A 2-1 win by Columbus over FC Dallas was a welcome site to the Crew who had been inept on offense the past two matches.
In the 67th minute Justin Meram finally ended the Crew’s offensive woes. A few minutes later Sebastian Miranda followed suit and put in a rocket of a header from outside the box.
Before that it had been almost 2 ½ games worth of playing time since the Crew’s last goal. The Dallas defense took a blow when Zach Lloyd picked up his second yellow card of the match in the 62nd minute giving Columbus the man advantage. Fatigue also played a factor as the tired Dallas strikers could not put together any semblance of an attack after the half.
Going into half time the Crew looked lost. Fabian Castillo scored the first goal of the match for Dallas when midfielder Tony Tchani let him by. In the 22nd minute Tchani was guarding Castillo on the left sideline but stopped when the ball teetered on the out of bounds line, opening the door for Dallas’ first goal in over 200 minutes as well.
The substitution of Meram late in the first half seemed to give the team the spark they needed. The win was the first for the Crew in 5 games and 3rd of the season.
“We needed something with the slide we’re in,” Crew defender Josh Williams said.
Despite the win injures continue to be a huge problem. In the 44th minute forward Ethan Finlay went down with concussion-like symptoms after an elbow by Andrew Jacobson. It wasn’t the only elbow thrown as the two teams played rough all night. The injury to Finlay is the 12th on the roster and leaves the Crew very weak in the long run at striker.
When asked about the offensive struggles of the team, Crew striker Justin Meram responded, “We needed something; finally we got that monkey off our shoulders.”
Next up the Crew head out west to face first place San Jose in the first of a two game road trip.
