In a game full of conflict featuring four yellow cards and an ejection, Columbus and Colorado couldn't find much common ground Sunday night. But after the Crew came into the Rapids' house and dealt them a 2-0 defeat, there was one element that both teams - oddly - agreed about: the Rapids were dominant on the field and the Crew took three points thanks to a Herculean effort by goalkeeper William Hesmer.
"Obviously, I thought [the Rapids] were the aggressor in the game," Crew head coach Sigi Schmid said. "We came in saying we were going to sit back a little bit and wait for situations to counter, which I thought early in the game happened. Our goal came off a good counter. We had some other chances off a counter early on, but we didn't do a good enough job when we won the ball of holding on to it. We gave the ball away too early, and so as a result we kept absorbing pressure and absorbing pressure. Once the red card happened and we were a man down, we were confined to absorb pressure for the rest of the game."
If the game became a matter of absorbing, call Hesmer the quicker-picker-upper. Colorado was already outshooting Columbus 7-1 in the first half, but after Steven Lenhart's ejection in the 42nd minute, Colorado seized the advantage, forcing Columbus back against their own goal as the Crew conservatively tried to protect a 1-0 lead while playing down a man. By the end of the match, Colorado had outshot their guests 23-5, with Hesmer recording seven saves.
"Will Hesmer was phenomenal tonight and came up with some big saves, but there were a lot of people throwing bodies in front of things," said Schmid. "I was happy with it, because that's what we'd talked about all week, was doing a better job defensively. We had three games where we scored eight goals and we couldn't get a win, because we gave up eight goals. If we want to be a championship team, we need to defend a little bit better."
Hesmer's work in the nets was even more challenging as his team was taking its first stab at playing a 3-5-2 formation. The cracks were visible early, but thanks to Lenhart's 21st-minute goal past charging Colorado 'keeper Bouna Coundoul, the Crew were able to play conservatively, ultimately shifting to a 4-4-1 formation when they went a man down.
"They were able to come at us a little bit," Hesmer said of the Crew's ability to adapt to their new formation in the first half. "We were late in the challenge in the midfield. When we went late they went around us and we were one step behind. But for the most part they weren't that dangerous. Conor Casey had two that fell to his feet. We were a little sloppy in marking him in the box and he had some chances. Luckily he didn't put them away."
Casey led all players with seven shots, four on goal, but he epitomized a Rapids squad that couldn't penetrate past Hesmer, prompting Rapids captain Pablo Mastroeni to describe Hesmer as "invincible" on Sunday.
Hesmer deflected the praise like so many shots on goal, punched out from in front of the nets. Echoing his coach, he gave credit to the overall defensive efforts of the men playing in front of him.
"The work these guys put in tonight was incredible," Hesmer said. "Down a man, playing at altitude, running on a big field, chasing the game the whole second half. To defend, defend, defend and make a couple saves, that gives your team the chance to find that one counter and put the game away.
"That took a lot of the wind out of their sails with that second goal for sure," Hesmer added. "They weren't pressing as hard. They started getting exhausted and a little frustrated. The saves helped and the second goal was huge."
The critical second counter came when Jason Garey took a pass from Brad Evans and held off Colorado defender Facundo Erpen, taking Coundoul on one-on-one and slipping a shot over him to lengthen the lead to two.
"Once we get [Lenhart] sent off we have to bunker in and try to catch one on a break like we did, which was great for us to put some distance between us," Garey said, going on to deflect his own share of the praise. "I can't say enough about the guys in the back. What I did was really small compared to those guys. Especially Will. I've seen a lot of soccer games, and that might have been the best performance by a goalkeeper I've ever seen, especially in person. Unbelievable game. I can't wait to go watch it and see all the saves he made."
Lenhart's ejection after tangling with Erpen forced the Crew to adapt their game plan, and their coach seemed to find irony in the fact that his team outfouled Colorado 4-1 Sunday, despite suffering the brunt of fouls within the league. Columbus ranks 12th of 14 teams in fouls committed and second in fouls suffered.
"Steve Lenhart was a little bit naïve," Schmid said of the ejection. "He's a rookie in the league. Erpen's a physical player. Erpen had an arm on him, and instead of throwing Erpen's arm off, he threw it off much too aggressively. Facundo's a smart player, so when he felt contact, he went down. It was a red card I couldn't argue with in terms of the referee. Colorado's a physical team as well. We get fouled a lot more than we generally foul. But today there were situations where it looked like WWE at times."
Whether it was the new formation or the newly aggressive approach on the field, the result went the Crew's way, despite their coach's concession that in every respect but scoring and goalkeeping, Colorado outplayed them Sunday night.
"We were fortunate," Schmid said. "Colorado threw everything that they could at us. Soccer's a funny game. It makes up for playing at home against New England and dominating the game and losing 1-0 on a late penalty. We dominated San Jose, and we lost two nothing. In the game today, we got dominated, and we came out with a win. That's just the way it goes."
Owen Perkins is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
