Crew is heads above in winning first MLS title
Afterward, in the champagne-soaked bedlam that was the Columbus Crew locker room, every player had to have his say.
The Crew had just beaten the New York Red Bulls, 3-1, at the Home Depot Center on Sunday to win its first Major League Soccer championship. The party was beginning.
“It feels surreal right now,” said U.S. national team defender Frankie Hejduk, an MLS original who was celebrating not only his first league title but one of the great goals of the year.
Hejduk’s looping header, off an improbable scooped pass by the league’s and the game’s most valuable player, Guillermo Barros Schelotto, was the highlight moment in Carson.
“He had eyes in the back of his head,” Hejduk said of Schelotto.
The goal gave Columbus a 3-1 lead, locked up the trophy, and was Schelotto’s third assist of the afternoon, the former Boca Juniors playmaker from Argentina earlier having provided the pass that led to the opening goal by Alejandro Moreno and the corner kick that allowed Chad Marshall to head in the Crew’s second goal.
“Guillermo is an absolute world-class player,” said Crew winger Eddie Gaven.
Emmanuel Ekpo and Ezra Hendrickson did not get into the game but were an integral part of a tightly knit and talented Columbus side that was clearly the best in the league in 2008.
“It’s been a medal harvest year for me,” said Ekpo, who picked up a silver medal in soccer at the Beijing Olympics as a member of Nigeria’s team and on Sunday added an MLS gold medal to his haul.
Which is better?
“I like them both very much,” he said.
Hendrickson, who won MLS Cups with the Galaxy in 2002 and with D.C. United in 2004, took this one in stride.
“This is my third one, so I’ve kind of experienced this before,” he said. “It’s nice to share this emotion, especially with the guys who haven’t won.”
Also winning his third MLS title was Moreno, whose previous championships came with the Galaxy in 2002 and with Houston in 2006.
After a first half an hour in which New York was dominant but squandered scoring opportunities with errant shooting, Moreno gave the Crew the lead at 30 minutes 34 seconds.
Schelotto stole the ball from the Red Bulls’ Dave van den Bergh on the right sideline and passed down the field to Moreno, who cut inside defender Diego Jimenez and fired a shot that flashed beneath goalkeeper Danny Cepero’s hand and went in off the far post.
“He’s one of those players who can find passes that not many players in this league can find,” Moreno said of Schelotto. “We seem to complement each other quite well. I hold the ball up for him and I let him find the passes. That’s why he’s on the field.”
New York tied it up when Dane Richards slipped a pretty neat pass of his own through for John Wolyniec to redirect into the net from close range to make it 1-1 six minutes into the second half.
It took Columbus only 1:24 to go back in front, however, when Marshall escaped his defender and banged Schelotto’s corner kick into the back of the net. Hejduk’s header in the 82nd minute was just the icing.
Afterward, Crew Coach Sigi Schmid, cast aside by the Galaxy in 2004, had to fight back the tears.
“I’m still probably a little bit numb,” he said. “You go through a number of emotions when you win a game like this. It’s a very emotional moment for me winning the game here in L.A. in front of family and friends and, to be quite honest, in a town I was fired in. So it meant an awful lot.”
Crew assistant coach Mike Lapper summed it up best.
“I’ve known Sigi for over 20 years,” he said. “I won a championship with him at UCLA as a player and to do this as a coach, side by side, and learn from the best in the business is fantastic. I’m just so happy for Sigi.”
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