The Columbus Crew gained their first point of the 2006 season in their home opener, playing to a 1-1 draw with the Chicago Fire on Saturday afternoon at Columbus Crew Stadium.
After several giveaways in the defensive third by the Crew, Chris Rolfe put the Fire ahead after extremely loose marking on Chad Barrett early in the second half. The Crew equalized minutes later on a penalty kick by Sebastian Rozental that followed a favorable call for the home squad.
Both teams looked sluggish in the first half before a much more entertaining second half and, despite the beautiful weather, struggled with their footing because of the wet pitch from Friday's heavy rain. The Crew also appeared to need some time to get organized with several changes in the lineup.
Sigi Schmid changed his left-sided players after identifying them as weak defensively. Rusty Pierce moved over to left back with Marcos Gonzalez returning from an injury to come into central defense. Eddie Gaven dropped back into a left midfield role as Sebastian Rozental also came back into the lineup, as a deep-lying forward, and Ritchie Kotschau and Kyle Martino were dropped to the substitutes' bench.
The Crew dodged an early bullet when Barrett intercepted a weak pass back to Jon Busch from Jacob Thomas. The second-year Fire forward went in alone on Busch but pushed the shot wide of goal from a sharp angle.
The Crew finally got forward in the 25th minute as Danny Szetela played an excellent diagonal ball to space. Gaven chased it down and forced one-handed save from Zach Thornton with a well-struck left-footed shot.
Ten minutes later the home side again tried to take advantage of midfield turnover. Thomas stripped Ivan Guerrero and fed the ball to Kei Kamara, who took on two Fire defenders. Kamara beat Jim Curtin with a quick one-on-one move, but was unable to get around C.J. Brown for a shot.
Right before the break, another Columbus defensive turnover should have led to the opening goal. Rolfe swiped the ball from Chad Marshall, who was taking on Rolfe rather than clearing the ball from right in front of his own penalty area. Rolfe beat Busch but the ball clanged off the foot of the right post and Marshall recovered to put the loose ball out of danger.
The Fire quickly got themselves on the scoreboard just four minutes into the second half. Barrett corralled the ball in the middle of the field and then took advantage of the Crew's porous defense. He dribbled 30 yards to the top of the penalty box before finally drawing a defender. Just when Marshall stepped up, Barrett slotted the ball to Rolfe, who beat Busch with a nicely placed left-footed shot to give the visitors the lead.
However, Columbus made the lead short-lived with a fortunate penalty kick call in the 55th minute. Kamara was trying to get on the end of a ball into the box and was judged to be taken down by Curtin by referee Erich Simmons, despite it looking like the ball was beyond his reach. Thornton guessed the right direction on the spot kick, but Rozental's nearly perfect kick still found the back of the net to level the score.
Szetela was in the starting 11 despite a fractured bone in his left foot, but he was forced to leave midway through the second half after what appeared to be an aggravation of the injury.
His replacement, Joel Kitamirike, was booked in the 72nd minute for taking down Justin Mapp just outside of the penalty area and the Fire nearly regained the lead as a result. Diego Gutierrez severely tested Busch on the free kick but the Crew netminder was able to push the ball away from the goal.
Busch again saved the Crew in the 80th minute by denying an excellent solo effort by Rolfe. The Fire striker flicked the ball over Brandon Moss and then volleyed the ball on goal, but a superb parry by Busch preserved the share of the points for the Crew.
The Crew travel to Los Angeles to take on the Galaxy next Saturday while the Chicago Fire continue their nine-game road trip when they take on the New England Revolution in their home opener in Foxborough, Mass.
John Kuhn is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
