Kyle (Martino), Manny (Lagos) -- are doing a good job of creating chances for us. We are getting our chances and fortunately the goals are going in, but we still need to improve, especially on the offensive end," Cunningham said.
Crew boss Greg Andrulis made one change to the team that held on to defeat the New England Revolution 2-1 away the previous weekend. With Frankie Hejduk away on national team duty with the USA, Duncan Oughton took his wide midfield role in his first game back from national team duty with New Zealand.
Here's Andrulis's team (3-4-1-2): Jon Busch - Nelson Akwari, Robin Fraser, Chad Marshall - Duncan Oughton, Manny Lagos (Simon Elliott 77), Ross Paule, Eric Denton - Kyle Martino (Devin Barclay 89) - Michael Ritch (David Testo 46), Jeff Cunningham.
"We're playing better soccer. Early in the season we weren't heading in the right direction and to the guys' credit, we battled and changed a lot of the things we were doing," Andrulis said. "So much was made about the formation, but the guys buckled down. We got a lot better defensively and gave ourselves chances to get points. I don't think its one thing in the last six games. We haven't always been the better team on the field, but we've been battling and been finding ways to get points as we did tonight."
The goals were near carbon copies, both coming as central defenders were beaten by their opposite numbers on corner kicks. "It killed us. It was a crushing blow, especially so close together, and so close after our goal," Robin Fraser said. "This just speaks volumes of the character of this team. You get into a situation like that and still find a way to battle back and create some dangerous chances in the second half and eventually we end up getting a tie. A lot of teams would have lost a game like this."
Erick Scott was an 80th-minute substitute as Costa Rica drew 2-2 with Cuba in the first leg of their World Cup qualifying series in La Habana. The second leg will be in San Jose on June 20.
