CLEVELAND – The Crew had an abundance of chances to overcome a one-goal deficit and avoid their first loss of the regular season against Inter Miami on April 19.
Unable to connect on any of their 16 shot attempts, the Crew (5-1-3) fell 1-0 to Miami (5-0-3) at Huntington Bank Field, leaving Miami as the only undefeated team in MLS play.
Replay: Columbus Crew handed first regular-season loss vs Messi, Inter Miami in Cleveland
After Miami scored on a header from midfielder Benjamin Cremaschi that Crew goalkeeper Patrick Schulte described as happening “all so fast,” Columbus had 60 minutes to attempt a comeback.
“We had our clear chances, obviously,” Crew coach Wilfried Nancy said. “But we didn’t finish. … I have to watch the game to see if this is technique, timing or decision making. At the end of the day, we had many chances, for sure.”
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The Crew proved in the second half there was no issue creating opportunities, recording 12 of their 16 shots during the final 45 minutes. Half of the second-half shots came in the five minutes of stoppage time.
The problem for the Crew was the execution of their shots.
Forward Daniel Gazdag led the Crew in shots with four, none on target. Each of Gazdag’s chances went either high above the crossbar or inches to the right of the goal post.
“At this point, it’s pretty annoying,” Gazdag said. “It’s a positive thing that I was able to get chances, but obviously I will like to score in the next game. I will work for that.”
Diego Rossi and Jacen Russell-Rowe, who made up the Crew’s frontline with Gazdag, had the same accuracy issues on their combined six shots.
The Crew finished with three shots on goal, two from Max Arfsten and one from Rossi.
Lionel Messi unable to make impact for Inter Miami vs Columbus Crew
Miami had a shift in focus to defense in the second half, which kept its offense quiet and nearly shut down the game of star forward Lionel Messi.
Messi entered the matchup with three goals in five games and had three scoring opportunities in the first half. The Crew’s backline strongly contested Messi, with defenders Malte Amundsen and Steven Moreira recording blocks on one of Messi’s shots.
“Messi is Messi,” Nancy said, “but I think that we controlled him well. He had small chances.”
Miami had just one shot in the second half and finished with six overall. The only second-half attempt came from Messi, who sent a long shot from near midfield that Schulte easily tracked down for a stop at in the final minute of the game.
Columbus Crew battled to create chances vs Inter Miami’s aggressive second-half defense
The defensive second-half strategy for Miami was to sit low in its own box. For nearly every Columbus attack inside the box, Miami had eight or nine players protecting the goal.
Miami’s defense also became more physical, with Nancy noting in the postgame he felt a few more yellow card calls could have gone the Crew’s way.
The adjustments in Miami’s game forced the Crew to make changes of their own to create their second-half opportunities, which they were able to do.
“We tried to move the ball quickly,” Crew midfielder Darlington Nagbe said. “Get on the sides and get good crosses in, which I thought we did. We had some good chances but weren’t lucky enough to finish them.”
Columbus Crew’s conceded goal vs Inter Miami came off own corner kick attempt
Miami took six compared to Columbus’ three corners, but it was following a failed Crew corner attempt that Miami was able to create its scoring play.
“I knew they had a guy kind of in an offsides position, who had Malte [Amundsen] beat,” Schulte said. “The long ball put the guy back onsides because the ball was played backwards at that point. I think it all stemmed off a corner kick, though, so kind of everyone was out of position. Guys were tracking back.”
The Crew had just attempted to send a cross into Miami’s box off a corner opportunity when Miami cleared the ball and regained possession. That possession led to forward Luis Suarez’s long pass up field to defender Marcelo Weigandt, who found Cremaschi crashing in the box for the goal.
Columbus will look to move past the Miami loss at Lower.com Field on April 26 with a matchup against the San Jose Earthquakes. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
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