COLUMBUS CREW v REAL SALT LAKE
COLUMBUS CREW STADIUM, Columbus, Ohio
7:30 p.m. CT (FSC; FSN-Ut)
Aug. 16, 2006 (WEEK 20) / MLS Game #130
Two teams currently out of the playoff picture in their respective conferences meet in the intersectional matchup in Columbus. The Crew haven't won in 12 consecutive games as they settled at the foot of the Eastern Conference, but find themselves just four points out of the playoff picture with 10 games left. Real Salt Lake have put together a two-game winning streak and are unbeaten in three, but they still find themselves seven points adrift of fourth place and the last playoff place in the Western Conference.
REFEREE: Baldomero Toledo. SAR (bench): Greg Barkey; JAR (opposite): Michael Salyers; 4th: Mikael Lundqvist
MLS Career: 26 games; FC/gm: 27.9; Y/gm: 3.5; R: 5; pens: 4
MLS 2006: 7 games; FC/gm: 26.9 (avg: 29.1); Y/gm: 3.0 (avg: 3.48); R: 0 (MLS: 19); pens: 0 (MLS: 25)
Games involving Crew: P4 W3 L1 T0; FC/gm: 29.5; Y/gm: 4.3; R: 1; pens: 1
Games involving Real: P4 W1 L3 T0; FC/gm: 24.0; Y/gm: 2.3; R: 0; pens: 0
INJURY REPORT: COLUMBUS CREW - OUT: MF Danny Szetela (R knee); MF Leonard Bisaku (R quadriceps), GK Jonny Walker (lower back), DF Jed Zayner (L knee ACL); DF Frankie Hejduk (R knee ACL); GK Jon Busch (R knee ACL) ... REAL SALT LAKE - OUT: DF Paul Broome (L ankle internal derangement); MF Seth Trembly (L knee ACL tear); MF Christian Jimenez (L knee ACL tear); DF Danny Torres (R foot sprain); PROBABLE: DF Nelson Akwari (R hip contusion); DF Cameron Knowles (L hamstring strain);: DF Eddie Pope (R foot contusion)
SUSPENDED: RSL: Douglas Sequeira (through Aug. 16)
WARNINGS:
SUSPENDED NEXT YELLOW CARD: CLB: Jose Retiz ... RSL: Jeff Cunningham
SUSPENDED AFTER TWO YELLOW CARDS: CLB: Ritchie Kotschau, Brandon Moss, Joseph Ngwenya ... RSL: Scott Garlick, Jason Kreis, Carey Talley, Andy Williams
INTERNATIONAL ABSENCES: none
HEAD-TO-HEAD
ALL-TIME (3 meetings): Crew 3 wins (0 shootout), 5 goals ... Real 0 wins (0 shootout), 1 goal ... 0 draws
AT COLUMBUS: (1 meeting): Crew 1 win (0 shootout), 2 goals ... Real 0 wins (0 shootout), 0 goals ... 0 draws
This is the second of two league meetings between the clubs, the only one scheduled for Crew Stadium.
A year ago, the Crew won both encounters in Real's inaugural season, winning once in each stadium. A Crew player hit for a double in each game - Frankie Hejduk in the first in Columbus, and Edson Buddle in the second on the Wasatch Front.
Coaches record: John Ellinger vs. CLB: P3 W0 L3 D0 ... Sigi Schmid v RSL: P1 W1 L0 D02006 (MLS):
5/21: RSL 0, CLB 1 (Garey 70)
The Crew went to the Wasatch Front on May 6 and came away with a 1-0 victory in their only meeting this week. Meeting as the bottom teams in each conferences, for the opening three-quarters of the encounter they seemed unlikely to settle their differences.
But 20 minutes from time, newly-acquired Ezra Hendrickson received a long ball on the right, turned his defender and dropped in a pass for Jason Garey to run onto. The rookie hit a looping shot from just inside the area that cleanly beat Scott Garlick inside the near post for the clincher, the first professional goal for the 2005 M.A.C. Hermann Trophy winner.
The Crew were forced to play the final five minutes a man short after midfielder Jose Retiz was sent off, but Real could not find an equalizer as their winless streak reached 18 games dating back to last August.
Here's John Ellinger's team (4-4-2): Scott Garlick - Nelson Akwari, Eddie Pope, Carey Talley (Christian Jimenez 84), Willis Forko (Andy Williams 72) - Chris Klein, Kenny Cutler (Ryan Johnson 77), Douglas Sequeira, Mehdi Ballouchy - Jeff Cunningham, Atiba Harris. [Substitutes Not Used: Chris Brown, Jay Nolly, Kevin Novak, Joey Worthen]
Here's Sigi Schmid's team (4-4-1-1): Jon Busch - Ezra Hendrickson, Ritchie Kotschau, Chad Marshall, Rusty Pierce - Kei Kamara (Knox Cameron 56), Brandon Moss, Jose Retiz, Kyle Martino (Chris Leitch 86) - Sebastian Rozental (Tim Ward 76) - Jason Garey. [Substitutes Not Used: Andy Gruenebaum, Dayton O'Brien, Eric Vasquez, John Wolyniec]
COLUMBUS CREW
The Columbus Crew reached the low point of their difficult season, seeing their winless streak reach 12 games as they were shutout 4-0 by the Kansas City Wizards on Saturday at Arrowhead Stadium. The Crew are still in sixth place in the Eastern Conference with 20 points from 22 matches, but trail fifth-place Chicago Fire by just two points, and the New York Red Bulls by just four, who hold down the last playoff spot.
LAST MATCH
The Wizards were returning home after a scoreless draw at midweek with the New England Revolution, their second deadlock in a row after seven consecutive losses. The Crew resumed play after the break having not won since June 3, a span of 11 games without a victory.
It took just four minutes for the home side to take the lead. Davy Arnaud picked off a pass, took a couple of steps forward and let fly from some 25 yards, a low, skimming shot that nestled inside Bill Gaudette's right-hand post.
The Crew seemed to have pulled level in the 10th minute, but Chad Marshall's header from a corner kick was ruled out when he was adjudged to have fouled his marker.
It proved vital seven minutes later. Jack Jewsbury floated a chip down the left flank and Dave van den Bergh received it, driving a low cross into the area that Scott Sealy streaked ahead of his defender to get onto the end of, poking it high into the goal first-time.
The Wizards put the game away with two goals over the final 12 minutes. A low corner kick from right slipped through Gaudette at the near post, and Sasha Victorine was in the right place to bang it into the net. Then a minute from time, Ryan Pore intercepted a pass outside the Crew area, carried to the center of the field and ripped a low drive that sailed inside the right corner.
Crew head coach Sigi Schmid made one change to the team that played to a scoreless draw with the Chicago Fire at Toyota Park on July 29. Marcos Gonzalez failed a late fitness test, and Sebastian Rozental came back into the team, as Schmid also gave his side a tactical re-fit.
Here's Schmid's team (4-1-3-2): Bill Gaudette - Ezra Hendrickson, Ritchie Kotschau, Chad Marshall, Chris Leitch - Jose Retiz - Jacob Thomas, Sebastian Rozental, Eric Vasquez (Ned Grabavoy 74) - Eddie Gaven (Joseph Ngwenya 66), Ryan Coiner (Jason Garey 56). [Substitutes Not Used: Marc Burch, Brandon Moss, Noah Palmer, Tim Ward]
"The main thing is they got away the first 20 minutes. If you look at all the goals we gave them, whether it was bad passes or bad decisions on the ball, they capitalized on those mistakes that we gave them," Ritchie Kotschau said. "It was our fault for everything. We are always so close but that is not what it is going to take it in this league. If it doesn't go between the posts then it's nothing."TEAM NEWS
This now matches the second-longest winless streak in MLS history, matching a 12-game run without a victory put together by the then-MetroStars from July 4 to Sept. 5, 1999. The longest in league history is 18 games, set by Real Salt Lake, starting last Aug. 10 and extending through the first six games of this season.
"Each game was different," Crew midfielder Sebastian Rozental said. "... The middle games at home were really tight, but things just didn't go our way. Both times neither team had lots of chances, but they were able to come up with something. That's something we weren't able to do."
The early potential equalizer that was disallowed changed the game - especially with the Wizards getting a second goal just seven minutes later.
"Chad (Marshall) is a big boy and he was up in the air prior to whoever was marking him and he heads it in over him but the referee saw something different," Kotschau said. "A lot of things didn't go our way in terms of fouls and things like that but we have to be strong on the ball and play through everything."
While the Crew haven't won since mid-June, with two victories in two home games this week, they could be right back in the middle of the Eastern Conference pack.
"You have to show your real character. It is not every day that you have to go through this, struggle like this," Kotschau said. "You can tell the true character of somebody by how they get out of it, but we haven't gotten out of it."REAL SALT LAKE
Real Salt Lake returns to the league wars riding a two-game winning streak, after defeating the Colorado Rapids 4-1 a week ago in Denver. Real are still tied for fifth place in the Western Conference with 23 points from 21 matches, level with the Los Angeles Galaxy, seven points behind Chivas USA for the division's final playoff spot.
LAST MATCH
The Rapids came into the game with two victories (and a draw) in three meetings in all competitions against Real this season, with back-to-back 1-0 wins in a league meeting in Denver and a U.S. Open Cup tie in Salt Lake in the last game before the All-Star break for both clubs.
But the visitors struck first, Jeff Cunningham getting behind the Rapids defense to run onto a ball from Carey Talley and blasting a high shot past Joe Cannon to give Real a 25th-minute lead.
Real continued to stretch the Colorado defense, and after the break burst the game open. In the 63rd minute Cunningham rounded a defender on the left side and slid a low cross that slipped through a sea of legs for Chris Klein to tap in at the far post.
Then in the 76th minute, Eric Denton was sent off after hauling down Cunningham in the area, and referee Brian Hall also pointed to the spot. Cunningham duly converted the spot kick, his second two-goal game in a row and his league-leading 13th goal on the campaign, one more than Chivas USA's Ante Razov. It also left the Rapids with nine players, as Terry Cooke was forced off injured just minutes before, and Colorado head coach Fernando Clavijo had made all three of his available substitutions.
The Rapids scored a consolation goal in the 84th minute when a short corner saw Aitor Karanka put in a cross for Thiago Martins to head home for his first goal with the Rapids. But Real restored the final margin in stoppage time when Chris Brown drove the ball home after Cannon was caught completely out of his goal.
RSL head coach John Ellinger made one change to the team that came back to dramatically defeat D.C. United the Saturday before at Rice-Eccles Stadium. Eddie Pope came back from injury into central defense for Nikolas Besagno.
Here's Ellinger's team (4-4-2): Scott Garlick - Kevin Novak, Eddie Pope (Chris Brown 81), Jack Stewart, Willis Forko - Chris Klein, Mehdi Ballouchy (Kenny Cutler 64), Carey Talley, Andy Williams (Douglas Sequeira 75) - Jeff Cunningham, Jason Kreis. [Substitutes Not Used: Nikolas Besagno, Jay Nolly, Jamie Watson, Joey Worthen]
"We were organized and difficult to break down from the start as a group, and that gave us a chance to win and gave us a chance to create opportunities," goalkeeper Scott Garlick said. TEAM NEWS
Cunningham now has five goals in his last three league games, with two goals in each of the last two. Three have come from the penalty spot, but he has now moved into the league lead.
"(The Rapids) got rid of me because I wasn't scoring goals," Cunningham said. "It's great to come back and be the top scorer in the league on their pitch. Of course, it's a great feeling."
The Rapids had a chance to claim the Rocky Mountain Cup with a victory. And that had something to do with Real's reaction to the game. "Don't think them parading the Rocky Mountain Cup in our faces every time we come here doesn't have something to do with it either," Ellinger said. "You can only do it so many times before it's going to come back and bite you in the butt."
When Real came to Colorado on June 9, they were flagged for offside on 12 occasions. They continually beat the high Rapids line in the first half in Denver. "They've been trapping [Cunningham] pretty well, we've been forcing the issue and we talked about it said we had to be more patient and disguise it as well as we can," said Ellinger to the Deseret Morning News. "Jeff did a great job with his runs, and once he was in nobody was going to catch him."
Last Saturday, Real Salt Lake played host to Real Madrid, falling 2-0 to the Spanish giants at Rice-Eccles Stadium. Ruud van Nistelrooy converted from the penalty spot after Antonio Cassano was pulled down by Willis Forko just before halftime, then after Atiba Harris was sent off with a straight red card in the 58th minute, Robinho took a nifty backheel from van Nistelrooy and skipped through the RSL defense before slotting home past Jay Nolly in the 65th minute.
"We went into the locker room, and everyone was happy about the performance," Salt Lake forward Jeff Cunningham said. "We need to take the negatives from this game and try to improve on them. I feel like we need to play a lot better, and that we're capable of playing a lot better. ... We held our own for a little bit. Confidence-wise, we're walking away knowing that we played well against one of the top football clubs in the world."
Here's Ellinger's team: Scott Garlick (Jay Nolly 46); Kevin Novak, Eddie Pope (Nikolas Besagno 72), Jack Stewart, Willis Forko, Carey Talley (Kenny Cutler 87), Andy Williams (Douglas Sequeira 71), Mehdi Ballouchy (Chris Brown 83), Chris Klein (Cameron Knowles 72), Jason Kreis (Atiba Harris 46), Jeff Cunningham (Jamie Watson 80)
