After a demoralizing 4-0 loss to the New York Red Bulls on the road last week, the Columbus Crew were hoping to rebound Saturday at home against Toronto FC in a battle of the teams at the foot of the Eastern Conference.
Each time Columbus took a one-goal lead in the match they saw Toronto battle back, the game ending in a 2-2 draw. It was certainly a rough-and-tumble affair at Crew Stadium, and the game featured many long balls from defenders to forwards, giving the match an old-school English feel.
"They're a difficult team to play against because they are very physical and it's a very physical style of play," said Crew head coach Sigi Schmid. "At times tonight, I didn't think we won enough duels that we needed to on the knockdowns and on balls in the midfield."
Andy Herron made his first start after serving a four-game suspension for elbowing New England's Jay Heaps last month. Herron made his impact felt early and often before leaving the game with a right quadriceps injury just after his second goal of the evening.
"It's great having [Herron] back," said Schmid. "Tonight we got Herron, [Alejandro] Moreno and [Guillermo Barros] Schelotto on the field for 35 minutes and it produced two goals."
Former Columbus striker Jeff Cunningham presented a problem for current Crew defenders all evening, with Ezra Hendrickson spending the majority of his game hot on the heels of the speedy TFC forward.
"If you try to match up with him speed on speed he is going to beat you every time," said Hendrickson of Cunningham. "You just have to read the game and be one step ahead of him."
Despite allowing a free kick to get past him from well beyond 30 yards from goal, Schmid did not find fault with young 'keeper Andy Gruenebaum, who has now allowed six goals in his last two games -- more than he allowed in the first seven games combined.
"It was a great shot from 40 yards out, but I can't fault [Gruenebaum] because he made two or three big saves, so he saved a couple that probably should have been goals," Schmid said.
As the season progresses the Crew are beginning to evolve as a team and the new-look strike force is starting to come around, but the question still remains: what are the Crew going to have to do to win soccer matches?
"We have to be nasty," says Hendrickson. "We're at home, we're up one-nil. We don't lose that match."
"We have to score more goals and keep them from scoring," said Moreno. "It sounds simple enough and basic enough and at the end of the day it is a matter of doing the simple things that is going to give us the three points that we need."
Nathan Linton is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
