BRIDGEVIEW, Ill. – They may have failed where five previous Columbus teams failed, but afterward, Crew SC coach Gregg Berhalter didn't have much bad to say about the effort his men gave in their 2-1 loss at the Chicago Fire Tuesday in the US Open Cup Round of 16.
The visitors dominated possession, holding the ball a whopping 68 percent of the time and out-shooting their hosts 16-11. But they only managed two shots on target, including a late Ethan Finlay penalty. And so, for the sixth time in six games in US Open Cup competition, Crew SC fell to the Fire, on the back of two first-half goals from Fire live wire David Accam.
“I think we had momentum the whole game,” Berhalter said at his post-game press conference. “The goals clearly came against the run of play. Chicago defended for 90 minutes. You guys saw the game. Listen, there is nothing wrong with that; it is not a negative. They won the game and they are in the next round. We are not.”
Had Columbus’s previous five US Open Cup defeats at the hands of the Fire affected the players’ mentality, or approach to the game?
“No,” he said emphatically. “We knew [all about the history], we addressed it and it was something we wanted to eradicate. We wanted to get the first win, we wanted to be the first Crew team to beat the Chicago Fire in the Open Cup and we didn’t do it. We came up short.”
While Crew SC may have bossed possession, they struggled to create many significant moments of danger as the Fire’s resolute defense held firm and withstood the best Columbus could throw at them. To be fair, they did have a Cristian Martinez effort ruled out for offside in the 56th minute.
“I think in the first half we controlled the ball, but we did not create real chances or put enough pressure on them,” Berhalter admitted. “In the second half we did. We got unlucky to have that one goal that was offside. I think potentially before that, there could have been a penalty kick with a hand ball, but that is the breaks of this game. I’m proud of the way the guys kept battling and kept the pressure up.”
While disappointed to have exited the Open Cup, the Crew SC head coach was adamant that his team's focus remains to arrest their sluggish regular season form and climb the Eastern Conference table, where last year’s MLS Cup finalists currently lie a surprising ninth, four points adrift of the playoffs.
“It leaves us without the ability to win an Open Cup title and that is about it,” he said when asked how this defeat affects their approach to the remainder of the season. “Our sights now are on the league and moving up in the table. We believe we have a good team, but the table doesn’t lie. So we need to start climbing. We believe it and we need to show it. That is what these next 17 games are about.”
