Forgive longtime Columbus Crew followers, especially those who have been around since the inaugural game in Ohio Stadium in 1996, for facing the upcoming Eastern Conference Semifinal Series against Kansas City with equal parts excitement and trepidation.
You see, the Crew and postseason success is as intolerable a pair as Madonna and her estranged husband Guy Ritchie. Columbus, New York and Dallas are the only active charter organizations of Major League Soccer never to reach the MLS Cup. Since reaching the Eastern Conference Championship for a third straight time in 1999, the Crew have won one playoff series.
The Crew will try to change its luck starting Saturday on the road in Game 1 of the two-game, aggregate goals series after winning its second Supporters' Shield for having the best regular season record.
Columbus won it for a first time in 2004 but fans still talk about the playoff choke because a) it happened in spectacular fashion and b) the Crew hadn't qualified again until this season.
"My memory's not that good. I'm only thinking about the 2008 playoffs," said midfielder Duncan Oughton, who along with defenders Chad Marshall and Frankie Hejduk, are the lone holdovers from the 2004 team.
Let's refresh his memory, as painful as it is. The Crew entered the series vs. New England on an 18-game unbeaten streak (8-0-10) that's still a league record. Although the Crew lost the opener 1-0 at New England, they were still in good position to advance with the deciding Game 2 at home.
It looked early on that the Crew would tie the aggregate series at 1-1 when midfielder Ross Paule prepared to take a penalty kick in the 24th minute. Paule was 4-for-4 that season and the Crew had converted 20 in a row since 1999. Oops.
His rather tepid attempt was stopped by Matt Reis. The Crew was awarded another PK in the 73rd minute and defender Tony Sanneh, to the dismay of his teammates, decided he wanted to be the hero. His slow roller to the right corner was easily stopped by Reis with little sweat.
"I think maybe his legs were a little tired. He didn't get as much on it as he wanted," Reis said.
Taylor Twellman added an insurance goal a short time later for a 1-0 game and two-goal aggregate advantage and only made Crew forward Edson Buddle's 90th-minute goal even harder to digest.
Afterward, Paule said Cunningham -- 3-of-3 on penalties during the season -- convinced him that he should shoot. Sanneh then stepped in and told Cunningham to back away. The rest is history.
As the Crew look forward to Saturday, here's a look back at the good, the bad and the ugly of postseasons pasts:
In Game 1 of the best-of-three quarterfinals, Tampa Bay's Roy Lassiter scored in the 82nd and 87th minutes for a 2-0 victory to disappoint 20,807 in Ohio Stadium. In the second game in Tampa, the Crew's Adrian Paz scored the fastest goal in MLS history (26 seconds); Lassiter tied the game 25 minutes later but Brian McBride scored on a spectacular bicycle kick in the 58th minute to even the series.
Lassiter put the Mutiny up 2-1 in the 41st minute in the third game at home and the Crew had a goal disallowed shortly after the start of the second half. Lassiter later added another for the 4-1 win.
In the first of three conference finals with D.C., the defending champions made quick work of the Crew in Game 1 in RFK Stadium by scoring three times (two by Sanneh) by the break. Jason Farrell and Thomas Dooley countered but it was too little too late in the best-of-three opener.
Prior to Game 2 in Columbus, D.C. coach Bruce Arena told The Washington Post the small Ohio Stadium field and game production was annoying, to say the least.
"You wouldn't play college soccer game there, not to mention a professional game," he said. "They play music during the game. It's a circus. But it's probably very good entertainment for Middle America.",p>
Crew general manager Jamey Rootes responded by having a clown on the sidelines for pregame warmups and playing circus music. It didn't help -- D.C. won 1-0 in the last game for Crew goalkeeper Brad Friedel before heading overseas.
A year later, Arena said he measured the pitch which was listed as 62 yards wide in the Crew media guide and it was really "58 or 59."
The Crew won 5-3 at home behind two McBride goals and 2-1 in a shootout in Giants Stadium to move on to face D.C. again with a berth in the MLS Cup at stake.
D.C. once again opened with a home win as Sanneh and Marco Etcheverry scored. Columbus took a 3-0 lead in Game 2 -- the last for the Crew in Ohio Stadium -- before D.C. rallied on goals by Sanneh (yes, him again) and Lassiter (yes, him again) on a soggy Sunday afternoon.
Columbus finally drove a stake through the heart of United in the 81st minute thanks to the emotional play of Warzycha. He entered for McBride in the 71st minute to a warm ovation. Warzycha had seen limited action since his son, Bartosz, was diagnosed with cancer the previous month (he is now a freshman at Marshall University) Warzycha sent a perfect right-footed service to Stern John in the box. John drilled the ball past Tom Presthus to make the final score 4-2.
D.C. showed who was boss in a 3-0 rout at home in Game 3. Nearly three weeks later the Crew lost the U.S. Open Cup final to expansion club Chicago in overtime.
D.C. once again stood in the path of the Crew and the MLS Cup. United took the conference final opener 2-1 at home as they had done the previous year. Following the same script, the Crew won convincingly in Columbus, 5-1, thanks to John's hat trick to end a six-game losing streak to its rival.
"We stunk up the place in all facets of the game," D.C. coach Thomas Rongen said. "You could use a lot of synonyms. We got our [butts] kicked."
The players from D.C. didn't take kindly to some of the Crew's posturing and issued a 4-0 thumping in the deciding game back home.
When play resumed, San Jose took the opener in Columbus 3-1 on Sept. 22 with whiz kid Landon Donovan scoring twice. McBride missed the series while recovering from a blood clot in his right arm.
When the series (by now it was a best five-of-nine points, maximum of three games) went to San Jose, the Crew ran into some obstacles. The day before Game 2 the team was moved to three practice fields in 45 minutes. Later, they were told they had to wear all-yellow for the match and not the black uniforms they had brought. One of the special delivery packages with the kits then ended up in Indianapolis. Also, on game day the Crew was put into a smaller locker room than visiting team's usually occupied.
Did those distractions make a difference? Who knows? San Jose won 3-0 to close out the series.
"We got treated better in Costa Rica," Crew GM Jim Smith said.
Columbus was one series away from the title game again but New England stood in the way. Controversy reigned anew. The Crew's series ended on a Saturday but the New England-Chicago matchup went to a deciding game on the following Wednesday.
The Crew had been told if New England beat the Fire the series would begin three days later on Saturday night in Gillette Stadium. The Revs did win but during the match with Chicago, Smith was stunned to learn for the first time that the series opener was moved to Sunday afternoon.
He suspected it was because New England wanted an extra day of rest after seeing Columbus conclude its series early. The Revolution said the move was necessary because of the large crowds expected for the Halloween-themed Spooky World exhibit in the parking lot. Apparently, it wasn't as big a draw during the day.
"It (Spooky World) has only been around 12 years. I guess it was overlooked," Smith said sarcastically.
Game 1 was 0-0 despite New England being down a man for the final 18 minutes. Revs defender Jay Heaps scored the lone goal in the third minute of Game 2 in Columbus before he was ejected for head-butting Garcia in the 38th.
At home (on a Saturday afternoon, by the way) with a 4-1 lead in points, New England needed only a draw to advance to the MLS Cup in its own stadium. The Revs went up 2-0 but McBride (80th) and Dante Washington (85th) scored to force a 10-minute overtime.
Just prior to the end of regulation, Washington thought he drew penalty when taken down by Carlos Llamosa. There was no call.
"The Patriots' linebackers won't make a better tackle," Smith said.
If the Crew scored in OT for the victory, the series would have been tied at four points and a 20-minute, sudden-death "mini-game" would have been played followed by penalty kicks if necessary.
The Crew stormed the goal but Adin Brown made several great saves and Columbus has been no closer to the MLS Cup since.
Craig Merz is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
