Playing in the soccer bandbox that is Yankee Stadium without star Lucas Zelarayan , a draw would have been an acceptable result for the Columbus Crew under most circumstances.
But Saturday's 1-1 draw with NYCFC left the Crew more disappointed than satisfied after the hosts scored a fluky goal in stoppage time to deny Columbus a victory.
NYC was winless in their last eight games (3 draws, 5 losses) and hadn't scored in more than two matches. That goalless drought looked destined to continue until the 94thminute of play.
NYC's Richard Ledezma was well outside the box when he turned to make a pass. The ball deflected off the Crew's Jacen Russell-Rowe and took an odd angle toward the goal. Late-game substitute Gabriel Segal got behind Mo Farsi and kicked the ball past goalkeeper Patrick Schulte .
The draw ended Columbus' three-game winning streak .
"It's a tough one," Crew coach Wilfried Nancy said.
The goal was, as he described it, "weird." What Nancy took issue with was the sequence that preceded it. NYC kicked the ball deep into Crew territory, and Farsi was a bit deliberate in passing the ball back to Schulte as NYC players tried to challenge. Schulte had to rush the kick a bit, and it went out of bounds, giving NYC possession.
"This is a smaller mistake, (but) Mo could have played the ball a little quicker to Patrick, and it would have been easier for Patrick to play the ball," Nancy said. "And after that, you saw the goal. For me, (in) this decision-making, we have to be better."
Road games are always a challenge and playing at NYC (4-7-7) has the added factor of the field at Yankee Stadium. Its dimensions are only 110 yards long and 70 yards wide, the smallest allowed in the MLS. (Lower.com Field's dimensions are the more standard 115 yards by 75 yards.)
"It's really difficult because the pitch is narrow," Nancy said. "As we know, the goals, they are not straight. But we were able to handle that."
Columbus (8-6-4) broke through early in the second half following an out-of-bounds call. While a few NYC players complained to the officials about Columbus being awarded possession, the Crew took advantage.
Cucho Hernandez got the inbounds pass and fed the ball to a racing Alex Matan on the right side past the NYC defense. Matan then made a perfect pass to Ramirez, who beat the NYC goalkeeper, Luis Barraza . Hernandez has scored or assisted in nine of the Crew's last 11 matches.
"To be honest with you, I only saw the end, but they recognized that was the moment to play quicker," Nancy said. "So they did it and took advantage of that."
Matan was subbing for Zelarayan, who is on an international call-up with Armenia. Last week, Zelarayan had the game-winner against Chicago in stoppage time on a goal from beyond midfield.
But that goal was necessary because Columbus had given up a late goal, a trend that continued Saturday. The Crew are short-handed defensively because of injuries, but Nancy was disappointed they couldn't hang on.
He was also frustrated that his team didn't take advantage of other scoring chances.
Early in the game, Matan sailed a shot from close range over the crossbar following some deft passing to set him up.
Later, Yaw Yeboah fed Hernandez with a nice pass up the middle. Hernandez had a step on the NYC defender, but his left-footed shot rolled wide right of the goal.
"We had good moments," Nancy said. "We had opportunities to score the second goal, but we defended well. We had issues at certain moments with the box defending in the first half, but they adjusted really well.
"Like I told you, the decision-making at the end is the big difference between how we (need to) finish the game. We struggled a bit at the beginning of the year. We fixed it the last four or five games, I would say, but now we made this mistake."
The Crew announced they have sent 2024 pricing information to season ticket holders, with renewals beginning July 6. The team said more than 83% of Lower.com Field will see a price increase of no more than $3 per game but did not release prices per section.
Registration for new season ticket holders begins Tuesday.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Late goal forces Crew to settle for 1-1 at NYCFC
