Finlay, Higuain and Afful celebrating the final whistle.
Photo: Augusto Saenz
Columbus.-Everything was spinning around the Canadian dark horse and his illustrious Ivory Coast Jockey. In the end, it was the night for the other illustrious participant of the duel. The one from Sierra Leone. The one who came back to the League to score 22 goals. The one who missed the penalty kick and then scored in overtime. This was the night Kei Kamara carried the Crew SC to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since 2008.
The execution was perfect, or at least they thought it was. Columbus needed to score fast and often. Five minutes in and Kamara already had one, and almost had another one, five minutes later and another shot of his hit the cross bar fifteen minutes into the match. They were on the roll, high tempo, high pressure, Montreal was against the ropes wand couldn’t find its way out. But they did. They scored. Mapfre Stadium went quiet, so it did their men on the field, quiet.
Crew SC started the second half knowing that they need to score twice in forty-five minutes, or at least once to force overtime and subsequently penalty kicks to advance. You would expect them to come full throttle, ready to eat Montreal alive, right? Right? Wrong, wrong. Their initial spark that gave them the lead was off, they opted for the long, methodical possession that leads to nowhere. That inexplicable change of course of actions named “momentum switch” took place to favor the visitors.
Ignacio Piatti took the handle of the game on his own. It wasn’t Drogba, no. He seemed to be more focus on getting yellow cards out the rivals and pretending to be injured in some way. The Argentine carried the ball deep, and every time he found himself alone surrounded by three defenders he managed to pull a shot that was always dangerous. He put Steve Clark to work hard.
The second and vital goal for Montreal never came. And after Kei Kamara missed the penalty kick, Finlay put the second for Crew SC to force the game into overtime. That’s when the story changed for good. “The goal that Ethan scored… I mean my goal is not as big as the one he scored because that was the one that put us back in to [the game]” Kamara said.
The adjustments Columbus did for this game worked out. Their offensive game shined in the right moment. But it was the pressure they applied on defense what put them trough the Eastern Conference Finals. When Montreal attacked with Piatti, he was surrounded by Finlay, Tchani, and Afful. When they used Duka, Meram, Higuaín and Trapp were on him. This trio defensive rotation was suffocating and the most important part was that they did it thirty yards away from Steve Clark.
The ghost of the New England were exorcised from Mapfre Stadium and after five years they are back in the Eastern Conference Finals, the question is: After overcome a very tough series against Montreal, does this team possess a championship caliber?
“That’s a hard question. I said a couple of weeks ago, every team that is in the playoffs has a chance to win the championship. So I stick to that. The teams that were to be left tomorrow all have a chance and I think we are equally as good as all the teams in it” was Gregg Berhalter’s response in the post-game press conference.
