Time-pressed and points-stressed, the Cardiac Crew were sock-blessed as Justin Meram scored an 89th minute winner that lifted Columbus to a 1-0 victory over Chivas USA on Wednesday night. When told by the referee that he had to remove the black rubber Kirk Urso memorial wristband from his arm, Meram tucked the bracelet into his sock and then booted home the winning goal.
“I played a couple minutes already with my wristband on my arm, as I always have it on,” Meram said. “We get a corner kick and the ref looks at me and tells me I have to take it off. I wasn’t going take it off and run to the sidelines, and he kind of knew that, so he told me, like, put it in my sock or something. So I did that and literally a couple minutes later I got free and scored. Kirk was watching over me.”
As has been the case with the Crew over the last month and a half, you couldn’t make this stuff up if you tried.
THE GOAL
Meram cleaned up a nice attacking sequence from the Crew. Tony Tchani slotted a diagonal ball that beat three Chivas defenders and found Federico Higuain in stride on the left side of the box. Higuain rolled a one-time pass across the six yard box, finding the foot of a sliding Jairo Arrieta. Chivas goalie Dan Kennedy made the initial stop, but when the rebound popped into the air, Arrieta launched himself backward from a seated position, propelling the ball away from the goal and into Meram’s path. Meram bounced a left-footed half-volley into the net and ripped off his shirt in celebration.
Arrieta’s second effort and seal-like ball-bopping made for a memorable assist.
“I practiced that,” Arrieta joked through translator Ricardo Iribarren. “It was a good cross from Federico. I got on the end of the ball and tried to score. The goalkeeper made a great save and the ball was there, so I went again to try to score, but luckily the rebound went right to Justin and he made a great finish. I was trying to score. I tried to throw myself to the ball, and luckily Justin was there.”
“He’s a helluva player,” Meram said of Arrieta’s effort. “I was off-balance and just wanted to get the ball on-frame and hit it with pace. Luckily that's what happened and we came away with the win.”