A first half penalty from Jairo Arrieta wasn’t enough for a win but the Crew’s third straight draw keeps them at the top of the conference, although it was a game that was begging for a touch of something special to take all three points.
Columbus has goalkeeper Steve Clark to thank for a string of first half saves that kept New York from running away with the game. The Crew’s new ‘keeper deservedly picked up the man of the match award after another quality display.
The Crew again started off slow, allowing New York far too much possession as they sat back and let the Red bulls push forward and give a few early tests for Clark to deal with.
After the early storm, the Crew eased into the game and started to work their possession-based attack with Williams and Francis pushed high up the field.
Justin Meram started the game, in for the suspended Anor, and earned a spot-kick in the 39th minute after being dragged to the ground by New York’s Kosuke Kimura.
Usual penalty taken Federico Higuain handed over the duty to Arrieta (a man in need of a confidence boost?) who slammed the ball off the underside of the crossbar and into the goal to give the Crew a 1-0 lead.
Unfortunately, for Crew fans, the lead didn’t last and in the 66th minute Red bull’s Bradley Wright-Phillips perfectly placed volley leveled the score to 1-1.
The rest of the game turned into an already too common situation at Crew Stadium as the away team chose to stick with what they had and dropped deep, content to stop the Crew attack by throwing 10 men behind the ball and frustrating the Columbus attack that included late substitutes Ethan Finlay and “pizza head” Dom Oduro.
The Crew end their mini home-stand with 2 points from a possible 6 and now head to the road with next weekend’s Sunday afternoon clash with Sporting Kansas City.
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Matt Ellis is a freelance photographer who covers bands that visit the city and the Columbus Crew MLS team. More about Matt can be found at Matt Ellis Photography.
