The Black and Gold turned in a performance for the ages Sunday night.
In front of a boisterous and electric MAPFRE Stadium crowd of 19,026 (the second-largest crowd for a playoff game in club history), Columbus Crew SC was a part of what will likely be among the most compelling and dramatic matches of the 2015 MLS postseason. They put together an improbable 3-1 second leg defeat of the Montreal Impact, which gave them a 4-3 aggregate victory in the series, thus enabling them to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since their championship season of 2008.
It was how this side arrived at that result which made it all the more special to the players on the field and the fans in attendance.
The Black and Gold initially took the lead on a 4th minute goal that epitomized the Crew SC style of play. Attacking midfielder Federico Higuain received a beautiful through ball from Tony Tchani, floating it towards fullback Waylon Francis, who was making a blistering overlapping run down the left flank. Francis would fling the cross into Kei Kamara who headed it into goal to give Crew SC the early lead.
The goal tied the aggregate at 2-2, which meant Columbus would’ve advanced to the 2015 Audi MLS Cup semifinals if the result held by virtue of the away goal they scored in Montreal. However, as can be customary in dealing with the unpredictable nature of postseason soccer and sports in general, it didn’t turn out to be that easy.
Five minutes before the stroke of halftime, Columbus Crew SC conceded a corner kick which was fed into the box by Marco Donadel. Impact center back Laurent Ciman would win a header which knocked the ball high into the air. Unfortunately, it led to a bit of ball watching as Ciman would later glance it toward the center of the six-yard box. Amid a frantic effort trying to clear the ball was Dilly Duka, who put the ball past goalkeeper Steve Clark to tie the game but give the Impact a huge edge in the overall series.
The Montreal right winger, who played for Crew SC from 2010-2012, took the life out of the crowd and ensured his former club would need at least a goal in the second half to force extra time and keep their postseason hopes alive. Amid a second half where the club controlled the ball nearly 68 percent of the time, they would eventually get that crucial breakthrough via Ethan Finlay in the 77th minute.
After getting to the end of regulation with the score as is, the two sides would play 30 more minutes of soccer with a penalty shootout ensuing should the game remain tied afterwards. It’s a situation that had not benefited Crew SC in the past, having lost via penalties to the Colorado Rapids at home during the 2010 MLS playoffs.
In the end, such a scenario didn’t come to pass. In the 111th minute, Kamara’s scintillating ability to win aerial balls was on full display once more. This time, he found a wonderfully positioned cross from Cedrick Mabwati and headed it far post past Impact goalkeeper Evan Bush for the eventual series clincher.
Throughout the entirety of this series, the Black and Gold did a fairly good job at limiting what star Impact striker Didier Drogba brought to the table. Whether it was his off the ball movement, his ability to find space within opposing defenses, or his sheer ability to get in opponents’ heads, in many respects, the accomplished forward was taken out of the game, particularly in the second leg.
Head coach and sporting director Gregg Berhalter noted that one of the contributing factors to Crew SC advancing to the next round of the playoffs, apart from their sheer persistence and never-give-up mentality as personified by the way they came out victorious, was the back line and defensive midfield’s ability to effectively contain Impact forward Didier Drogba.
“When I look at the back line, when I look at the midfield, they’re really (doing a good job) closing down the second ball that was played into him,” Berhalter told Last Word on Sports post-game. “They did a great job and, for the most part, contained him.”
Another aspect of limiting Montreal’s effectiveness is being sound defensively when the Impact try to hit you on the break. This is especially true from the standpoint of eliminating excessive amounts of set pieces, be it via free kicks around the box that come as a result of fouls or corners that come from needing to settle the defense. It’s something the club struggled with in Montreal but Crew SC holding midfielder Wil Trapp said post-game that the team did a better job in the second leg although there were times where they looked vulnerable.
“In terms of transition and counterattack, they’re a team where you gotta get pressure around the ball immediately after we lose it,” Trapp said. “If you don’t, a guy like (Marco) Donadel finds (Ignacio) Piatti and Piatti’s very, very dangerous. I thought we did a decent job of just pressing immediately after we lost it and that will eliminate a lot of what they were throwing at us.”
When you take into account the energy the fans brought, the club’s ability to feed off that and channel it into a positive result, along with neutralizing a global soccer legend and denying his team’s ability to implement their style of play, all of it contributed to a formula for success and a blueprint for advancing to within two games of MLS Cup.
The Black and Gold will take on the New York Red Bulls in the conference finals, who dispatched DC United 1-0 in the second leg and 2-0 on aggregate earlier in the day. The first leg is set to take place Sunday, November 22nd and be played in Columbus.
Photo by Jamie Sabau/Getty Images
