Steven Lenhart learned Spanish while growing up in Southern California and he refined it during an offseason trip to Argentina to visit teammate Guillermo Barros Schelotto.
His knowledge of a second language came in useful a few times during the hard fought first leg of the Champions League quarterfinal Tuesday in Crew Stadium against Mexico’s Toluca. He had some bantering with the Toluca players but said it was nothing out of the ordinary despite several multi-player rumbles in the second half.
“I don’t talk bad but if somebody says something I’m going to say something back. It’s no big deal,” he said.
In fact, Lenhart let his play do the talking. He scored twice in the second half to rally the Crew from a two-goal halftime deficit to forge a 2-2 in the first leg of the two-game, total goals series. The return match is March 17 at Toluca. It will be a daunting task for the Crew because away goals count as the tiebreaker. The Crew must win or score at least three goals in a tie to advance. If the score is deadlocked at 2 the teams will play overtime to decide the series winner.
Toluca coach José Manuel de la Torre was not impressed by Lenhart or the physical nature of the game.
“He spent most of the game provoking our defenders,” de la Torre said. “It’s not his fault because the referee allowed it to happen.” There were several skirmishes early in the second half and Crew defender Gino Padula elbowed Isaac Brizuela, opening a cut. Yet, there were only 17 fouls and three cautions. “There were some questionable calls by the referee to allow a lot of aggression that benefitted them,” de la Torre said. “Generally, I’m not one to make comments about the referee’s performance but based on tonight referee’s performance my players were at risk of injury.”
Toluca is the current full-season champion in Mexico while the Crew had the best regular-season record in MLS the past two seasons. However, Toluca was the fitter side -- having played nine league games while Columbus went 5-0-3 in its preseason schedule in Arizona and Florida. The Crew was missing national team defender Chad Marshall (hamstring) as well as suspended midfielders Guillermo Barros Schelotto -– the Crew’s top scorer last season with 14 goals -- and U.S. defender Frankie Hejduk. The latter two will be eligible for the second leg.
Toluca started five players who had not played in a Mexican league match this season but did use first team keeper Alfedo Talavera. However, top goal producer Héctor Mancilla sat on the bench.
“We proved we can score goals against a good organized team,” Crew coach Robert Warzycha said. “Overall, our fitness was pretty good.”
Antonio "Zinha" Naelson scored in the 19th minute off a counterattack and Antonio Ríos made it 2-0 in the 45th minute with a wicked one-timer off an errant clearance. But Lenhart countered in the 66th minute by chesting a pass from Emmanuel Ekpo, turning and firing from 13 yards. The second goal came after receiving a service from Emilio Rentería.
“We’ll take what we can get and go down there and get a result,” Crew defender Danny O’Rourke said. “The first half you could tell we were a little rusty. I’m proud of the guys to battle back. The locker room wasn’t too happy halftime. Not only to get two goals but play better in the second half is a testament to the team.”
Crew defender Eric Brunner said the rough nature of the play drew the team closer. “We got in some scuffles. We were protecting our own players. It was pretty physical but we were trying to set our tone, especially at home,” he said. “We had to deal with it, too. There were some controversial tackles that we thought we should have gotten the calls.”
O’Rourke was not surprised that the match got heated. “They didn’t expect us to come out and pressure them and play physical like that," he said. "By no means does anyone on our team play dirty but when guys are coming late in on our guys because they lost the ball or are angry I’m not going to have it. There’s room for physical play but there’s no need for coming in late and stepping on people’s feet. We let it be known. They gave us a little respect. Typically Mexican teams don’t have a lot of respect for the U.S. The national team has done well in recent years and that has given us some respect and hopefully MLS advancing in the Champions League will gain us more respect.”
In the end, cooler heads prevailed as did Lenhart, who is looking to secure a starting job after forward Alejandro Moreno went to Philadelphia in the expansion draft.
“As forward, he’s on the field to score goals,” Warzycha said of Lenhart. “He found himself today in a good spot. He should have had one in the first half. With a better finish he could have had a hat trick."
