Columbus Crew Steal a Point at Red Bull Arena! 6/4/11

Rich Balchan Celebrates His Goal!

I usually only post my Crew game recaps if I actually attend the match, but I was pretty excited about last night's draw with the New York Red Bulls.

Briefly:

The Red Bulls fielded a relatively weak line-up against The Crew, with several of their starters out on National Team duties. The Crew were missing Robbie Rodgers who was called in to the US Men's National Team for the CONCACAF Gold Cup and yesterday's friendly versus Spain.

Side note: Robbie started against Spain last night and played the first half. Spain drubbed the US Men's team 4-0.

The Crew/Red Bulls match was a back and forth affair, with The Crew giving up a goal in the 9th minute to Mehdi Ballouchy. The Red Bulls had the better of the first half possession, but The Crew recovered in the second half and created several scoring opportunities for themselves in the second half. Andres Mendoza, who I thought had righted himself with his two goals last week against Chivas USA, right-footed a cross from his right wide of the goal and 8 minutes later headed a open-netter wide left. Back to his old form.

Justin Meram entered the match for The Crew in the 74th minute, and in extra-time received the ball on the left, crossed the ball on the ground into the box, which fellow rookie and Big Ten alumnus Rick Balchan finished to earn the draw.

Demoralizing for the Red Bulls, but just maybe the type of result that The Crew can build on.
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