Berhalter’s ‘ keep climbing’ message has been heeded

Shortly after his team wrapped up a 2-0 win over Los Angeles on Aug. 23, an excited Gregg Berhalter wrapped up his speech in the Crew SC locker room by delivering a line that might normally come from a hiking instructor.

“Keep climbing, baby,” the fourth-year Crew coach said. “We look up from now on.”

A few weeks ago, that message might have been difficult to follow. Beating the Galaxy raised the Crew’s record to a mere 12-12-3, with teams such as the Montreal Impact not far below in the Major League Soccer standings.

Since that win, however, Columbus has gone 2-0-2 and is eight points clear of seventh-place Montreal, with six teams in the Eastern Conference qualifying for the playoffs. With three games to play, the Crew (14-12-5) has a much higher probability of overtaking Chicago (1410-6) for the No. 4 spot in the standings than falling apart to the point of missing the playoffs.

“I think we’ve been gaining a decent amount of momentum, so whenever I said that, that was the point. It’s not something we just came out with now because of the standings,” Berhalter said. “We’ve believed in ourselves for a while, and the focus has been that for a while. We knew that if we could get points, we could attack the top.”

A difficult balance for many teams at this time of year is maintaining end-of-season goals — one for the Crew might be hosting a knockoutround playoff game — while focusing on the task at hand. Crew SC’s seven-game unbeaten streak will be on the line Saturday against a D.C. United team (9-174) that is last in the conference but has been playing better of late.

Without a realistic shot at a playoff spot, D.C. will look to play the role of spoiler, starting with an opportunity Saturday to disrupt the Crew’s climb.

“We can’t take our foot off the gas pedal,” Crew defender Hector Jimenez said. “Everyone has good vibes right now. We like where we are, and we’ve got to keep working hard to continue that.”

Injury update

Left back Waylon Francis (left-thigh strain) ran and participated in drills off to the side as practice opened to reporters Monday. There is “a chance” Francis will be able to participate in team drills by the end of the week, Berhalter said.