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Crew, Impact seek much-needed victory

Jul 18, 2014 - 7:15 PM Columbus, OH (SportsNetwork.com) - A pair of struggling sides will meet at Crew Stadium on Saturday as the Columbus Crew get set to host the Montreal Impact.

Both clubs are desperate for three points as Columbus is winless in its last seven outings while Montreal has taken just one win from its last five league games.

While both sides enter the contest on the back of two straight defeats, the Crew are on short rest as they were forced to play on Wednesday. They lost to Sporting Kansas City on a stoppage-time goal from Benny Feilhaber, but the result was made even more disappointing by the fact that the Crew had a one- man advantage for 34 minutes in the second half due to Aurelien Collin's red card.

"We're not victims in this whole thing," Crew head coach Gregg Berhalter said after the match. "The way we perform we didn't deserve to win that game and it wasn't a pretty soccer game all around. The whole thing wasn't pretty. Our job is to come out here and entertain the fans and play attractive soccer and we didn't do that we didn't live up to our end of the bargain tonight. It was hesitancy, it was guys not moving and it's too bad because especially when they got the red card we could have gotten more out of that and we didn't."

Columbus has faced a host of talented strikers of late: Deshorn Brown, Bradley Wright-Phillips, Thierry Henry and Dom Dwyer have all led the line against the Crew over the last two weeks. And things will not get any easier on Saturday as Columbus has the daunting task of attempting to contain Jack McInerney and Marco Di Vaio.

"They both move very well off the ball," Berhalter told the club's official website. "When they're both playing, you have to look out. There's certainly some danger with movement. When they're both not on the field, it lessens that and they become a little bit less dangerous."

Like Columbus, Montreal also suffered defeat to Sporting in its last outing with Kansas City clinching the win behind a late goal.

Dwyer did the honors last weekend as his goal in the 89th minute at the Stade Saputo on Saturday handed Montreal a second consecutive defeat.

"I felt that in the midfield we needed to be a little bit better," Impact head coach Frank Klopas said after the match. "We got a little bit tired because we were chasing and forcing the ball a lot in the first half. We had some good moments in transition, but I think that when it wasn't on, we should have kept it a little bit better."

Montreal should be able to control the midfield a bit more against a Columbus side that will be without stalwart Wil Trapp, who was sent off late in the Crew's defeat to Sporting on Wednesday due to a second caution.