The Revolution traveled to Columbus for the first leg of their playoff round against the Columbus Crew. With the Revs healthy and rested, expectations are higher this playoffs, especially with Jones in the lineup. In the first half the game was back and forth. Both sides had their scoring chances, both goalies forced to make saves, and both sides were aggressive with the tackling, although the Crew were more aggressive. Despite the aggressive play on both sides, the only card shown in the first half was shown to Revs captain Jose Goncalves. Despite this the Revs did break the deadlock with a Charlie Davis goal off a free kick. Kelyn Rowe with the free kick pass into the 6 yard area, where the Crew were playing a high line, trying to get the Revs off sides. Crew’s defender Tyson Wahl, who was marking Davies, pulled up thinking offsides would be called, but the flag stayed down, allowing Davies to head it in. The Crew did almost score first however, hitting the crossbar minutes before the Revs goal, in a frantic moment of a defensive let down by the Revs, when Bobby Shuttleworth came out to cut down the angle.
The 2nd half was much like the 1st half, more fouls, more scoring chances, and a lot more goals. In the 49th minute Crew’s keeper Steve Clark made a great save off of Teal Bundbury, and with the rebound falling to him, his shot was blocked. But in the 52 minute, the Crew’s Tyson Wahl, who just didn’t have a good game, committed a terrible foul (no card). Chris Tierney buried the free kick and made it 2-0. Crew got one back in the 63 minute, Justin Meram with the goal. In the 70th minute mvp candidate Lee Nguyen scored the 3rd goal for the Revs, after a long run right at the heart of the Crew’s defense and shot it low into the corner. 8 minutes later Charlie Davies scored a spectacular goal, again the Crew’s defense giving space, and shooting from long range, off the post and in to make it 4-1. But 2 minutes into stoppage time, a handball call on captain Jose Goncalves resulted in Higuain converting the pk and the final score of 4-2 to the Revs.
This game had it all it seems. Plenty of goals, and some of them were real gems. Plenty of attacking. Many fouls, it seemed that the Crew’s game plan was to be aggressive with the tackling and fouls, try to get the Revs to react and maybe get a player sent off. A total of 32 fouls were committed, 17 from the Crew, 15 Revs, but only 3 yellow cards were issued in this game. At the end the got 4 away goals, and will come home next sunday afternoon with a 4-2 lead in the series. As long as the Revs can avoid defeat, even if it is only a one goal defeat they will move on. For the Revs to be eliminated they have to lose by 3 goals at home next week.
