The Columbus Crew’s playoff surge of late looks to have ended with a disappointing 1-0 loss to Sporting Kansas City. After Philadelphia’s win over Toronto, the Crew now sit 4 points off the final playoff spot, having played a game more than the 3 teams above them.
Kansas City were the better team throughout the first half and the key to this was the lineup of 5 central midfielders, enabling them to win the midfield battle. The Crew were playing a 4-4-2 formation, but with Dominic Oduro and Bernardo Anor both pushing high up the pitch, it left the midfield duo of Wil Trapp and Tony Tchani outnumbered and unable to have time to find their passes.
The deciding goal came in the 17th minute and in controversial circumstances with Agustin Viana on the ground with a suspected head injury. He fell after an initial challenge with Ike Opara from a corner kick. The ball was recycled and sent in again and this time Opara was free to head in at the far post.
The other main talking point of the 1st half was a suspected injury to Federico Higuain early in the half. After falling awkwardly challenging for a ball, he spent most of the half holding his hip, though Crew head coach Brian Bliss was reluctant to remove his talismanic captain.
The second half did not bring a change to the pattern of the game and the Crew were relying on long balls to their front men. The Crew duo of Jairo Arrieta and Oduro were lacking discipline to wait in making their forward runs and were caught offside 5 times between them. The second half introduction of Ryan Finley only increased this number to a total of 8 times between them.
A couple of half chances came and went for the Crew with the best coming from the head of Marshall on 62 minutes, but his header was just wide. A final push for the equalizer finally came in stoppage time with a great play from the substitute Ben Speas as he set Finley free, but the ball did not settle and Sporting’s defense cleared.
