Real Salt Lake Gives Columbus Crew a Fright on Halloween – Takes Game One of the Eastern Conference Semifinals

Robbie Findley, MLS’s Player of the Week during the last week of the regular season slipped a late goal past the diving Columbus Keeper from a beautiful Yura Movsisyan pass, and delivers the victory to Real Salt Lake in the first leg of the Eastern Conference semis. The score came late in the game, and it became apparent early on that Columbus would have been happy to get out of Rio Tinto with a nil-nil draw, but RSL was just as determined to get a win at home. I was lucky enough to be sitting on the front row of the game, just past the Columbus Crew Bench.

I was puzzled by Columbus’s strategy from before the game even started when I saw their star, Guillermo Barros Schelotto, not working that hard in warm ups and actually never taking his sweats off. I figured, as did the RSL coaching staff, that he would come in at the half or at least by the 60th minute, but other than running back and forth in front of me and dodging occasional tossed colored paper-rolls (I had nothing to do with that, by the way), Schelotto saw no action. The same was true for The Crew’s Alejandro Moreno, who rode the pine, as well. Turns out that this was all “strategy” by The Crew’s coach. He thought he’d have the two slightly built stars sit out in favor of larger, more physical forwards Emilio Renteria and Steven Lenhart. It seems the Crew was still remembering the 4-1 spanking they received during the regular season by RSL in Rio Tinto and thought that maybe the bigger guys would fare better. Maybe they did, because it sure looked like the game was heading for a scoreless draw until Movsisyan came in and became a nuisance along the Crew’s back line.

Movisisyan did not come into the game until late in the second half, but as soon as he was on the field you could see the disruption he caused in Columbus’s game plan. The Crew actually figured a draw was good, and then they could go home and win. Sure, that could work… maybe, but what if RSL actually takes the game and has momentum going into Columbus on Thursday night?

I’ve never thought that sitting back and trying to tie was a good idea. Better to just go all out and shoot for a win and see what happens. Maybe Columbus actually thought they were going to handle RSL better with the bigger team, but RSL’s fast, small midfielders and forwards seemed pretty tough. Now RSL has the momentum and all they need is a draw in Columbus to move on. The thing is, Jason Kreis won’t go into Columbus with a “strategy” to get a draw. He will take RSL into Columbus with a plan to win the game. That is always the way to go. Always.