Union’s stinginess stings Crew in another clean win
CHESTER » A third straight clean sheet last week meant a promise of pizza and beer from manager Jim Curtin, taking a page out of the book of Premier League winning coach Claudio Ranieri.
So four straight shutouts gets you what?
“They were joking about a Rolex for each of them,” Curtin said Saturday night, “but I can’t swing that. That’s not in the budget.”
Three points sufficed as the Union’s reward for 90 more minutes of blue-collar, stingy soccer. The Union got a bounce in their favor in Eloy Room’s own goal, then kept Columbus out the rest of the way for a 1-0 win.
In the process, they stretched their shutout streak to 418 minutes, the longest in franchise history, eclipsing the 408 minutes from March 24-April 28, 2012.
It led to a fifth straight win for the Union (5-0-1, 16 points) to stay atop the Eastern Conference as one of only two remaining unbeatens. It’s the first fivegame MLS winning streak in club history.
Of the four clean sheets, the Union had to work hardest in this one, allowing 19 shots. But many were speculative, the Crew trying desperately to cash in on 68.6 percent possession. Only four efforts found the frame, fewer than the Union’s five on target. The hosts won the expected goals battle for the sixth consecutive game.
“It wasn’t a beautiful game,” Curtin admitted, after an affair where the club-selected key play was a sliding block by Kai Wagner
on a Yaw Yeboah shot in the 44th minute. But it was effective, another 90-minute display of the Union’s determination to work for each other, players sacrificing their bodies around the edge of the box to break up attacks.
“It was intense,” said Leon Flach, after another stellar shift. “Columbus is a really good team at keeping the ball, they have great midfield players, but I think we also did a great job.”
The Union’s work ethic took on added importance when Andre Blake landed awkwardly in the 43th minute. He leapt to get his finger to a dangerous Lucas Zelarayan free kick from 26 yards, making sure it flew safety over the bar. He landed on the point of his elbow and required attention while backup Matt Freese warmed up, but Blake saw
out the rest of the half, recovering enough at half to man the rest of the game.
“He’s going to be sore,” Curtin said. “It’s going to be painful. I’m sure we’re going to get some images done but overall I think he’ll be fine. I give him a lot of credit because at halftime, it was close to him coming out.”
He finished with four saves, none after the break of particular difficulty.
As for other less than beautiful moments, there was Room’s puzzler of an own goal. For a second straight week, the Union were handed a goal on a platter thanks to a goalkeeping catastrophe. This time Room did the job himself. Instead of collecting a cross by Jose Martinez, he spiked it into the net, like a volleyball quick-set kill gone wrong, to put the
Union up 92 seconds into the match.
The Union couldn’t double that edge, but weren’t made to regret it. Nathan Harriel, starting for the fifth straight game at right back, sent an open header wide off a 14thminute corner. Daniel Gazdag, bidding to score in his fifth consecutive game, appeared to be offside on a counter in the 23rd, but it didn’t matter since Room slid to deny his attempt. In the 82nd, sub Cory Burke launched a 2-on-1 with Gazdag and picked out a well-weighted pass, but Gazdag was stoned by Room.
The Union generated a slew of chances early in the second half, the best a shot by Mikael Uhre in the 56th that nearly squeaked under Room before he dropped his backside on it to stop it.