Crew opens 2010 campaign with victory
After ending the 2009 season with a bitter 3-2 loss to Real Salt Lake on home turf, the Columbus Crew opened the 2010 season with a much better performance, beating Toronto FC 2-0 yesterday afternoon. The win not only opens up the season on a good note, but also started their defense of the Trillium Cup, a rivalry between the Crew and Toronto that has been dominated by the Crew in the first two years of it’s existence. The Crew have not lost to Toronto while the Cup has been in place, outscoring them 10-5 in the seven game stretch.
The scoring opened up in the 29th minute when a Schelotto free kick close to the right sideline got into the box, and Andy Iro slipped past his defender to head in the first goal of the year from about eight yards out. “I didn’t think I hit it that clean,” Iro said. “I went in front of sort of late and it glanced my head. It wasn’t the cleanest of headers. Once I looked up and saw it headed to the corner I said, ‘OK, it’s going to have to be a good save.’
The Crew (1-0-0) wanted to put the game away early, but had trouble doing so. Goalie William Hesmer got his first big stop of the season about 2 minutes after the Iro goal, as he had to make a diving stop of a shot by Martin Saric from about 20 yards out. “All in all, it wasn’t our best game. It was ugly at times. There wasn’t a lot of rhythm,” Hesmer said. “We’re a little bit upset we didn’t put the game away earlier. ”
The clincher didn’t come until the 87th minute, when a loose ball scramble between Toronto’s Stefan Frei and Crew defender Danny O’Rourke made the ball poke out directly to Schelotto, who had an easy shot to seal the opening weekend victory over Toronto FC (0-1-0).
