MONTREAL—With more than enough chances to take and even add to a potential lead, Columbus Crew SC emerged from Saturday afternoon's 2-0 loss to the Impact lamenting a lack of scoring efficiency.
Mustering only two shots on goal, Crew SC departed La Belle Province with zero points and zero goals. They sit at the bottom of the Eastern Conference, with just two points and three goals scored in five matches (0-3-2).
"I think that the proficiency and efficiency has been lacking a little bit," said Columbus head coach Gregg Berhalter. "We have been creating enough chances."
The missed opportunities by Justin Meram, Ethan Finlay and Kei Kamara in the first half were especially costly after Montreal's Hassoun Camara opened the scoring for the home team just two minutes into the second half.
“A game like today, it’s unfortunate they [Montreal] get the goal right after halftime because I thought the first half we came on really strong in the second part of the first half and it looked like a game where we were starting to dominate," Berhalter said. "And then they get the goal and it hurt. It put us in a hole and they’re a good counterattacking team and it showed tonight."
Said Crew SC midfielder Wil Trapp: "I thought we had a pretty solid first half. In the second half, the set piece goal, obviously, was something we were not happy about."
Both Berhalter and Finlay, who had a gilt-edged opportunity just before halftime, admit the finishing woes could partly be attributed to the artificial surface at the Olympic Stadium. But they weren't making any excuses.
"I missed an easy one in front of goal tonight and I’m not going to blame anything," Finlay said. "Yeah, the field was [awful], but both teams are playing on it. It is what it is. But it’s us being better in front of goal. It’s not good enough."
Said Berhalter: "I think we had a hard time coming to grips with the surface. You could see the final ball was off, the final action was off and it just didn’t seem like we were comfortable enough on the artificial grass."
The winless streak for the 2015 MLS Cup finalists is now up to five, but they return to the friendly confines of MAPFRE Stadium for four of the next five league matches, including a battle against Patrick Vieira and New York City FC on April 16.
"We are creating enough chances to score goals," Berhalter said. "It was clear, in the first half in particular … But again I still believe that the ball can move faster, the final ball can be more precise and we can be better in front of goal. So those are three things we clearly need to keep working on."
