Rookie Steven Lenhart was asked to provide instant offense off the bench last season and he responded with three late tying goals, including one in the first playoff match at Kansas City that helped spark the Columbus Crew's run to their first MLS title.
It's a new season and Lenhart is feeling the same frustration as his teammates as the Crew failed for the fifth time to win.
After Colorado's Conor Casey tied the match at 1-1 in the 82nd minute, Lenhart, who entered in the 87th, electrified the Crew Stadium crowd with two scoring chances but came up empty and the teams walked off with a 1-1 draw.
Lenhart first had a wicked rising, left-footed volley from 20 yards barely go over the goal in the third minute of stoppage time. Then in the final seconds, he came within inches again of the winner. Lenhart took a long ball from rookie defender Eric Brunner and headed the ball over charging Colorado goalkeeper Preston Burpo but the ball narrowly missed the crossbar.
Such is the way it has gone for the Crew (0-2-3).
"I thought I was going to get my head ripped off," Lenhart said of meeting up with the 6-3 Burpo. "I just jumped. I thought I was going to get crushed. I tried to get above the goalie's hands. He's a pretty big dude. I had two eyes on the ball. I didn't really care what happened to me head. We're getting unlucky. It's how we deal with it now. It's about tomorrow, the next day."
The Crew have come to expect the dramatic out of Lenhart.
"He's a 10-minute wonder, a super-sub," defender Jed Zayner said.
Crew coach Robert Warzycha likes Lenhart's go-to-goal attitude.
"We're hoping the players that come in give us some energy and some spark. Definitely Steven did that today," he said.
As unfortunate as Lenhart was, the Rapids found a pot of gold at the feet of Casey. He was battling defender Danny O'Rourke for a pass from Pablo Mastroeni at the top of the box when the ball bounced over the foot of O'Rourke and Casey was able to dribble and shoot for the goal.
"I don't know how I missed it. I tried to kick it out. It was not good enough," O'Rourke said.
Somehow, some way the Crew must find a way to win. Getting healthy would help.
Columbus limped into its final match before a bye week with six players injured and a red-card suspension of center back Andy Iro.
Also absent were defenders Frankie Hejduk (hamstring) and Chad Marshall (concussion), midfielders Robbie Rogers (hamstring strain) and Cory Elenio (hamstring strain) and forwards Jason Garey (sprained ankle) and Pat Noonan (herniated disc). The Crew had only 17 healthy players.
Brunner, from the Columbus suburb of Dublin and Ohio State, made his MLS debut in place of Marshall in the middle defense while Zayner made his fifth career start for Hejduk at right back.
Central midfielder Adam Moffat made his first appearance for the Crew since suffering an anterior cruciate ligament tear nearly 11 months ago.
"I wanted to get at least an hour," Moffat said. "Bobby (Warzycha) said see how my body went. If I felt I could have gone longer, I would have but I felt a cramp in the back of my leg on my last run. There was no point continuing from here."
Another bright spot was the play of Brunner.
"He's a freakin' animal," Zayner said. "He was really happy to get his first start. For him to go up against Conor Casey and win 98 percent of the head balls that went to Conor Casey, that's a pretty strong guy, he did really well tonight."
Brunner said he wasn't nervous despite playing in front of the home folks and for the team he used to watch growing up.
"I was confident at the beginning of the game. I thought my touch was good except for that little blunder I had in the second half," he said. "Other than that my game plan was to give Casey a tough time and I thought I did that.
"I told myself I had been in big games before and to go out and get my first touch, play my simple pass and get my confidence built up and start to play the ball sooner. I wanted to do a very good job defensively and worry about the rest later."
The Crew have a bye week before hosting Chicago on April 25.
"We can't buy one right now," Zayner said. "We battled all game. We fought as a team. We fought as a family. I thought we pulled that one out.
"Some things didn't bounce our way. We're going to keep at it. Other teams better watch out because we're going to be (ticked) off."
Craig Merz is a contributor to MLSnet.com.
