Having already seen the Crew in person this year and not being impressed, and seeing Dallas had performed mediocre at best, I didn't hold out a lot of hope for this MLS Friday night tilt. I got about what I expected, except for the fact that the Crew looked a lot better than they did at Rio Tinto a few weeks back.
First off, liked the studio there for FSC's coverage. Looks a lot better than the Fox Soccer Report set. Wynalda and Sullivan are great. I also thought Kyle Martino really came into his own in the booth tonight, which was nice.
As for the match, things started fairly slow. Dallas had a real good opening 15 minutes, but they never really tested Hesmer, and it pretty much went down hill from there. The Crew were just getting an edge in possession when about the 32nd minute, Jackson picked up a yellow for Dallas. He threw a fit, and about a minute later he made another questionable challenge and picked up red card from Jair, and put Dallas down to 10 men. Still, they held their own and went into the break even at 0-0.
Second half started about the same as the first half ended, but you could tell the Crew were starting to work their man advantage. Ekpo earned a PK, and Mendoza converted on a rather shaky shot, one that Hartman got a hand to but couldn't keep it out of the back of the net.
After that, Dallas had to change tactics and really went after the equalizer. However, the Crew defense was up to the task and Dallas couldn't quite get the good final ball in on Hesmer's goal. Finally, in the first minute of stoppage time, Eddie Gaven smoked a home a nice shot and made it 2-0 Crew, which is how it finished.
The 2-0 score will look pretty nice for Columbus if you didn't watch the match. Despite the fact that they did outplay Dallas, they didn't do it by much. Martino was highly critical of Mendoza, and rightly so. His PK was poor and nearly stopped. After the PK, Dallas went all out on attack and really put the Crew under pressure. Only Gaven's late shot put it out of reach. They still have work to do.
What about Dallas though? They're sitting on 1 goal and 1 point from three matches now. They look leaderless except for Hartman in goal, and it would be hard to think that Hartman will be in the same form as last season. They need to score goals, and I'm not sure who is going to do it. I'm sorry, I hate Shea in the CB role, but maybe that's just me. They play Colorado next week, and if they can't right the ship quickly, they may find themselves down a lot of points really early.
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