trying to fend off the crashing Moreno -- and into the net.
• Here's Soehn's team (3-3-1-3): Jose Carvallo - Bryan Namoff, Gonzalo Peralta, Domenic Mediate - Devon McTavish, Clyde Simms, Marc Burch (Santino Quaranta 46) - Rod Dyachenko - Fred, Luciano Emilio (Franco Niell 62), Jaime Moreno (Dan Stratford 80). Substitutes Not Used: Marcelo Gallardo, Quavas Kirk, Gonzalo Martinez, Zach Wells
• Here's Schmid's team (4-1-3-1-1): Will Hesmer - Frankie Hejduk, Chad Marshall, Danny O'Rourke, Gino Padula - Brian Carroll - Robbie Rogers (Ezra Hendrickson 90), Adam Moffat (Stefani Miglioranzi 85), Eddie Gaven (Brad Evans 63) - Guillermo Barros Schelotto, Alejandro Moreno. Substitutes Not Used: Andy Gruenebaum, Nicolas Hernandez, Andy Iro, Steven Lenhart
COLUMBUS CREW
The Supporters' Shield winners saw their lengthy unbeaten streak come to an end, the Columbus Crew falling 3-1 to the New York Red Bulls on Saturday evening at Giants Stadium. The Crew have 54 points from 29 matches, four better than Western Conference leaders Houston Dynamo.
LAST MATCH
• The Red Bulls came in after three losses and a draw in their last four games put them on the edge of playoff consideration. The Crew had already clinched the Supporters' Shield for the best overall record, unbeaten in nine consecutive league games.
• The home side broke through just three minutes after the second-half restart. Mac Kandji stripped a Crew defender and Juan Pablo Angel charged toward goal, poking the ball just under an advancing Andy Gruenebaum out of the Crew goal.
• The Crew pulled level, though, in the 62nd minute. Guillermo Barros Schelotto served up a free kick from out on the left and Steven Lenhart headed it home. It was the 19th assist of the season for Schelotto, matching the second-highest single-season total in league history.
• But Angel stepped up once again to pull the Red Bulls in front. A cross was bounced into the air by Seth Stammler and the Colombian international brought it down on his chest before ripping home a dipping volley in the 76th minute, his 12th goal on the year.
• Then, seven minutes from the end, came history. From a free kick just a few yards in front of his own penalty area, goalkeeper Danny Cepero -- making his MLS debut -- launched a long ball that bounced once at the top of the Columbus penalty area and caught out Gruenebaum, sailing over his head into the goal. It was the first goal scored by a goalkeeper in the 13 years of MLS history.
• Crew head coach Sigi Schmid made four changes to the team that played to a 2-2 draw with the Chicago Fire the week before. Andy Gruenebaum came in between the posts, Ezra Hendrickson into central defense, Emmanuel Ekpo into the midfield and Steven Lenhart as striker.
• Here's Schmid's team (4-1-3-1-1): Andy Gruenebaum - Danny O'Rourke, Ezra Hendrickson, Andy Iro, Gino Padula - Brian Carroll (Duncan Oughton 88) - Pat Noonan (Eddie Gaven 85), Brad Evans, Emmanuel Ekpo - Guillermo Barros Schelotto - Steven Lenhart (Jason Garey 73). Substitutes Not Used: William Hesmer, Stefani Miglioranzi, Andrew Peterson, Jed Zayner
TEAM NEWS
• Despite seeing the Crew's nine-game unbeaten streak, dating back to Aug. 2 and matching the season-long in MLS this year, come to an end, Schmid felt he made the right choices with his lineup.
• "It was an important thing for us. We had some guys on international duty in the middle of the week. Robbie Rogers took a pretty good hit in the Chicago game (last week) so we didn't want to expose him tonight, we wanted to make sure he got healthy," he said. "We just didn't feel it made sense to bring the guys here, on turf, after they had just played 90 minutes on Wednesday. So from that standpoint, it gave us a chance to give some minutes to (Emmanuel) Ekpo and (Pat) Noonan and make sure those guys are ready for the playoffs."
• But Schmid indicated it's likely to be the first-choice group back on the field for the regular season finale.
• "The last game for us is at home and we want to put our team back together," Schmid said. "We've got to have a good week of training. We locked up [the top playoff seed] last week so we eased off a little bit this week, for sure, because it's the smart thing to do. But now we want to push for these next five weeks [until MLS Cup] and it's important that we come out every day and work hard in training."
• The Crew know they will be facing Eastern Conference opposition in the semifinals, either Kansas City, New York or D.C. United. The Crew are 2-0-1 vs. Kansas City, but lost two of three meetings with New York.
• "We have a lot of players, like [Alejandro] Moreno, who've been in the playoffs before," Schmid said. "Guillermo Schelotto has played in a lot of big games -- I don't have to worry about him. Brian Carroll is a guy who has played in a lot of playoff games as well. Ezra has too, so we have a lot of guys who have been there. The young guys, they know what they have to do and they know how to play. It's just a matter of playing well so I don't worry about it too much."
• A victory would give the Crew 57 points, the most by a Supporters' Shield winner since 2005, when the Los Angeles Galaxy collected 64 points. The New England Revolution, Eastern Conference winners, took home 59 points that season.
• "Anywhere else in the world we would be champions right now, but it's only here in America that we have a cup competition at the end of the regular season. So, you know, from that standpoint I think we have proven in over 30 games that we have been the best team, and that's something that the team and I are very proud of," Schmid said. "But we want to win MLS Cup as well, so we need to get back to the grindstone."
D.C. UNITED
D.C. United kept their playoff hopes alive, putting an end to a long winless streak with two goals in the final half-hour from Francis Doe for a 2-1 win against the New England Revolution on MLS Primetime Thursday at RFK Stadium. United have 37 points from 29 matches, two points behind Kansas City and New York for the wild card spots with one match left to play.
LAST MATCH
• D.C. United had stopped the rot of a three-game losing streak with a tie in Houston the week before, but were still seven league games without a win. The Revs had secured a playoff spot, but were still looking to nail down home-field advantage for their semifinal meeting with Chicago, with two draws and two losses in their last four.
• The visitors jumped into the lead in the 58th minute on a lightning-quick counterattack. Luciano Emilio was dispossessed at the top of the New England box, and Kheli Dube sprung Mauricio Castro down the right flank with acres of space before him. As Louis Crayton came off his line to challenge, Castro squared the ball for Taylor Twellman to side-foot home into an empty net for the 99th league goal of his MLS career.
• Five minutes later, prompted by a great through ball from Jaime Moreno, Francis Doe cut inside a sliding defender and tucked a tidy finish just inside the near post. The assist pushed Moreno's season total to 10, now with 99 on his MLS ledger, also giving him 10 goals and 10 assists for the fourth time in his career.
• Then 10 minutes from full time, Doe popped up again. Chasing a flick-on from Santino Quaranta from a long Crayton punt, Doe fended off Revolution defender Michael Parkhurst and latched onto the ball just inside the area, firing a shot high into the right-hand corner to keep United's dreams alive.
• United head coach Tom Soehn made two changes to the team that played to a scoreless draw with the Houston Dynamo the Sunday before. Francis Doe and Luciano Emilio came in as a new-look strike tandem, in place of Joe Vide and the suspended Bryan Namoff.
• Here's Soehn's team (4-3-1-2): Louis Crayton - Devon McTavish, Greg Janicki (Gonzalo Martinez 36), Gonzalo Peralta (Jaime Moreno 61), Marc Burch - Thabiso Khumalo (Fred 64), Clyde Simms, Ivan Guerrero - Santino Quaranta - Francis Doe, Luciano Emilio. Substitutes Not Used: Rod Dyachenko, Craig Thompson, Joe Vide, Zach Wells
TEAM NEWS
• United's goals ended a 375-minute shutout streak in league play, their first in nearly a month, and the victory snapped an 11-game winless streak in all competitions, since a 3-0 win against Colorado on Aug. 23.
• "There were a lot of good lessons learned by our older guys from the young guys this year, going out and competing in environments that are really tough," said Soehn. "And it's carried over. Our mentality's a lot better, it's a lot healthier -- the confidence to pull through and get a result."
• Doe's goals were his first in MLS play since scoring in back-to-back games, Sept. 22 and 29 of last year, the final two games of his eight-match stint with the New York Red Bulls. He was making just his third start of the year, his first since Sept. 6.
• "We've learned a lot about different guys, understanding what some of the young guys have brought to the table, giving them experience," said Tom Soehn. "I think it's helped us through some really difficult times, and yet it's matured them in different ways. And now a guy like Francis steps up and is the hero on the day."
• There were also a pair of inspirational appearances from veterans. Jaime Moreno fought through a knee injury to play the final half-hour, coming on with United down 1-0 and within two minutes contributing to the equalizer.
• "You know, even when they scored it felt like we weren't going to lose that game, for some reason," said Santino Quaranta. "You didn't see guys' heads go down -- against Chivas [USA], it felt like once they scored, our heads went down and all the wind got sucked out of us. Tonight it just seemed like Jaime brought something to the game and everybody just stepped up a little bit. We knew what we had to do, and that's a season-changing performance."
• Luciano Emilio also returned to the lineup after missing two games in a row and played the entire 90 minutes.
• "It's encouraging because he's had a tough stretch too. He's very frustrated [because of] some of his physical limitations this year. He's had a lot of nagging injuries and situations you can't control," Soehn said. "It's frustrated him but I know he's hungry; he's working hard and today was a real positive step for him."
• On Tuesday, United saw their CONCACAF Champions League advancement hopes come to an end in a bizarre 2-0 loss to CDSC Cruz Azul of Mexico.
• The hosts struck on 36 minutes through Nicolas Vigneri and again two minutes from full time through Pablo Zeballos to cruise to the victory, helped in no small part as United saw two goalkeepers sent off. James Thorpe was sent off for a second bookable offense - for time-wasting, in the 32nd minute, then Louis Crayton was sent off after the second goal was scored when defender Gonzalo Martinez was lying injured in the penalty area. Martinez also could not continue, leaving United with eight men.
