Final
Union, Crew lock horns at Crew Stadium
Apr 5, 2013 - 11:48 PM Columbus, OH (Sports Network) - The Philadelphia Union will be looking for their first-ever positive result in Columbus when the club battles Eastern Conference rivals the Columbus Crew on Saturday at Crew Stadium.In seven all-time meetings with the Crew since Philadelphia entered the league in 2010, The Union are 2-5-0, and have lost all three matches the sides have played in Ohio.
Columbus took last season's series between the sides, 2-1, including the clubs' last matchup on September 29, 2012 behind a late winner from Milovan Mirosevic.
Philadelphia will also be looking to get back on the winning track after a hard-fought 2-1 setback against Red Bull New York.
Dax McCarty struck first for the Red Bulls, but second-half substitute Conor Casey equalized off a corner kick for Philadelphia in the 63rd minute.
However, a moment of brilliance from Thierry Henry nine minutes from time put the hosts back on top and they held on for the victory, denying the Union their first-ever win at Red Bull Arena.
"I'm not going to say that we deserved anything, but at the time I thought we at least had a chance to get a point," said Union captain Brian Carroll. "They had a couple of good buildups, a couple of good long balls and opportunities. (Union goalkeeper) Zac (MacMath) came up huge on a couple, but the one we let up, it was just a good goal."
Columbus, meanwhile, had last week off from MLS competition and will be shooting for its second straight win after edging D.C. United by a 2-1 count at RFK Stadium back on March 24, snapping United's 19-match home unbeaten run in the process.
"This place, you know, the fans here, they're going crazy for 90 minutes and they just feed off that and it's just a tough, always tough environment here. It feels that much better [to win]," Columbus goalkeeper Andy Gruenebaum remarked.
Columbus is extremely dangerous in dead-ball situations, having scored four of its seven goals this season on set-pieces, the highest total in the league.
"It's good that we have goals from different people," Crew head coach Robert Warzycha said. "Our set-pieces are very good. People are making good runs and we have good service. We're going to be one of the teams that gets a lot of goals off set-pieces. Scoring seven goals in the first four games is good. It means we're creating chances. The goals are different; we can hurt teams in different ways."
- PHILADELPHIA: 1
COLUMBUS: 1
Final
Apr 6 6:57 PM - PHILADELPHIA: 1
COLUMBUS: 0
Halftime
Apr 6 5:55 PM - PHILADELPHIA: 0
COLUMBUS: 0
1st Half - 1'
Apr 6 5:06 PM
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