COLUMBUS -- The Columbus Crew continued the hot start to their 2008 season Saturday night at home against the Houston Dynamo, defeating the defending MLS champs in a gritty 1-0 contest. Columbus got another strong performance from Alejandro Moreno, a former Houston player who now has four goals in five games in the 2008 season.
"Goals are fickle," said the always stoic Moreno after the contest. "They come and go but right now they are going in for me."
The win was the 100th of Crew head coach Sigi Schmid's illustrious MLS career.
"It means I've been around for a while," said a jovial Schmid when asked what the win means to him. "But what it really means is that I've had the chance to coach some good players.
"The one number I do know is that I have 16 wins in the playoffs," the Crew boss said, "and I want to add to that one. I want to stretch that one out a little bit."
The Crew are familiar with close games after a 2007 season that saw them play many teams tight right up to the end of the game, but would often find a way to lose at the end. But they've now won three one-goal games in a row, and have come back to get the winning goal late in two.
"Last year there were a lot of games when I stood here and said, 'we played better, we had chances and we lost,'" said Schmid. "It's a lot better to be on the other side of the coin."
"Experience is the difference," said defender Danny O'Rourke. "Look at teams like Houston and New England that have had the same core of guys for three or four years. When you play together that long you know what everyone is going to bring to the table."
Moreno attributes the hot streak more to team mentality. "We're trying to win games as opposed to playing not to lose games," he said.
Even though not all the wins have been the prettiest exhibitions of soccer, one is not likely to hear much grumbling about it from the Crew locker room.
"It was pretty scrappy, but whatever it takes to win," said Crew 'keeper Will Hesmer, after posting his second shutout of the season.
One of the scrappiest moments occurred directly in front of Hesmer's goal when the Dynamo looked as if they would certainly score. Hesmer had come off his line to claim a cross but misplayed the ball. Midfielder Brian Carroll raced back to get in the way as Dynamo forward Franco Caraccio tried to knock it home and O'Rourke located the ball on the goal line and somehow kept it from going in the net.
"I just sat down on the ball," said O'Rourke. "It was seriously in between my legs, and I wasn't moving. They were all pushing me, but I figured they couldn't call a dangerous play on me if I was the one on the ground."
"A game like this one is a war," said Schmid, "and when [the players] are in a game like this one today they have a feeling that they are going to win it, instead of last year when the feeling was, 'OK, when is the bad thing going to happen.'"
The smile on his face said it all as the Crew head coach recapped the first month of the season.
"Last year we won five games at home, and we've won three already," he said.
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