Tension flares as Crew SC turns a 4-1 lead into a 4-4 draw against Montreal

Put simply: Egos and selfishness lead to Crew SC dropping two points at home. They were up 4-1 early in the second half against Montreal Impact when it all crumbled. So what the heck is happening in Columbus?

I had heard rumblings of issues in practice over the week after a disappointing loss in Seattle, but I never thought we would see it come to such a point on the field. In short, Kei Kamara had a brace in the first half and Montreal countered with a goal from Piatti. It was a fun first half, the Nordecke really hates Didier Drogba so the chants were flying against him and the Crew looked good.¹ Steve Clark had a record night with eight total saves, his most ever and played lights out. At halftime, Crew SC were up 2-1 and I felt like we could win it.

The second half started with a ball to the feet of Federico Higuain into the back of the net in the 48th minute. What felt like seconds after, Meram was tripped in the Impact box and Crew SC were awarded a PK. This is when the tide turned and you could feel the atmosphere in the stadium change drastically.

An argument started at the PK spot between Kamara and Higuain that seemed to last forever and escalate about who would take the PK. I didn’t have the best angle in the Nordecke, as I was about even with the PK spot, to see what happened but it was obvious there was a huge issue. See the argument as it happened:

These guys are on the same team — a team that has struggled all season — and they are going to argue over who scores? Crew SC was up 4-1. They were in the clear, right? Wrong. Montreal earned a PK in the 57th minute and one minute later Piatti scored to make is 4-3. Crew SC’s former player, Dominic Oduro sealed the tie late in the half. The team looked disjointed and even though they had most of the possession in the rest of the second half, there was very obvious tension.

Crew SC lost a huge win that would have put them in fifth place, instead of ninth where they are now. The anger continued post-game with several comments from Kamara about how he doesn’t rely on Higuain to score goals and that him not getting to take any in 2015 lost him the Golden Boot. Kamara has since been suspended by the team and was recently rumored to potentially be on the move if Columbus could find a willing suitor.

“I’m Kei; I leave it all out there,” he would say. “Whether I’m playing or I’m not playing or with my tweets or with my fun or whatever I’m doing, I let people know who I am. I don’t need to fake [to] or hide [from] anybody.

“If I’m here for this club, I want to play for this club, I’m going to show my heart and leave everything out there. That’s what I’ve been doing.”

The team has a way to go to get back to where they were at the end of last season to even have a chance to lift that championship trophy. It’s a long season, yes, but can they the pull together and beat the teams that matter? The team will be tested Saturday as Crew SC face the number one team from the west on Saturday, the Colorado Rapids, at 7:30 p.m.

1. This is what happened last year when Drogba was in Columbus. [↩]