For the second time this season, the Kansas City Wizards came into Columbus and left with a 1-0 victory against the Crew. On Saturday, it was an 89th-minute goal from Jose Burciaga Jr. that was the difference; on the first occasion, Josh Wolff scored the game's lone goal 16 minutes from the end.
"It is not acceptable to lose on a late goal like that," said Crew head coach Sigi Schmid. "We lost our concentration."
While Columbus would have liked to continue the momentum following a win at Western Conference-leading FC Dallas, the Ohio club did not generate the same dynamism as they did one week earlier.
"I don't think we came out with a lot of energy. I don't think we came out with a lot of pep and vigor in our game," said Schmid. "We talked about it at half and I thought it was a little better in the second half. There are a number of guys that played below par."
With the lack of energy and knowing Kansas City dominated the quality scoring chances, a draw would have been a welcome result for the Black & Gold.
"It wasn't our best game. I think 0-0 today would have been OK," said Schmid. "I think Kansas City, based on the 90 minutes, was probably a little bit of a better team than we were."
The Crew players also noticed that the visitors were the stronger club on the night and were eyeing to split the spoils.
"We know we needed to concentrate the last 10 minutes of the game. When Marcos (Gonzalez) was down, a group of guys got together," said defender Ritchie Kotschau. "We said we really need to focus and make sure we don't give anything up. It didn't work."
Burciaga scored for the second week in a row with a diving header off of a cross from Matt Groenwald. Although that was the difference on the night, the Crew dodged many bullets -- many involving Davy Arnaud -- over the course of the night.
"I am sure he (Arnaud) is the No. 1 guy they discuss when they look at the film," said Wizards coach Bob Gansler.
Added Kotschau: "He always is (trouble). He started wide and tried to get inside a couple of us defenders. Once or twice he got through. We did a decent job on him in that regard, but he is always a threat."
The first came in the opening moments of the match when Crew 'keeper Noah Palmer was troubled by a ball played near the corner of the penalty area.
"He (Palmer) misplayed the one ball early. I think he was trying to let it bounce into the box to him," said Schmid. "It wasn't going to the box. I told him at halftime that he just needs to step up and head that out."
Another series of chances came when the Crew defense stuffed Kerry Zavagnin twice in rapid succession.
"I saw a shot coming and Noah stepped off his line. We got an initial clear, but the ball did not get outside of the box," said Kotschau. "We had two guys on the line, myself and maybe (Jose) Retiz. It came to my side and I got a good clearance on it."
The loss dropped the Crew out of a second place tie with the Wizards in the Eastern Conference, and also left them with a losing record at home on the campaign. The Crew's wins are all against Western Conference clubs, with three of the four coming on the road. While having the most road wins in MLS is certainly attractive, having just one home win is a cause for concern.
"Right now, we have shown ourselves to be a better road team than we are a home team," said Schmid. "Maybe it is because on the road we are more focused and less distracted."
John Kuhn is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
