Just in time for Austin to vote today to move closer to a stadium agreement for the Crew, we have another stadium proposal out of Columbus.
So let’s compare.
They’re roughly even on aesthetics. Each stadium looks cool and has a roof over the stands. See Austin and Columbus.
Each plan offers something for the community. The Austin City Council has won a lot of concessions, including one for 130 affordable-housing units. The Columbus proposal includes futsal courts for the community.
Each one appears to be truly soccer-specific, with no pointyball tenants.
Each one appears to be grass.
Capacity is somewhere between 20,000 and 25,000, which seems reasonable.
All good. Here are the differences.
DISTANCE FROM DOWNTOWN
One complaint about Columbus Crew Stadium is that it’s too far from downtown. It’s really not. (It’s also close to a university that’s pretty substantial, offering up a lot of people from the demographic MLS covets.)
Oh, 3.7 miles isn’t close enough? OK then. The new proposal is 1.4 miles from the same spot. Actually not a much shorter drive, but now we’re talking about potential walking distance.
And here’s Austin …
And that’s generous. The site I picked is on the north side of downtown. I was tempted to pick the statue of this guy …
The distance is, conservatively, 10 miles.
If this were an expansion bid and not something involving an existing owner, Don Garber surely would’ve shrugged and checked in on Sacramento’s ownership group.
That said, here’s the last difference …
REQUIRING AN ORIGINAL MLS CLUB TO MOVE FROM A STADIUM BUILT FOR THAT CLUB, THEREBY ALIENATING FANS ALL ACROSS THE LEAGUE AND UNDERMINING THE LEAGUE’S CREDIBILITY IN ALL FUTURE DISCUSSIONS WITH MUNICIPALITIES AND PROSPECTIVE OWNERS
Austin: Yes
Columbus: No
We do have to admit a couple of unpleasant things here. This effort to Save the Crew — the stadium proposal, the 10,000-season-tickets-and-counting pledge, the engagement of a business community that frankly hasn’t done enough to this point — wouldn’t exist if Anthony Precourt wasn’t looking to move the team.
So MLS has to find another way to press its clubs to do better. If you want to add that to your promotion/relegation talking points, fine, but bear in mind that a lot of English owners don’t build or renovate stadiums precisely because they don’t have the guaranteed income of top-division soccer. (See Reading.)
But that’s a long-term concern. In the short term, if MLS doesn’t immediately make the Columbus stadium vision its top priority, then it’s going to be dead to a lot of its longest-serving supporters.
… and not enough time to ask them of all the people who need to answer them.
I’ll try to pester people before Thanksgiving. But if anyone wants to go ahead and ask, go ahead.
MLS/COLUMBUS CREW
If Precourt takes his team or his ownership position or whatever you call it to Austin, then does Columbus immediately jump into the expansion fray as San Jose did when the Earthquakes moved? Columbus already has a stadium, so if they can raise the expansion fee, do they get a “new” Crew?
Is MLS planning to do anything to appease angry fans across the country who are saying they’re less likely to support their local teams because a city can have a solid fan base and a stadium and still move? What assurances will you give them that you’re not just going to let their owners pack up and move somewhere?
Did the Columbus powers-that-be really cut off future conversations, as PSV claimed? If not, why have we not heard a loud denunciation of that claim?
Why should any municipality pledge money, even just for infrastructure, to build a stadium for an MLS club when that’s clearly not enough to guarantee the club’s future?
NWSL OWNERS
Why don’t you have a commissioner, eight months after Jeff Plush stepped down?
REFEREES
When are you going to start calling more fouls, from the pro level down to Under-9, so that U.S. players will develop skills instead of just beating the crap out of each other?
MEDIA
When are we going to quit exalting players who beat the crap out of each other?
U.S. SOCCER
Are you working on a solution to the training compensation / solidarity payment issue that you think you would survive a court challenge from the MLS Players Union or whomever else, or are you waiting for the Court of Arbitration for Sport to weigh in?
Why did the women’s national team have to play on bad turf in New Orleans?
FIFA
What in the world does “continuously” mean here? Shouldn’t citizenship be part of the criteria? And what’s up with efforts to update this?
Photos courtesy Steve Sirk unless otherwise noted. He wrote the book on the Crew.
Dear MLS owners, especially the one in Columbus (I mean, Austin or San Francisco) …
You may be asked in the next year to decide whether to put an MLS club in Austin. That’s a great town, of course. From Austin City Limits to SXSW, Austin has long been right up alongside Nashville, New York and Los Angeles as one of the country’s music capitals. I’d even have to rank it ahead of my hometown, Athens.
So if you want to figure out how to expand to Austin, that’s great. Find ownership. Find land for a stadium. Easier said than done, sure, but it couldn’t hurt to ask.
The problem is this — the club that you may be asked to place in Austin already has a home.
See the man in the hard hat? That’s Lamar Hunt. He built that club. He paid for their stadium to be built. When one location was shot down, he stopped by a local McDonald’s and stared at a map, figuring out the next place to try until they found it. Read Steve Sirk’s account.
Yes, the club is the Columbus Crew. Note the first word: Columbus.
Maybe you didn’t know Lamar Hunt. He passed away 11 years ago. MLS has seen rapid expansion since then.
And so maybe you don’t understand why MLS is in Columbus in the first place. It’s a smallish city with a giant university known for American football, American football, and a marching band that dots the “i” before each American football game.
MLS is in Columbus because the club’s founders sold 12,000 season-ticket deposits before the league existed. It’s in Columbus because they built the first stadium whose primary tenant would be an MLS club.
And it’s not the only soccer team that has proudly made that stadium its home stadium …
Dos a cero. Dos a cero. Dos a cero. Dos a cero. USA over Mexico. Four World Cup qualifiers. No, it didn’t happen again this time around, but blame Jurgen Klinsmann and his disorganized team, not the fans.
And this stadium hasn’t just hosted World Cup qualifiers. It hosted an actual World Cup.
So how, exactly, has this stadium suddenly become obsolete for MLS games? This isn’t RFK Stadium in Washington, which has plenty of history but looks like it’s about to collapse at any moment.
Oh, it’s not downtown, like your wonderful Cascadian paradises? For a lot of Crew fans, that doesn’t matter — they’ll gladly pay $15 to park and tailgate. If you prefer English traditions, allow me to share one from my travels: If you go to a match at Reading’s Madejski Stadium — like Mapfre Stadium, not downtown, a couple of miles from a university — all you need to do is take the train to Reading Station and hop on the F1 bus. We stayed in London (near Arsenal, actually) and had enough time to grab a nice snack as we worked our way back through bus and trains back to our Airbnb place.
Which is cheaper — running a few buses from favorite downtown watering holes or relocating a team to a city that seems a little ambivalent about finding a stadium for it?
Not convinced you can have a competitive team in a town that might not attract the best Designated Players? You may have missed out on Guillermo Barros Schelotto, one of the most skillful players ever to grace an MLS field. He came to Columbus in 2007 and … didn’t hate it.
A lot of players love Columbus. See the mini-Nordecke above? The guy who started it is Frankie Hejduk. He’s the walking embodiment of a California surfer dude. But when he came back to MLS after a stint in Germany, he went to Columbus, and it’s fair to say he liked it.
If you really, really want a downtown stadium, fine. Keep working with the folks in Columbus. Maybe it’ll happen at some point.
In the meantime, may I remind you that the Columbus Crew have a stadium? The team, which just upset Atlanta in the MLS playoffs, seems happy. The fans are happy. If you can provide a few more amenities to make them happier, great.
No, you might not get 40,000 people to each game or 70,000 to the occasional big one. It’s not Seattle or Atlanta. Guess what. Neither is Austin.
And if you want to go to Austin down the road — or San Antonio or even Miami — what message do you think it sends to abandon the first stadium built by and for an MLS club? You think they’re going to bulldoze a few blocks downtown and chip in a few million to help you build it?
The most convincing argument you can make on behalf of Major League Soccer is that it’s stable. That’s an accomplishment in a country where the history and sociology are not on your side. You’ve made it through 21 years with only three teams going under, and few people shed tears at the demise of Chivas USA. Leaving San Jose was controversial, but that team was in dire need of a stadium and local investment, and now you have it.
If we were talking about a club that averaged less than 10,000 fans by any reasonable attendance count, had no stadium that looked like it could survive until 2020 and was generally unloved by anyone, fine. Move that club to Austin. But you’re a victim of your own success here. You don’t have any clubs meeting that description. Not even Colorado, where fans sometimes wonder if the owner even remembers that he owns the team. (Hey, I don’t know the name of every investment I own. Some sort of mutual fund?)
If you move the Crew, you undermine Major League Soccer’s major achievement — building a fan base for the long term.
And that’s what you signed up for. This isn’t the old NASL, where a bunch of rock stars thought it’d be cool to have a team and go party with Pele at Studio 54. This is a league that’s built to last. It’s why the dude who wrote the book about you called that book Long-Range Goals. (Honestly, he was never wild about the subtitle.)
You want to toss all that away and leave one of the most important cities in U.S. soccer history? Fine. You’re going to create a lot of EPL fans. Maybe even some fans of NASL or NISA or whatever survives the legal system and U.S. Soccer’s sanctioning process.
I haven’t been to many MLS games in recent years. Nothing personal. It’s youth soccer and women’s soccer, in that order. D.C. United only has a couple of home games each year I can attend.
But maybe I’ll spring for a “flex pass” or something. I empathize with the nice guy who’s been calling me from the front office. Cold-calling is one of the worst parts of being a journalist, and we’re actually offering people a chance to speak. Gotta be tough when you’re asking people to hand over money.
It’s about time D.C. United got its own stadium. I still refuse to set foot in Nationals Park because Major League Baseball extorted more than $600 million out of Washington’s government. I can go to Audi Field with little hesitation.
But while the Crew’s owner flirts with Austin, I find myself having a bit of trouble finding my wallet.
When I wrote Long-Range Goals, I said the following: “If this is the only MLS book on a bookstore shelf in 2011, that’s disappointing.”
Not sure about your local bookstore, but mine doesn’t even stock Long-Range Goals. The “soccer” section is usually a collection of dubious books on European stars, a few how-to-coach books ranging from mildly helpful to dangerously flimsy, and possibly something on Mia Hamm. Of course, I don’t venture into bookstores that often because (A) I’ve embraced my Kindle and (B) the front displays are always best-selling political punditry written with neither any discernible effort or concern for anyone outside a narrow agenda. But I digress …
Thankfully, we do have some more entries in the MLS history genre. The new effort is Sounders FC: AUTHENTIC MASTERPIECE: The Inside Story Of The Best Franchise Launch In American Sports History by Seattle broadcaster Mike Gastineau. When I saw the press releases for that one, I figured I should finally get around to checking out an older entry in the genre, Steve Sirk’s A Massive Season, the chronicle of the Columbus Crew’s 2008 championship season.
And I owe Sirk several apologies. He’s one of the good guys in soccer media, and I should’ve gotten to this book much sooner. Also, I somehow created exactly the same book cover for Enduring Spirit that he used for A Massive Season. Same template, same modifications to the template. Different photo, of course, and different primary color. Everything else was the same.
I was intimidated away from reading A Massive Season by its massive size. It’s more than 450 pages. If you took two copies on a plane, you’d probably be charged for an overweight bag.
But it’s an easy, fun read — or skim, if you prefer to read a few sections of the season. It’s a collection of Sirk’s witty and informative notebooks on the team, supplemented and annotated after the season. One of the entries written after the fact is compelling — it’s the story of the Crew’s plane encountering powerful turbulence and aborting a landing, leaving even the hardened travelers on the plane in a quivering mix of nerves and nausea.
(Eerie coincidence: The one time I’ve ever been on a plane that aborted a landing, it was a small plane similar to the one the Crew was on, and I was traveling back from Columbus after covering the USA-Mexico game in 2009. Winds were extreme all over the East Coast, and a Colgan Air plane crashed that night near Buffalo (though the investigation attributed the causes to pilot error and ice). I was on that plane with the ESPN commentary crew of JP Dellacamera and John Harkes. JP was astoundingly calm. John and I were both a bit more rattled. John did mention that he had seen worse when the USA’s plane landed in Central America despite a warning to divert elsewhere. We bumped into each other again while waiting for parking lot shuttles. He mentioned what a rough ride it had been. I quipped: “Really? I didn’t notice.” He was stunned for a moment before I said I was kidding — I don’t think I’ve ever been so terrified.)
Sirk gets terrific details from those who were on the plane. Before the situation got too serious, players joked with devout Christian Eddie Gaven to put in a good word for everyone else when they all ventured to the pearly gates in a few minutes. The Trillium Cup (Columbus-Toronto rivalry) wasn’t on the plane — players joked later that the lack of such a heavy trophy may have saved their lives.
Throughout Sirk’s notebooks, he benefits from being inside the locker room (an option we women’s soccer writers don’t have) to catch the teasing and bonding within the squad. Frankie Hejduk is every bit the colorful character you’d expect him to be. Danny O’Rourke is like a hockey enforcer — snarling pit bull on the field, good-hearted fun-loving guy off it.
The whole of the book will appeal more to a hard-core Crew fan than it will to a casual MLS fan. Nothing wrong with that. Every championship season deserves its retrospectives and celebratory words. Maybe we could collect edited versions to celebrate the league’s first 20 champions … hmmm … new book idea …
Gastineau has no MLS champion to celebrate just yet. And the hyperbolic title does the book no favors. Given the reputation of Seattle fans (some, of course, not all) to pull attitudes in online discussions with people who’ve been supporting MLS through some dark years, it’s easy to imagine people outside the Northwest scoffing at the title and studiously avoiding any mention of it.
And that’s a shame, because the book is better than its title. Sure, it’s very friendly to the Sounders. But it rarely makes its point at the expense of other teams. This isn’t the ranting of some Internet braggart who doesn’t realize MLS teams have had supporters groups and tifo all along.
A better title might have been Sounders FC: The Perfect Storm — except that the “Seattle Storm” name is already in use elsewhere. The Sounders didn’t create the atmosphere they have through some innate superiority of Seattle fans. It came about through having the right people in the right place at the right time.
– A USL owner and soccer fanatic who had taught himself how to run a team effectively
and efficiently. (Adrian Hanauer)
– A movie mogul who really wanted to own a soccer team. (Joe Roth)
– An entertainer whose idea of a good time was to drop him to a soccer bar and pick up
the tab. (Drew Carey)
– An NFL team (Seahawks) with a civic-minded owner (Paul Allen) and some soccer fans
(Gary Wright) lurking in the administration.
– A convoluted history of stadium deals that left Seattle with a stadium that had been
built with the promise (and field dimensions) of soccer as well as football.
The book’s chapters aren’t linear. They tell stories of different aspects of the team’s construction. The reader also meets Sigi Schmid and Kasey Keller.
And we learn a few fun behind-the-scenes stories. Why didn’t the Sounders release doves at their first game as they had originally planned? Because they wisely did a dress rehearsal the week before. That’s when they discovered that the hawks around the stadium were rather aggressive. And so the first home game in Sounders MLS history was not spoiled by dead birds.
These are the fun stories that should be part of MLS lore. Without these books, we’d lose all that. So even if you’re not a fan of Seattle or Columbus, raise a glass to Sirk and Gastineau for the work they’ve done.
From the 10th minute to the 75th, the Colorado Rapids dominated the Columbus Crew, racking up double digits in shots. Funny thing, though — they only put a couple of those shots on frame, never seriously testing backup Columbus keeper Andy Gruenebaum aside from the well-taken goal, which left Gruenebaum with no chance.
Random thoughts:
– Crew sub Kevin Burns nearly earned himself quite a bit of play on SportsCenter tomorrow with a looping header from outside the box that clanged off the right post.
– Burns’ shot was one of three great chances for the Crew, all in the second half. Andy Iro pounded a shot off a corner kick right at Matt Pickens, and Guillermo Barros Schelotto put one well over the net.
– Colorado had three forwards on the bench, a testament to their offensive depth, but Mac Kandji was clearly the wrong call. He didn’t have the defensive poise he needed.
– The Crew defense had all sorts of problems. Frankie Hejduk misplayed several balls. Iro struggled with Omar Cummings, who undid the defense with a diagonal run into space where rookie Shaun Francis probably should’ve been.
– Colorado’s dominance came from the midfield, where Mastroeni and Jeff Larentowicz ran over Brian Carroll and a rotation of Eddie Gaven and Emmanuel Ekpo in the center. Carroll committed what you might call a frustration foul, sliding very hard into Cummings.
Second-leg projection: It’s 50-50. After the final 20 minutes, Columbus has the momentum. The game is in Columbus. Colorado counters with a one-goal advantage and the best defense of all — a strong offense.
Summary: Undermanned United started brightly, gave up a goal when young keeper Bill Hamid muffed a clearance and promptly ran out of ideas. Final shots on goal: Columbus 2, United 0.
Conditions: For a change, quite pleasant. And still, only 12,075 showed up.
D.C. United: Decimated by injuries and national team call-ups, United dressed only 16 players. Dejan Jakovic (Canada) and Marc Burch (injury) both played Wednesday but were unavailable here, Jordan Graye started ahead of Devon McTavish, and interim coach Ben Olsen moved Clyde Simms from midfield to the back line. Former Crew man Jed Zayner filled one of the defensive spots despite being listed as “out” on the injury report. That left Julius James as the sole returnee at the back from Wednesday night’s game. The midfield was more stable, with Kurt Morsink taking Simms’ spot. The EPL should look at this game before deciding to stick with this new “25-man” rule.
4 Bill Hamid (GK): Terrific save on Gaven, but the one blunder was costly.
5 Jordan Graye (RB): Solid job on Gaven, who was much more threatening Wednesday night. Lapse in 85th gave Crew good opportunity.
6 Clyde Simms (CB): Held his ground very well in unfamiliar role.
5 Julius James (CB): A couple of dodgy moments in possession but solid defensively.
6 Jed Zayner (LB): Not bad at all.
5 Andy Najar (RM): A few more of the dazzling moments United fans have come to expect, but Francis stopped him cold a few times as well.
5 Kurt Morsink (CM): Seems to have cut down on the needless fouls. Subbed out in 87th with trainers taking a look.
6 Stephen King (CM): Solid work at both ends.
6 Santino Quaranta (LM): Several good runs but often frustrated in the end.
4 Danny Allsopp (F): Couldn’t quite get in the flow; subbed out for Moreno in 61st.
5 Pablo Hernandez (F): A menace once again but unable to test Hesmer.
Subs
6 Jaime Moreno (F): Worked hard, ran more than we’ve seen in recent months.
NR Devon McTavish (CB): Replaced Morsink, though he switched positions with Simms.
Columbus: William Hesmer returned to the net. Frankie Hejduk was ruled out due to injury, Adam Moffat didn’t make the 18, and toughman Danny O’Rourke was shuffled to the back line. Those moves opened space in the midfield for Dilly Duka and Kevin Burns, both effective as subs Wednesday night.
6 William Hesmer (GK): Not really pressed into action. Alert on the occasional through ball.
5 Danny O’Rourke (RB): Struggled at times to handle Quaranta. Didn’t instigate any incidents.
6 Andy Iro (CB): Effective at disrupting final ball in United possessions.
6 Chad Marshall (CB): See Andy Iro.
5 Gino Padula (LB): Injured early; subbed out in 30th.
5 Dilly Duka (RM): Good moments here and there. Subbed out for Garey in 77th.
5 Brian Carroll (CM): Not much productivity in the center, but nothing conceded.
5 Kevin Burns (CM): See Brian Carroll.
6 Eddie Gaven (LM): Not as effective as he was Wednesday, though he forced a good save from Hamid (the only save of the game at either end) on a surging run early in the second half.
7 Guillermo Barros Schelotto (F): Picked his spots very well, creating opportunities with deft touches and pouncing on Hamid error for the opening goal.
6 Steven Lenhart (F): Lost his man on a corner kick for best chance of the night; otherwise not involved that much until blazing shot over bar in 79th.
Subs
7 Shaun Francis (LB): Not the MLS Insider blogger. More effective than Padula in dealing with Najar, often getting the better of the United phenom 1-on-1.
NR Jason Garey (RM): Subbed for Duka in 77th.
NR Andres Mendoza: Time-wasting sub in stoppage time. Getting called offside when you’re supposed to be killing the clock probably won’t please Robert Warzycha.
D.C. United 1, Columbus 2
U.S. Open Cup semifinal
Sept. 1, 2010
The Crew played their usual starters aside from Andy Gruenebaum in goal in place of William Hesmer. Gruenebaum had two early blunders — an adventure outside his area that left a gaping goal, then a poor clearance in his box that led to a United PK. Pablo Hernandez did the honors for a 1-0 lead.
The controversy came in the 59th minute. From several viewings of the replay in an angry United locker room, here’s what happened:
– Crew toughman Danny O’Rourke ran over Hernandez.
– Hernandez’s leg comes up, possibly making contact with O’Rourke. Whether that was intentional or incidental is a judgment call. I’d lean incidental.
– O’Rourke scuttles back over and taunts Hernandez, who’s still down. He pushes a hand down toward the United forward.
– Hernandez raises an arm as if to shoo O’Rourke away.
Referee Chris Penso, unknown to most of us in the pressbox, consulted with the sideline officials (AR and 4th official both in position to see) before producing yellow for O’Rourke, red for Hernandez.
United continued to create chances, but the Crew eventually threw the kitchen sink forward. Defender Andy Iro equalized in traffic in the 89th (they’re crediting it for now as an own goal to Marc Burch, but that’s cruel). United nearly took the lead right back with a great feed to Andy Najar in the center, but the phenom put his shot just wide.
Seven minutes into extra time, Carey Talley was beaten in the box and brought down Steven Lenhart at the corner of the 6-yard box. If Penso had held on to his whistle for two seconds, the Crew would’ve been ahead 2-1 right away, drilling the ball into the net. As it happened, Guillermo Barros Schelotto converted the PK, anyway.
Columbus moves on, though the red card and some extraneous Crew gamesmanship may leave a mildly bitter taste. United fans can only hope their season of woe is salvaged by some miraculous news on the stadium front.
Attendance: 3,411
COLUMBUS
Matchup of straight 4-4-2s, no playmakers. After United dropped to 10 men, the Crew countered with more offense, inserting Jason Garey up front and dropping Guillermo Barros Schelotto into midfield with Dilly Duka alongside him in a sort of 3-3-2-2 or 3-4-1-2. Edgar Renteria (Venezuela national team) wasn’t available.
5 Andy Gruenebaum, GK – Big blunder early, coming out to shepherd ball to end line and not getting it. Bailed out when defense blocked cross toward wide-open net. Second blunder led to PK, as Iro fouled Hernandez after poor clearance and gaping goal. Big saves on Najar.
5 Frankie Hejduk, RB – Maybe not as active as we expect from the hyperactive one, but solid.
7 Chad Marshall, CB – Header across face of goal from Schelotto free kick. Dominant in air.
6 Andy Iro, CB – Gave away PK with foul on Hernandez, but he was in a difficult spot. Played as de facto forward in desperation time and held off defenders to score goal.
6 Gino Padula, LB – Effective. Subbed out in second half.
5 Adam Moffat, RM – Quiet. Subbed out in 77th.
4 Danny O’Rourke, CM – Could’ve been sent off in 59th, either along with or instead of Hernandez. Subbed out soon afterward.
5 Brian Carroll, CM – Crew didn’t do much centrally.
8 Eddie Gaven, LM – Endless supply of crosses as he had his way on the flank.
6 Guillermo Barros Schelotto, F – Forced to play defense on counter after free kick, tripped Quaranta. Converted PK. Set pieces not his usual standard.
5 Steven Lenhart, F – Squandered a couple of chances. Too many clumsy collisions with Hamid. Won PK.
Subs:
6 Dilly Duka, RM – Lively and creative sub.
5 Jason Garey, F – Some impact off bench.
5 Kevin Burns, M – Subbed for Moffat and appeared a couple of times in attack.
D.C. UNITED
Started in 4-4-2 with empty bucket, relying on wings for creativity. After losing Pablo Hernandez, inserted Jordan Graye at back, removing Danny Allsopp and leaving Andy Najar as a front-runner. Branko Boskovic (Montenegro national team) wasn’t available.
6 Bill Hamid, GK – Huge stop 1-on-1 with Gaven was the best of several saves. Not at fault on goals.
5 Devon McTavish, RB – Struggled with Gaven in first half; better in second.
6 Dejan Jakovic, CB – Solid at back. Moved to forward after United fell behind in extra time and missed wide-open net.
5 Julius James, CB – Solid at back.
4 Marc Burch, LB – Unlucky to deflect Iro shot into his net. Long balls a bit off.
8 Andy Najar, RM – Powerful shots. Very effective on counterattacks after United was reduced to 10, but touch started to desert him late, especially on golden chance in 89th. Set up terrific chance for Jakovic in extra time.
6 Stephen King, CM – Helped United limit Crew in center.
6 Clyde Simms, CM – See King.
7 Santino Quaranta, LM – Helped Najar on the counter and was productive throughout.
6 Pablo Hernandez, F – Actively buzzed around Crew box to cause problems, winning and converting PK. Red card obviously costly.
5 Danny Allsopp, F – Dangerous in spots.
Subs:
5 Jordan Graye, D – Speed helped at back.
3 Carey Talley, D – At fault on the goal in extra time.
4 Jaime Moreno, F – Tried a little too hard to draw a PK in the second extra session.
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