COLUMBUS – Coach Robert Warzycha lamented after the game Saturday against Seattle Sounders FC that the Crew “couldn’t buy a goal” when they trailed 1-0 and the game turned into a 4-0 rout.
But with the rosters frozen as of Sept. 15, he will have to look inward for the solution, and his choices might put leading scorer and MLS All-Star forward Guillermo Barros Schelotto on the bench, at least for Saturday’s game at New England.
“At some point you have to find somebody who can score the goals,” he said. “We were scoring the goals earlier (in the season). I am confident we are going to keep scoring.”
Warzycha likes to keep the 37-year-old forward off the artificial turf if he can, and Schelotto has not played in Gillette Stadium since 2007.
It might be a good time to give him a break after Schelotto was effectively marked out of the 3-1 defeat against the Galaxy on Sept. 18 and in the loss to Seattle over the weekend.
“If he plays well I don’t have a problem putting him on the field, but for some reason he can’t find the game right now,” Warzycha said.
He also hinted at changes for Tuesday’s CONCACAF Champions League match against Santos Laguna of Mexico.
“I would look for more power in front,” Warzycha said. “Obviously with Steven (Lenhart) and Guillermo, the last game I don’t think we had enough.”
[inline_node:317660]The Crew play with one target, usually Lenhart, and with Schelotto in a withdrawn position. But that doesn’t seem to be working, despite the fact that Crew’s 33 goals is still third in MLS behind LA and Real Salt Lake (38) despite scoring twice in the past four games.
The Crew have two goals in their past four games.
“I would love to have two power forwards in front,” Warzycha said. “We have to have more players in the box.”
His options beside Lenhart and Schelotto are Jason Garey, Andres Mendoza and Emilio Renteria.
“Maybe we’ll go with a little bit of speed up front (against Santos),” Warzycha said.
He ruled out playing Schelotto on a wing because of the extra running required to go box to box for defensive coverage. Schelotto has seven goals in 24 league games this season.
Only New England (Marko Perkovic, six goals in 19 games) and D.C. United (Andy Najar, four in 22, and Danny Allsopp, four in 18) have team leaders with fewer than Schelotto’s total. Marco
Pappa (seven in 19) and Brian Ching (seven in 17) top Chicago and Houston, respectively.
Meanwhile, three former Crew players are leading their clubs: Edson Buddle of LA (14 in 20), Kansas City’s Kei Kamara (nine in 22) and FC Dallas’ Jeff Cunningham (eight in 21).
Home Not So Sweet
The mystique that carried the Crew to an MLS record 22-game regular-season home unbeaten streak in 2008-09 was shattered Saturday.
On the same day RSL broke the mark with a win against Chicago at Rio Tinto Stadium, the Crew suffered their worst defeat in Crew Stadium since the same score against Kansas City on May 14, 2005.
The Crew have more home losses this season (3) than 2009 (2) and 2008 (2). Columbus have been blanked in all three defeats and also had a scoreless tie against FC Dallas this year.
