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Crew rally to tie Revolution

Jun 17, 2007 - 2:07 AM FOXBORO, Massachusetts (Ticker) -- The Columbus Crew never were so happy to see a winless streak continue.

Alejandro Moreno scored in the 85th minute to help the Crew rally for a 3-3 tie with the New England Revolution on Saturday.

Columbus (1-4-6) snapped a two-game losing streak and saw its winless stretch extended to seven matches, but it was a positive result after New England (5-2-4) surged to a 3-1 lead less than 32 minutes into the contest.

"I was proud of the character of our team, overcoming all of that that we had to overcome today, on the field and with everything else," Crew coach Sigi Schmid said.

Guillermo Barros Schelotto and Robbie Rogers also scored goals, while Ned Grabavoy had a pair of assists for Columbus.

"To us its a loss," New England's Avery John said. "We'll keep plugging away, we just need to work harder and make less mistakes."

Rookie Adam Cristman scored twice and Pat Noonan had a goal and two assists for the Revolution, who were playing shorthanded with Taylor Twellman, Steve Ralston and Michael Parkhurst competing for the U.S. national team in the CONCACAF Gold Cup.

"I can't fault the enthusiasm or the commitment of the players," Revolution coach Steve Nicol said. I just think we have to be a wee bit smarter.

"The last two goals in particular we coughed up the ball unnecessarily."

Rogers gave the Crew the early lead, converting a beautiful pass from Grabavoy in the ninth minute. Grabavoy lofted the ball upfield to Rogers behind the defense, and he tucked a shot just inside the right corner past onrushing goalkeeper Matt Reis for the 1-0 lead.

Cristman tied it just four minutes later, moving down the right wing and taking a shot that deflected off defender Chad Marshall. Goalkeeper Will Hesmer got caught falling the other way and managed to get a hand on the shot, but not enough to keep it from going into the net in the 13th minute.

The Revolution forged ahead in the 17th minute, taking advantage of a defensive lapse by the Crew.

Andy Dorman punched a pass ahead to Noonan, who got behind Columbus' defense and chipped a shot over Hesmer to make it 2-1. It was Noonan's first tally of the season.

Cristman pushed the lead to 3-1 in the 32nd minute off a great feed from Noonan. With two defenders on him on the left side, Noonan stopped quickly, wheeled and slid a centering pass to Cristman, who one-timed a shot into the top right corner of the net.

"It was good, I can't think of one guy who didn't play well in his role," Cristman said. "Regardless of who's out there, we remained disciplined."

With the momentum seemingly sapped from them, the Crew struck back with just seconds left in stoppage time of the opening half.

Grabavoy again made a perfect pass, pulling three defenders to him at the top of the box before feeding Schelotto, who beat Reis inside the left goalpost to cut the deficit to 3-2 at halftime.

"It is very frustrating," John said. "You come off feeling like, 'What just happened?' Because we had them to kill."

Cristman had two bids for a hat trick in the second half. He fired a bullet in the 52nd minute that was batted away by Hesmer, and in the 73rd minute, his header caromed off the crossbar.

Columbus almost tied it in the 68th minute on some sloppy play by New England's defense.

A looping crossing pass into the crease glanced off the foot of a Revolution defender at the right post and ricocheted off the body of Marcos Gonzalez directly to Reis.

Moreno finally got the equalizer, leaping to head a centering pass past Reis into the left corner of the net.

"That was a valuable point," Schmid said. "We got that early goal and the game plan was going sort of as we wanted it to, because we wanted to be able to counter attack, then the referee makes a horrendous call and hands them a goal. And with our team, the way things have been going this season, the feeling of the team was, 'Deja vu, here it goes again.'"