Columbus.- They were fast, Justin Meram scored the first goal nine seconds after kick off. They were furious, they turned the high press against the Red Bulls. And with this clean sheet, Crew SC just put one step and a half into the MLS Cup finals. The 2-0 at Mapfre Stadium in the first leg of the Eastern Conference finals represents a monumental advantage that would require the soccer Gods to turn their backs on Columbus to erase it.
After defeating Montreal, Crew SC showed signs of how high can they push the tempo of their game. Tonight they even stepped up a notch, suddenly they found themselves driving in sixth gear, it was like they didn’t know they had it until now. They stole New York’s high press and turned against them; that was the key to the game and, oh yeah having the lead before the 10-second mark, with the fastest goal in MLS history.
“Obviously it’s a great start to the game. It does change the game a little bit because yo have intentions to see how the game is going to play out, and getting the goal so early it’s like now is a different game all of the sudden,” Crew SC coach Greg Berhalter said. “I think our intentions were to get the second goal. At halftime the message was: we can get the second goal here, and we knew they were going to bring pressure, but we also knew there was going to be a space open up on the counter attack, and we wanted that second goal.”
That second goal took a lot longer than the first one, eighty-four minutes to be exact. The Supporter’s Shield Champions did not blink after Meram’s goal. They were ready to be and did not change their structure one bit. They were aggressive; they maintain their high pace bu they just couldn’t find the back of the net, even after having sixteen shots on and after forcing ten corner kicks, nothing, zero.
Jesse Marsch knew that without Gastón Sauro in the back line Columbus doesn’t have a strong aerial defense, that’s why they emphasized their attack on the flanks. They finished the game with twenty-five crossed from the open play, ten more than Columbus, and the home team suffered but some way somehow survived. It was a collective effort with Kamara acting as a third center back.
The Sierra Leone striker showed up, again. The same way he did with Montreal, the same way he’s being doing all season. In this instances goals not only provide a lead or three points, but they also put the team gigantic steps closer to the Championship and is there to give the team that vital lift to that level. But don’t get it wrong, this is only the first half of an 180-minute game, and the 2-0 lead is the most dangerous in the sport. Berhalter knows it:
“We are halfway into the series, and we think we are in a good spot, but there’s a lot of work to do. The message to the group is this isn’t over by a long shot, and it’s going to take even a better effort next week to reach the final.”
