Columbus Crew Fall to New England After Late Goals

Columbus faced off against New England in a pivotal game for their playoff chances. The Revolution started the game just one point ahead of the Crew in sixth place. A win would have vaulted them over them and three points back of Houston and the last playoff spot. They gave up two stoppage time goals to drop into eighth place.

THe Crew came out with another fast start. They controlled the ball early and had a couple half chances, including a Chad Marshall header that went wide in the 6th minute. Columbus would rack up nine shots through the first half, but none of them would be on goal.

New England would have the best chance of the half in the 22nd minute when Dimitri Imbongo would take a Chad Barrett pass and cut the ball across goal. Chris Tierney met the ball on the far side, but he side footed his shot well wide of the open net.

After a tight first half, the second half opened up. Both sides would find space on the counterattack. Bernardo Anor recorded the first Crew shot on target in the 66th minute. The home team would fire off ten second half shots, but only two would force Revolution keeper Bobby Shuttlesworth to make a save.

The New England offense did little better as they only got off four shots through the second 45 and the Crew would have gotten a disappointing point if the game would have ended at 90:00, but the Revs would take advantage of the four added minutes at the end of the game to steal a road win.

After earning a corner in the first added minute, Lee Nguyen bent in a far post service that José Gonçalves rose up over Josh Williams and headed the ball past Andy Gruenebaum to make it 1-0. Two minutes later, Chad Marshall was bringing the ball forward and misplayed a five yard pass to Federico Higuain and Nguyen intercepted. He quickly found Diego Fagundez who then beat Gruenebaum one on one to make it 2-0.

The loss is devastating to the Crew's playoff chances. They are still six points behind Houston, but have played one more game. Chicago is even on points, but have a game in hand. New England sits four points ahead. Playoff teams win games like this at home. The Crew didn't; it's looking more and more like a lost season.