COLUMBUS, Ohio – For a Columbus Crew SC team clinging to thin playoff hopes, Saturday’s match-up against the Vancouver Whitecaps – who were winless in eight MLS matches and hadn’t scored a goal in more than 500 minutes away from home – was billed as a must-win.
But after giving up another two goals in the final 20 minutes of a match, a 3-1 loss at the hands of the slumping Whitecaps seemed to put Columbus' season to bed, leaving the Eastern Conference club trailing Orlando City by eight points with just seven matches to play.
After the match, Crew SC head coach Gregg Berhalter expressed remorse to the fans who sat through a weather delay of more than 90 minutes to take in of the season’s most bitter disappointments.
“I want to apologize to all the people who stayed around and watched that,” Berhalter said. “I don’t think we gave a good enough performance for them. They’re sitting in delays and it’s raining and lightning and people are still coming to the stadium and we didn’t give them enough, plain and simple. I didn’t see enough out there tonight.”
Vancouver was in their own playoff fight, despite their lengthy winless streak, but Berhalter didn't see his team with the same type of mentality as the opposition.
“If you look at the match-up, it’s two teams in very similar situations fighting for their lives, trying to set up the last part of the season, and I just didn’t see enough urgency,” he said. “I don’t think we generated enough chances, I don’t think we took our chances well enough, I don’t think we defended well enough.”
Columbus have now allowed 24 goals after the 61st minute of matches after conceding to the Whitecaps in the 74th and 82nd minutes. Crew SC captain Michael Parkhurst was at a loss for words when asked after the match why the club struggles to finish games.
“Honestly, I don’t know the answer right now,” Parkhurst said. “It seems like I’ve tried to answer that question many times now, and it’s frustrating that it has to be asked over and over and we have to deal with it over and over. That’s on us. It’s just not good enough.”
Last year, with many of the same players, Columbus went on a tear starting in August. They finished the regular season on a 7-3-1 streak and took that momentum all the way to an MLS Cup Final. This year, as the team limps down the stretch, Parkhurst can hardly believe how the season has progressed.
“It’s just really frustrating to think that we’ve got a good core of that group that was responsible for that run still with the team,” he said. “For whatever reason, and they’re plentiful, we’re just not getting the job done game-in and game-out.”
And while Berhalter – an eternal optimist – said he and the players aren’t going to give up on the season, he admitted that he’s beginning to wonder if he’s seen the best his team can give.
"That’s what I was thinking about in the office: is this the max that we have? If it is, it’s not good enough," said Berhalter. "Is this our limit, in terms of potential? I don’t believe it is, but we’re not showing much more than that, to be honest. A game like tonight, setting it up as a must-win game, we didn’t show enough."
