COLUMBUS, Ohio – At one point this season, Columbus Crew SC struggled to play from behind. But after another comeback victory Saturday night, this time over Supporters' Shield contenders Sporting Kansas City, the club is feeling right at home when playing catch-up.
“We have experience doing it,” Crew SC head coach Gregg Berhalter said with a laugh after the match. “You look at New York, New England, Colorado, we’ve done that before. I think the key is remaining calm and sticking to the gameplan and executing, and we certainly did that.”
After a gut-check 62nd minute strike from Sporting KC's Graham Zusi, Columbus seemed to be on the ropes. But after drawing level at 1-1 and looking dangerous at the beginning of the second half, the team didn’t think they should have found themselves behind.
“It was a huge win, even bigger when we’re down 2-1 and we feel like we’re by far the better team on the night,” Crew SC defender Michael Parkhurst said. “It was disappointing to give up the two goals and be down 2-1 and be struggling, because we felt like, ‘Man, we’re playing a pretty good game. We’re keeping them under pressure.’
“So I think that’s why the feeling was so strong tonight that we didn’t want to let those points slip away. It felt really good to put a goal in late rather than give up one late.”
Berhalter agreed, and praised his team’s attitude and play over the entire 90 minutes, not just the 10-minute comeback between minutes 80 and 88.
“Give Kansas City a lot of credit for a well-executed counterattack,” Berhalter said. “It kind of shook us a little bit, but the attitude and the spirit was there from the beginning.”
And down a goal with 30 minutes to play, Columbus defender Tyson Wahl said it was time for the club to decide how to respond.
“You just have to mentally stay tuned in and not give up,” he said. “At that point it’s just about not giving up. How tough are you going to be? Are you really just going to give up at that point or not? That’s all it is, and we did a really good job of not doing so.”
Berhalter thought his club outplayed their opponent in their midweek draw with New York City FC as well. But in that match, he said they lacked a “killer instinct.” Did he think they found it Saturday?
“Whatever instinct it was, it was great,” he said. “The guys were powerful, they were going after everything, they were aggressive. We held Kansas City to 59 percent passing, which is extremely low.”
And while Berhalter likes to think about one match at a time, his players acknowledged how important it was to get four points out of the week when it seemed like they might only get one.
“It was now or never for us,” Parkhurst said.
Andrew King covers Columbus Crew SC for MLSsoccer.com.
