Saturday night in MAPFRE Stadium saw goals…lots of goals.
Unfortunately for Columbus Crew SC, three of them came from the visiting Montreal Impact in the final 33 minutes of the game. As a result, a 4-1 lead for the Black and Gold eventually turned into a 4-4 draw when all was set and done.
Crew SC Defense Falters Late in Wild 4-4 Draw with Montreal Impact
Center forward Kei Kamara netted his first brace of the season with a pair of goals in the first half. His second came right on the stroke of halftime. And the goal came in the most unlikely of ways given Columbus’ possession-oriented style. Center Michael Parkhurst played a direct ball into the box which Kamara was able to collect and bury past Montreal goalkeeper Evan Bush. His fifth goal of the season gave the Black and Gold a 2-1 lead heading into the locker room.
Almost immediately out of the gate in the second half, Columbus would double their lead. Argentinian number ten Federico Higuain found himself at the right place at the right time in the 48th minute. After an overlapping Harrison Afful’s shot ricocheted off a few Impact defenders, the ball came right at Higuain’s feet. He made one move past Bush and easily put it away to make it 3-1 Crew SC.
No more than five minutes later, left winger Justin Meram was tripped up in the box by Impact defensive midfielder Marco Donadel. This gave Columbus a penalty kick that would seem to give them an unassailable three-goal second half lead.
But that’s when this game really got turned on its head.
With Kamara on two goals and having a chance to get the first hat trick of his career, it seemed logical that he would take the penalty. And he had already scored once from the spot before this season with the lone goal two weeks ago against Houston. But Higuain was adamant that he take the kick. A bit of an argument seemed to ensue between the two. Parkhurst, the team’s captain, was forced to intervene. In the end, Higuain would get his wish, eventually sending the ball past Bush to make it 4-1.
Four minutes later, Montreal would get a penalty of their own. Ignacio Piatti, who had equalized for the Impact in the 26th minute, was taken down in the box by an onrushing Ethan Finlay. Didier Drogba would finish to halve the Columbus advantage.
Almost immediately after Crew SC kicked the ball off, Montreal would win possession and bring the ball back into their attacking third. Right winger Dominic Oduro took advantage of a great deal of space down the flank and centered the ball towards Piatti. The Impact’s own Argentinian number ten settled the ball, juked two Columbus defenders and blasted it past goalkeeper Steve Clark to get a brace of his own.
Suddenly, what looked like an insurmountable three-goal cushion was down to one goal in the span of two minutes.
Piatti’s dynamic play as Montreal’s creative maestro was on full display and Crew SC defensive midfielder Wil Trapp discussed the challenges of trying to bottle up such a talent.
“He’s always going to be a challenge to play against,” Trapp told LastWordonSports.com. “I think the way they play in terms of transition highlights him as well just because he’s so good getting the ball and looking for Drogba or running at guys.”
That single goal advantage would fall by the wayside in the dying moments of the game. Once again, Crew SC’s vulnerability on set pieces or anything resembling one was made evident. In the third of four minutes of second half stoppage time, right back Ambroise Oyongo tossed in a long throw-in that Drogba was able to win in the air. The resulting rebound came right to the feet of Oduro who tapped it past Clark for the game-tying goal.
What looked like a sure three points early in the second half ended in an extremely disappointing home draw. And even more concerning going forward is the possibility of a rift between Kamara and Higuain over the penalty.
That seemed to be the case considering some of Kamara’s post-game comments. The most poignant of these can be found in the following tweet from MLSSoccer.com’s Andrew King.
Kamara on Higuain taking the penalty: "That’s selfishness. That’s not a teammate." #CrewSC
— Andrew (@AndrewKingCbus) May 8, 2016
Crew SC head coach and sporting director Gregg Berhalter described the situation as one in which both players are capable from the spot but of course only one can actually take the kick.
“You have a group of guys who are comfortable taking penalty kicks, have a track record taking penalty kicks, and they’re successful taking penalty kicks,” Berhalter told Pat Murphy of MassiveReport.com. “So, out of that you boil it all down to candidates and then you go from there.”
Parkhurst discussed how he was trying to resolve the situation post-game.
“I just said ‘let’s get on with it guys, this is embarrassing to the team,'” he told Ben Ferree of UWeekly.
It will be interesting in the coming weeks to see how this developing situation plays out.
Photo courtesy of Columbus Crew SC Communications.
