The Columbus Crew kept up their playoff push thanks to a comfortable 3-0 win over Chivas USA on Sunday. The victory moved them up into playoff position, taking fourth place in the conference. With Chivas looking for new owners, tonight’s game highlights the level of work that is required to get the visiting team competing again.
The game was a tale of two halves with the first being a desperately poor contest with both teams struggling to find any rhythm and quality.
The referee finally injected some excitement to the first half by awarding Columbus a soft penalty at the end of the half. Aaron Schoenfeld was tangling with Eriq Zavaleta and tripped as a deep corner came in with the referee suggesting the trip was intentional. Federico Higuain stepped up to blast the spot kick onto the bar, his third penalty miss of the season.
The second half started in a similar fashion until Justin Meram opened the scoring for Columbus. He collected the ball on the left side of the area and with the Chivas defense disinterested in closing him down, curled a right footed shot into the far corner of the goal.
The goal finally woke up the Crew and they created a couple of chances to extend their lead, the best coming on 56 minutes when Eric Gehrig’s infield ball found the onrushing Higuain, but his shot was well saved by Kennedy. The second finally did come thanks to Meram intercepting an infield pass. He then ran on towards goal and shifted the ball to the right. He would curl it home from 25 yards, making it five goals in his last five games.
Bernardo Anor went on to make it 3-0 on 80 minutes from a right wing cross that found him free at the far post to head home. Chivas’ outfield players appeared to throw in the towel at this point and the Crew could have increased their lead, but were unable thanks to some inspired goalkeeping from Kennedy. This would keep the score line respectable for the visitors.
