Columbus Crew Not Content With Recent Results

The Columbus Crew are a confident team and Saturday's 1-1 home draw with the New York Red Bulls was not what they expected when they took the field. The Red Bulls have the big names, but the Black and Gold believed they should have won the game.

"It's a quality team," midfielder Wil Trapp said of New York.

"It's never going to be easy against a team like that with the players they have. But it's disappointing for us because we want to win the game.

"I thought we were the better team on the day, I thought we played well. I thought our pressure was good, our possession was good. We created chances, we just didn't finish."

Trapp said he believes Columbus were good enough to have come out of the game with all three points and this seemed to be the consensus around the Crew locker room.

"We were disappointed; we wanted to get three points," goalkeeper Steve Clark said. "I think that's our aim every game. It doesn't matter who we are playing against. I felt like we let one go. They were a little tired at the end. We have to finish our chances and we have to get a zero. I'll keep working on that and we will get better."

Head Coach Gregg Berhalter believes it a good sign that his players aren't content with a draw. Even playing a hot team with immense talent, the players were disappointed they couldn't get the job done in front of their home fans and Berhalter believes that's a good sign.

"It's what they expect of themselves," he said of how the players.

"They were disappointed that we didn't win the game, and I like that. I like the fact that they were disappointed. It shows that we have high expectations for ourselves."

In order to meet these expectations, the Crew need to do more than be disappointed. After three consecutive 1-1 results and four games without a win, Columbus must begin to figure out how to turn one point into three in order to be satisfied with their outcomes.

"I think we just need to finish our chances," Trapp said of the team moving forward. "We're creating plenty of them, it's just putting the ball in the back of the net and that's the hardest thing to do. Home or away, we're not too concerned. Our goal is to get three points."

After beginning the season scoring goals in bunches - seven goals in the first three games - the Black and Gold have scored one or fewer in each of their last four matches. Berhalter made a change to try and get more goals this week, inserting Jairo Arrieta into the starting 11, but one finish was all the team mustered.

The head coach doesn't believe this is due to lack of effort or talent, rather that scoring goals is what makes soccer difficult.

"At the end of the day, that's the hardest part: scoring goals," he said. "[The Red Bulls] had the same problems that we had and it's not easy... I think everyone looks to the fact that we score one goal and talks about that, but it's still not easy to get that final product."

With that said, Berhalter believes there are small things his team can change to improve their output and get better results.

"I think we can be a little bit more aggressive taking chances, looking to shoot when we're in half shooting positions, and increase the aggressiveness a little bit around goal," he said.

There were other positives Berhalter took from the game as well, believing his team continues to improve each week.

"I thought there were some good moves," he said. "I thought there were nice combinations and we're going to keep working. We're going to keep working and fine tune this, and we'll get there.

"I think if we can execute, we've got guys that are willing to take chances and willing to play in tight spaces. So, I think we're going to continue doing that. I tell the guys be brave, want the ball, ask for the ball, get it in tough spots and the guys are doing that. I'm happy with it."

Trapp agreed with his head coach, saying he thought they did many things well but there are still areas where this team can develop. He says this team has a good grasp on where they stand and are just going to keep working.

"We're not going to get down on ourselves or get too excited about the next game," he said. "We're just going to keep an even keel and keep plugging away."