Crew Defeated Red Bulls 3-1 at Red Bull Arena Thursday and Took Over First Place in Eastern Conference

The Columbus Crew came into Red Bull Arena last night and took the match 3-1 and first place from the Red Bulls. The Red Bulls were minus regular starters Salou Ibrahim, Joel Lindpere, Brian Nielsen and Carl Robinson. Head coach Hans Backe played the shell game with his starting 11 last night. They controlled the ball and tempo for the first third of the match but it in the 35th minute former MetroStar (previous Red Bulls team name) Eddie Gavin scored first to give the Crew the early 1-0 lead. In the 36th minute Sinisa Ubiparipovic came running down the right side with the ball then hit the left post. Nightmare of all nightmares happened in the next minute when Iro of the Crew knocked a perfect header into the goal to give the Crew a 2-0 lead. In the 2nd half Dane Richards also had a great scoring chance and also hit the post on his shot. On top of that Angel nailed a free kick from just outside the box that hit the crossbar. Lady luck was not on the home team’s side last night. Rookie Tony Tchani was substituted into the match and scored on a header for the Red Bulls in the 81st minute. That was Tchani’s first MLS career goal. I’d love to see him start for the Red Bulls soon. Unfortunately on a defensive mistake made by Tim Ream and Mike Petke the ball got behind them and goalkeeper Bouna Coundoul could not stop the shot. That sealed the match for the Crew 3-1. This was the Red Bull’s third loss in a row. Tim Ream had another tough game on defense and looked like a rookie.