Moment No. 16: Columbus Crew SC Rally with Three Goals in Five Minutes on the Road

October 11, 2014

It's hard to imagine a bigger and more meaningful regular season game in any team's history.

Columbus Crew SC, then simply the Columbus Crew, played a road game against the Philadelphia Union with playoff implications. A win and the Black & Gold were back in the MLS postseason for the first time since 2011.

The chances of clinching became in serious doubt at the beginning of the second half. The Union opened up a 2-0 lead with goals by Amobi Okugo and Andrew Wenger.

With only 15 minutes remaining, Columbus pressured, attempting to get back in the match. The hope was to try and get a draw and live to clinch a playoff spot another day.

A comeback seemed unlikely. The team's best offensive player, Federico Higuain, was suspended for the match and the club had never made such a comeback before.

Yet Crew SC scored three goals in five minutes to complete a near impossible comeback and clinch the spot in the postseason that had eluded the team for too long.

Here is the Massive Report account of the furious comeback:

The odds of overturning the deficit were long and head coach Gregg Berhalterimmediately looked to his bench by prepping Romain Gall and Emmanuel Pogatetz. The eleven on the field had different plans. Tony Tchani had struggled throughout the game picked up a poor Union turnover at midfield. He found Hector Jimenez pushing forward. Jimenez fired his cross past the Union backline and Finlay slipped in and finished his one time shot for his tenth goal of the season and restoring a small bit of hope to the Crew in the 78th minute.

With renewed energy, the Crew pushed forward again a minute later. Jimenez's quick throw found Finlay again. Ethan White and Finlay collided approaching the final third and the ball dribbled free. Referee Mark Geiger played advantage that Meram quickly took advantage of. He drove into the penalty area, cut around Okugo, and made the most of the space and clipped a shot around MacMath for the tying goal. In the span of one minute and 32 seconds, the Crew were tied.

The improbable became the impossible in the 82nd minute. Bernardo Anor pushed up the left side and assessed the assembling Union defense. Tchani saw a seam and made a run down the left channel into the penalty area and took a pass from Anor. He cut back a left foot cross to just outside the six-yard box and forward Jairo Arrieta beat Carlos Valdés to the spot and chipped the winner past MacMath.

Just how impossible was the comeback? Until last night, the Crew had never come back from a two goal deficit to win on the road. Until last night, they'd never scored three goals in such a short amount of time. And just how quickly did the Crew tally three goals, four minutes and 22 seconds. Finlay's goal crossed the line at 77:32 and Arrieta finished things off at 81:54.

Although it was very recent, this was a huge moment for the franchise. It showed the guts the Black & Gold had under head coach Gregg Berhalter and was a great response after a 2-1 road loss to the New England Revolution the week before.

What this meant to Crew SC and how it fueled the team over the final stretch to climb up to a third place finish in the Eastern Conference is why this comes in at number 16 on the best moments in club history.