Despite a slow early start, plagued with poor effort and missed chances, the Columbus Crew managed to pull out a late 1-1 draw against the Philadelphia Union on Saturday, extending their home point streak to 11 games without a loss.
In the 72nd minute Eddie Gaven found a streaking Dominic Oduro, who found the back of the net with a rocket from an impossibly tight angle to earn a point for Columbus.
Gaven’s assist helped put the Crew ahead, but the midfielder wished the first half had gone a little differently.
“We didn’t play very well during that first half and we all knew it,” Gaven said. “There were some things that we definitely had to change and I think we did.”
An 82nd minute header by Josh Williams came tantalizingly close to breaking the tie, but glanced off the crossbar and neither team could find the go-ahead goal before the final whistle blew.
The draw gives the Crew eight points on the season and leaves them in fourth place in the East.
Defender Chad Marshall celebrated his 20,000th minute in Major League Soccer despite a lackluster first half from the Columbus defense.
In the 34th minute Danny Cruz beat the offside trap for Philadelphia and crossed the ball to Jack McInerney, who capitalized on an open net and gave the Union a 1-0 lead.
A halftime substitution of Jairo Arrieta, coming on for Agustin Viana, provided the spark that Columbus used to find the equalizer.
Crew head coach Robert Warzycha was disappointed with his team’s initial effort, but thought the squad came out with more intensity in the second half.
“I think it’s difficult to explain why we started the game like we started,” Warzycha said. “The second half we changed the formation a little bit, but more than anything we had more energy.”
The speedy runs of the Union seemed to be too much for the backline of the Crew, who were caught out of place on multiple occasions by Philadelphia in the first half.
“I think we were trying to push for the goal,” Warzycha said. “The final pass wasn’t there and they were able to counterattack us.”
It was the first time that Philadelphia has taken a point away from Crew Stadium, with the Crew’s record at 3-0-0 before the match.
Next up the Crew hit the road to take on first place Montreal on April 13th at 2 p.m.
