The Columbus Crew left Frisco, Texas on Sunday evening with a victory in the inaugural Lamar Hunt Pioneer Cup. After a fairly even first half, the visitors exploded for three second-half goals -- including two in a four-minute span -- to ease home 3-0 winners.
Crew head coach Sigi Schmid chalked up his side's victory to one thing -- controlling possession, something Columbus did for a majority of the second half.
"We did a better job with possession in the second half," he said. "In the first half, I thought it was pretty even. We had possession at times but they weren't productive. We did a better job of that in the second half."
Columbus scored first in the 58th minute when Joseph Ngwenya beat FCD goalkeeper Shaka Hislop inside the far post. The sequence started when Crew midfielder Danny O'Rourke sent a rocket in from about 25 yards out that hit the crossbar. After the resulting carom fell at the feet of Stefan Miglioranzi, the ball then went to Ngwenya, who beat Hislop.
Miglioranzi added a second assist just four minutes later when he fed Kei Kamara, who beat Hislop once again to the far post. Columbus added a third goal to close out the evening's scoring in the 86th minute after Aaron Chandler's shot was initially saved by Hislop but still managed to trickle into the back of the net. Miglioranzi was credited with his third assist on the goal.
Sunday's match also marked the Columbus debut of Robbie Rogers, a U.S. under-20 national team standout whose rights were won by the Crew in a lottery on Thursday. Rogers entered the match as a substitute in the 65th minute and played well.
"Every time somebody comes into a situation where he is highly touted like Robbie is, they just want to keep it going," Schmid said. "I told him that it was a little harder than it looks. He's going to be fine. He's a great player and very talented."
Schmid couldn't stop beaming about how well his charges played in the second half and also from the improvement he has seen from many of his key players.
"I'm very happy with what we did in the second half," he said. "I thought that Ned Grabavoy and Stefan Miglioranzi came in and impacted the game. Kei Kamara has improved a great deal from last year. He is more dangerous out there. I also thought that our central midfield is an area that is greatly improved over last year."
After heading back to Columbus for nearly a full week of training, the Crew resume their preseason slate on Thursday when they face the University of California-Santa Barbara in another tuneup for the MLS regular season, which begins in less than one month.
Steve Hunt is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
