• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers
• Game Tracker

Crew aim to snap skid against Orlando City

Apr 17, 2015 - 9:18 PM Columbus, OH (SportsNetwork.com) - Columbus Crew SC will aim to snap a three- match winless run on Saturday when the club welcomes expansion side Orlando City SC to Mapfre Stadium.

Following a 2-0 win over Toronto FC back on March 14, the Crew suffered a 2-1 loss to the New York Red Bulls and followed that up with consecutive draws against Vancouver Whitecaps FC and the New England Revolution.

New England asked most of the questions in the first half despite Columbus owning the majority of the possession, but the game fizzled out in the second half and both sides seemed content to settle for a point.

The best spell of play for either side belonged to the Revs in the final 15 minutes of the first half.

Lee Nguyen whipped a shot on goal from a tight angle for New England but Crew goalkeeper Steve Clark was equal to the task.

Columbus failed to register a shot on goal over the course of 90 minutes, while the Revs failed to test Clark after the break, leaving both teams with a point.

"I think we could have pushed the tempo a little bit," said Crew head coach Gregg Berhalter. "You can see we're a little bit fatigued with all that travel and the game on Wednesday. But I'm proud of the guys for the effort they put in, and at the end of the day, two points was the minimum we wanted from this road trip and we got it."

"We had the momentum early. I thought we could have picked a goal there, but we didn't and it was tough playing into the wind. They pressured better in the second half, and I don't think we did the best job playing out of it."

Orlando, meanwhile, is coming off their best performance of the season, a 2-0 win over the Portland Timbers at Providence Park.

The visitors opened the scoring on the half-hour mark when Kevin Molino got free down the right flank to the end line and whipped it across the face of goal for Cyle Larin to knock home for his first goal in MLS.

Kaka added the second goal five minutes from time with a penalty kick to give all three points to the Lions.

"Overall, I'm a firm believer of 'you get out what you put in,' and these guys have put so much in during the past few weeks with not a lot of reward," said OCSC head coach Adrian Heath. "Today, I thought the guys got a bit of payback for maybe D.C. or Vancouver. This is a terrific place to come and play football. These are the environments that you want to come and play in, and I'm just so pleased for our players that they've come and quieted them just a bit."