MLS Columbus Crew SC

Crew Weekly Notes

Published on May 1, 2003 under Major League Soccer (MLS)
Columbus Crew SC News Release


The Crew will be shooting for their third straight road win this Saturday in Kansas City. With a win, it would be only the third time in team history that the Black & Gold have won three straight on the road. The only other times Columbus has won three straight road games were in the 1999 season (win, shoot-out win, so win) and 1996 season (so win, so win, win). The record for consecutive road games without a loss is four, set in the 2001 season (win, win, tie, win).

WALSH MAKES MLS DEBUT

Crew rookie and 2003 No. 1 draft pick (7th overall) Diego Walsh made his MLS debut on Saturday, April 26 in The Crew's 1-0 loss to the MetroStars. The midfielder came on as a substitute for Eric Denton in the 84th minute.

FIRING AWAY

Through the first four games of the season, Columbus has out-shot its opponents by a 54-41 margin, and a 24-18 spread for shots on goal. Both of those numbers rank first in the league.

McBRIDE, HEJDUK NAMED TO ROSTER FOR U.S.-MEXICO GAME MAY 8

U.S. Men's National Team Coach Bruce Arena announced that Crew forward Brian McBride and Crew defender Frankie Hejduk are part of an 18-man squad that will face archrival and fellow World Cup finalists Mexico on Thursday, May 8 at Reliant Field in Houston. Kickoff for the match is set for 8 p.m. (ET) and will be broadcast live on ESPN2, Telemundo and the Radio Unica network. Fans can also follow live online via ussoccer.com's MatchTracker, presented by Philips Electronics. McBride and Hejduk will depart for Houston after The Crew's game this Saturday (May 3) in Kansas City, and return in time to be back for the Black & Gold's home game on May 10 against the Colorado Rapids.

MARTINO STILL GETTING WHACKED

Kyle Martino, The Crew's field general and playmaker, has taken a beating through the first four games. Last year's MLS Rookie of the Year, he is second in the league for fouls suffered, having been whacked 15 times for an average of 3.75 times per game. There have also been numerous times where fouls may have been warranted but not called.

CREW RETURNS TO FOX SPORTS NET OHIO FOR MAY 3 GAME

Columbus Crew President/General Manager Jim Smith and Fox Sports Net Ohio Senior Vice President/General Manager Steve Liverani announced that The Crew's game at Kansas City on May 3 will be televised on Fox Sports Net. Kickoff for the game at Arrowhead Stadium is 8 p.m. (ET).

LAST YEAR'S RESULT FROM ARROWHEAD WOULD BE NICE!

The Crew would love to duplicate its performance from last year's only visit to Arrowhead Stadium. Jeff Cunningham and Edson Buddle combined for 11 points as Columbus downed the Wizards 4-0. Buddle had two goals and two assists and Cunningham had two goals and one assist. Columbus scored two goals each half and Jon Busch notched the shutout.

FIVE PLAYERS HAVE PLAYED THE MAX, ONE JUST ONE MINUTE SHORT, KINDA

Five Crew players have played the maximum 370 minutes on the season, and one player is just one minute shy at 369. Jon Busch, Brian McBride, Frankie Hejduk, Mike Clark and Brian Dunseth have played every minute this season so far, and Kyle Martino has played 369. Martino was a strategic substitution in the April 12 game at NY/NJ. After Jeff Cunningham scored the game-winner in the 90th minute, Crew head coach Greg Andrulis substituted Martino out of the game to run off more of the game clock.

CUNNINGHAM NOMINATED FOR PLAYER OF THE MONTH FOR APRIL

Crew forward Jeff Cunningham is one of a number of players in the running for MLS Player of the Month honors for April. The Jamaican-born speedster had one goal and one assist for three points in just 197 minutes of action. He made both tallies count with one being a game-winning goal and the other a game-winning assist.

McBRIDE TOTALS 51st CAREER GOAL AND 43rd ASSIST, HITS 145 POINTS

Brian McBride's goal and assist in The Crew's 2-1 win at New England on April 19 were his 51st and 43rd, respectively. The three-point performance moves him up to 145 career points.

McBRIDE NOTCHES 15th GAME-WINNING GOAL

Brian McBride's goal in Columbus' 2-1 win at New England on April 19 was his 15th career game-winning goal. That is second on the all-time Crew list, trailing Jeff Cunningham's 16.

CUNNINGHAM PASSES TEST, TALLIES 13th GAME-WINNING ASSIST

Jeff Cunningham's assist in The Crew's 2-1 win at New England on April 19 was his 13th career game-winning assist. He ranks second on the all-time Crew list, three behind assistant coach Robert Warzycha's 16.

HEJDUK REGISTERS FIRST CREW ASSIST

Defender Frankie Hejduk registered his first Crew assist on April 12 at the MetroStars and it couldn't get any bigger. With the scoreless game heading toward overtime, Hejduk whipped a perfect cross into the penalty box from the right flank in the 90th minute that Jeff Cunningham redirected past Metros goalkeeper Tim Howard to give Columbus the 1-0 win. It was Hejduk's 10th career MLS assist and just his second game-winning assist.

CUNNINGHAM MOVES TO WITHIN ONE OF 50 CAREER GOALS

With his game-winning goal in The Crew's 1-0 win over the MetroStars on April 12, dynamic forward Jeff Cunningham moved to within one of hitting the 50-goal plateau. His 49 goals are also just two shy of The Crew record of 51, held by Brian McBride.

CUNNINGHAM STORMING UP SCORING CHARTS

Crew forward Jeff Cunningham has stormed up The Crew scoring charts. Cunningham has 49 career goals and 33 career assists for 131 career points. He trails only McBride (51) in goals, Robert Warzycha (61) and McBride (43) in assists and McBride (145) in points. He had the most points in Major League Soccer over the past two seasons (70 points on 26 goals and 18 assists).

BUDDLE MOVING UP

With his goal in the 1-1 tie vs. Los Angeles in the season opener at Crew Stadium on April 5, 21-year-old forward Edson Buddle now has 13 career goals. The 13 goals rank ninth all-time on The Crew goal-scoring list, just one goal behind Brian West (14), and six goals behind Robert Warzycha and Pete Marino (19).

CHAMPIONSHIP NUCLEUS RETURNS IN 2003

Fifteen of the 18 senior rostered players on this year's squad return from the 2002 team that captured the U.S. Open Cup title. The only newcomers on the senior roster are Frankie Hejduk, Ross Paule and No. 1 SuperDraft pick (7th overall), Diego Walsh.

McBRIDE AND CLARK VOTED CAPTAINS

The 2003 team has voted Brian McBride and Mike Clark as team captains for the season.

THE ORIGINALS

There are only three players remaining who have been with The Crew since 1996. Only forward Brian McBride, defender Mike Clark and midfielder Brian Maisonneuve were with the team from day one. McBride was the first overall player taken in the Inaugural MLS Draft.

HEJDUK MAKES RETURN TO MLS

Defender Frankie Hejduk returns to MLS after a four-year hiatus. He played for Tampa Bay from 1996-98 before heading to Germany to play for Bayer Leverkusen. He played the first half of the 2002-2003 season with St. Gallen in Switzerland before heading home to the states and joining Columbus. Hejduk is the only U.S. player to play in the 1996 and 2000 Olympics, and the 1998 and 2002 World Cup.

2002 U.S. OPEN CUP CHAMPIONS - COLUMBUS CREW

The Crew defeated the Los Angeles Galaxy 1-0 on Oct. 24, 2002 at Crew Stadium to capture the U.S. Open Cup Championship. Freddy Garcia scored in the 30th minute and Jon Busch held off the Galaxy with the shutout. It was Columbus' first title of any kind.

WEST FIRST PROJECT-40 PLAYER TO GRADUATE FROM COLLEGE

Columbus veteran Brian West became the first Project-40 player to graduate from college. West recently graduated from Ohio State University with a 3.46 grade point average in Management Information Systems. West left the University of Virginia after his sophomore season to turn pro in 1998 as a member of the league's P-40 program. The P-40 program allots players who leave school early money for school while pursuing a soccer career.

U.S.-PARAGUAY TO BATTLE ON JULY 6 AT CREW STADIUM

The U.S. Men's National Team will return to Columbus Crew Stadium on Sunday, July 6, for an international match against fellow World Cup Finalists Paraguay. Kickoff is set for 3 p.m. (ET) and the game will be televised on ESPN2. Tickets are currently on sale at all Ticket Master outlets, the Crew Stadium Box Office, via phone at 614-431-3600 or on line at thecrew.com or ussoccer.com.

CREW FALLS JUST SHORT OF MLS CUP IN 2002

The Crew fell just short of advancing to their first-ever MLS Cup last season. After defeating defending MLS Cup-champion San Jose in the quarterfinals, 6 points to 0, Columbus dropped the semifinal series 5 points to 2 to New England. After tying 0-0 in Game 1, The Crew lost 1-0 in Game 2. Needing a win in Game 3 to force a tiebreaker, Columbus could only garner a 2-2 tie. It was the fourth time in seven seasons - but first since 1999 - that Columbus had advanced to the semifinals.

McBRIDE INKS MULTI-YEAR CONTRACT EXTENSION

In December, 2002, Brian McBride signed a multi-year contract extension that will keep him in Major League Soccer and Columbus through the 2005 season and beyond. McBride has played all seven seasons in Columbus and is a seven-time MLS All-Star.

BUSCH FIRST MLS SEASON ONE TO REMEMBER

Jon Busch - who won his first career MLS playoff start 2-1 at San Jose on Sept. 25 - opened semifinal play by recording his first MLS postseason shutout. Busch made three saves and four catch/punches in the 0-0 Game 1 tie at N.E. on Oct. 6. He finished his first MLS season as one of the league's top goalkeepers, compiling an 8-3-2 record, with a 1.09 goals-against average - placing him second in the league, just two 100,000ths of a point behind L.A.'s Kevin Hartman (1.09223 to 1.09225) - and five shutouts.

McBRIDE HITS 50-GOAL PLATEAU FOR MLS CAREER

Brian McBride became the first player in Crew history to reach the prestigious 50-goal plateau on 7/31 at NY/NJ. In addition to being the club's all-time leader in goals, McBride is also The Crew's career point-scoring king, with 51 goals and 43 assists for 143 points.

Match Preview and Review - Columbus Crew at Kansas City Wizards, May 3, 2003

This is the first of three meetings between The Crew and Kansas City Wizards and the only time at Arrowhead Stadium. Columbus leads the all-time series by a slim 9-7-1 margin, including a 4-4 mark on the road. The last match played between the two teams was on 4/18/02, at Arrowhead Stadium, in which The Crew came away with a 4-0 victory, with an impressive two goals and two assists by Edson Buddle, and two goals and one assist by Jeff Cunningham, combining for 11 points. The other game in the two-game series of 2002, resulted in a 1-1 draw (2OT) at Crew Stadium, with Jeff Cunningham scoring The Crew's lone goal in the closing minutes of the frist half, while Kansas City's Preki tallied the equalizer for the Wizards in the 52nd minute.

SERIES NOTES

* The Crew has scored at least two goals in 10 of the 17 meetings.

* Ten of the 17 games in the series have seen the winning team score at least three goals.

* Only four games in series history have had fewer than three combined goals after regulation play (5/27/98, 4/28/99, 7/15/00 & 8/14/02).

* The Crew has won six of the last nine games in the all-time series (6-2-1).

CREW

* Midfielder Brian Maisonneuve has collected five goals and four assists (14 pts.) in 12 games vs. the Wizards.

* Jeff Cunningham has five goals and two assista (12 pts.) in nine games vs. K.C.

* Edson Buddle has two goals and three assists (7 pts.) in just three games vs. the Wizards.

* Duncan Oughton has three assists in three career games vs. the Wizards.

* Goalkeeper Jon Busch, first faced the Wizards on 8-18-02, coming away with a 4-0 shutout.

WIZARDS

* Preki has seven goals and seven assists (21 pts.) in 14 games vs. The Crew with K.C.; He had 1g-3a=5 pts. in two games vs. Columbus with Miami.

* Chris Brown has two goals and one assist (5 pts.) in eight games vs. The Crew.

* Chris Klein has one goal and two assists (4 pts.) in eight games vs. Columbus.

* Ex-Crew keeper Bo Osoyini is 0-1-1 with a 1.89 GAA vs. his former club; He went 0-2-1 with a 2.57 GAA against K.C. while with Columbus.

* Josh Wolff has one goal and one assist (3 pts.) in four games vs. The Crew with Chicago.

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Major League Soccer Stories from May 1, 2003


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