coming into Thursday night, they hadn't allowed any goals either. But that changed less than two minutes after Grabavoy scored, when Dorman netted from close range. Twellman then gave the Revolution a halftime lead with a long-range strike.
Schmid was obviously less excited to talk about how the Revolution took the lead.
"Their first goal, it was like a comedy of errors. ... They kept obstructing all the way down the field," Schmid said. "The second goal was a handball by Twellman in the middle of the field, it was a two-footed tackle just before that by (Jay) Heaps. The two-footed tackle doesn't get called, the handball doesn't get called -- same thing -- and Twellman hits a shot that finds the corner, so we're down 2-1."
Goalkeeper Andy Gruenebaum has arguably been the Crew's best player to this point in the season and he came up big in the second half to ensure his team could score the tying goal when he stopped Twellman cold from the heart of the penalty area.
"I saw him slip back and wait for the ball on the cross, so I tried not to give him the lane to get the shot off and thankfully it worked," Gruenebaum said.
Earlier in the day, the Crew announced the signing of Argentinean star Guillermo Barros Schelotto. The announcement had created a buzz of excitement around Crew Stadium -- along with the only Primetime Thursday appearance by ESPN2 in Columbus -- and Schmid said the team is certainly looking forward to it as well.
"The team is excited about [Schelotto] joining us -- we're always excited about bringing in a good player," Schmid said, adding he is hoping the veteran can bring some maturity to some of the younger offensive players on the team. "He is going to add something to us, add that little bit of cleverness, that little bit of composure around the 18."
While Schelotto's arrival is still sometime off, on Thursday, Schmid put Ricardo Virtuoso into the lineup, hoping to give his team's attack a jumpstart. While it didn't result in a victory, the two goals were still nice.
"Right now I am not disappointed in our team -- I think we played well. You saw that Ricardo added something to our game when he came on. It would be nice to have Jacob Thomas out there," Schmid said. "Otherwise, I think we created a lot of chances in the first half and chances in the last 20-25 minutes. So yeah, we deserved at least an equalizer, if not more."
Nathan Linton is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
