Watch out MLS- Columbus has officially arrived.

The Crew dominated the New England Revolution 4-0 in a one sided duel between the top two teams in the MLS standings. Guillermo Barros Schelotto terrorized the Revolution defense assisting on two goals and scoring another, as New England struggled to slow down the red-hot Crew. The victory is the Crew’s fourth straight and puts them squarely in first place in the MLS with 43 points, five above second place New England in the Eastern Conference standings.

Columbus controlled game from the start, recording 13 shots on goal to New England’s one. The Crew did this all without the services of the club’s leading goal scorer Alejandro Moreno as well as defenders Frankie Hejduk, and Duncan Oughton. All were away on national team duty.

Crew Coach Sigi Schmid praised the team’s performance, “I wanted (the team) to feel the weight of a big game,” he said. “I wanted to see how they responded- and they passed with flying colors.”

For the Revolution the game marks the end of a brutal scheduling stretch. The club has participated in seven games in the past 22 days, including a 4-0 loss to Joe Public on Tuesday that eliminated them from the CONCACAF Champions League. “When you can’t run you can’t compete, and at the present time we can’t run,” Revolution Coach Steve Nicol said, commenting on his team’s inability to attack. “We were in three different countries in seven days last week. So it’s a unique situation we find ourselves in, and hopefully it won’t happen again,” Nicol said.

Guillermo Barros Schelotto put Columbus in the lead in the 39^th minute when a Robbie Rogers cross landed between a colliding Steven Lenhart and Chris Tierney and popped out in front of goal. A sprinting Schelotto drilled the ball into the back of the net before a charging Matt Reiss could clear it. The Crew added to their lead minutes later when a free kick from Schelotto connected with the head of Andy Iro who put it into the back of the net for his first career goal and a 2-0 lead.

In the second half, Schelotto navigated through the midfield and chipped the ball perfectly over the New England backline to Jason Garey who finished for the score and 3-0 lead in the 67^th minute. Garey had come on as a substitute a minute earlier for Eddie Gaven. Jason Garey added another to make it 4-0 in the 90^th minute finishing a beautiful through ball from former Revolution star and recent Crew acquisition Pat Noonan.

Schelotto was unstoppable in the match, and has been indispensible over the Crew’s current four game win streak. His two assists on the night extended his league leading total to 18. The assists also extended a 10 goal streak in which Schelotto either scored or assisted on the score. The streak ended with the game’s final goal.

This game was a rematch of a heated May 24^th contest at Crew Stadium that New England won 1-0. That match is dubiously remembered for a video that surfaced of a Crew fan directing a racial epithet at Revolution forward Kheli Dube after he scored the game winning goal. Since that match, Columbus banned the throwing of streamers on the field, increased security around the Nordecke supporters section and worked with the MLS to diagnose and ban the offending fan for life.

With Columbus’s success, Schmid is setting his sights high for the remainder of the season. “I’m not going to say we’re the toast of the town or the best team ever,” he noted. “But I think we can start talking about, and start thinking about, that we want to win the league now. We want to win the Eastern Conference,” Schmid said. He added, “We want to grab hold of that thing called the Supporters Shield.”

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Match Facts

New England Revolution (11-7-5) vs. Columbus Crew (13-6-4)
September 06, 2008 — Columbus Crew Stadium

Scoring Summary:
CLB — Guillermo Barros Schelotto 6 (unassisted) 40
CLB — Andy Iro 1 (Guillermo Barros Schelotto 17) 45
CLB — Jason Garey 2 (Guillermo Barros Schelotto 18) 67
CLB — Jason Garey 3 (Pat Noonan 1) 90

Lineups:
New England Revolution — Matt Reis, Chris Albright, Jay Heaps, Michael Parkhurst, Sainey Nyassi (Joe Germanese 70), Mauricio Castro (Pat Phelan 74), Shalrie Joseph, Jeff Larentowicz, Chris Tierney (Amaechi Igwe 58), Taylor Twellman, Khano Smith.

Substitutes Not Used: Brandon Tyler, Rob Valentino, Doug Warren

Columbus Crew — William Hesmer, Danny O’Rourke, Andy Iro, Chad Marshall, Gino Padula, Eddie Gaven, Brian Carroll, Brad Evans, Robbie Rogers (Pat Noonan 74), Guillermo Barros Schelotto (Emmanuel Ekpo 83), Steven Lenhart (Jason Garey 66).

Substitutes Not Used: Andy Gruenebaum, Stefani Miglioranzi, Andrew Peterson, Jed Zayner

Statistics:
Columbus Crew / New England Revolution
total shots: 27 (Brad Evans 5) / 4 (Taylor Twellman 2)
shots on goal: 13 (Guillermo Barros Schelotto 3, Jason Garey 3) /1 (Taylor Twellman 1)
fouls: 8 (Steven Lenhart 3, Chad Marshall 3) / 11 (3 tied with 2)
offsides: 5 (Jason Garey 3) / 1 (Mauricio Castro 1)
corner kicks: 11 (Guillermo Barros Schelotto 8) / 4 (Mauricio Castro 2)
saves: 1 (William Hesmer 1) / 9 (Matt Reis 9)

Misconduct Summary:
NE — Chris Albright (caution; Tactical Foul) 23
NE — Shalrie Joseph (caution; Reckless Foul) 50
NE — Amaechi Igwe (caution; Reckless Foul) 59
CLB — Jason Garey (caution; Delaying a Restart) 83

Referee: Mark Geiger
Referee’s Assistants: Steven Taylor; Eric Boria
4th official: Fernando Galvan
time of game: 1:49
attendance: 16,918
weather: Partly Cloudy -and- 75 degrees

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