250TH APPEARANCE FOR CHAD
Chad Marshall’s next appearance will be his 250th career regular-season appearance, all with the Black & Gold ... the defender is set to become the club’s first player to reach the 250-appearance milestone in the regular season ... Marshall, who also leads the club’s regular-season lists for all-time starts (246) and minutes played (21,860), made his first career appearance on April 17, 2004 in a start at Kansas City ... earlier this season, Marshall became the first Crew player to log 20,000 minutes for the Crew.
SAVING THE BEST FOR LAST
Winner of three of its last four matches dating back to the beginning of the Brian Bliss era, the Crew has made a strong push for the postseason ... included in the recent stretch is the club’s current two-match winning streak, marking the second time in two months that the club has earned back-to-back wins ... the three wins in four matches also represent the first time all season that the club has won three games in a single month in 2013.
ANOTHER DEFENSIVE PERFORMANCE
Certainly the Crew would have had a tough time securing three wins in four matches without a stretch of strong defensive performances ... over the last four matches, the club has recorded two shutouts and allowed a single goal to the then-Eastern Conference-leading Montreal Impact ... the club’s only loss in that stretch allowed three goals ... despite that three-goal match, the Black & Gold backline has allowed an average of just one goal per game in the month of September.
GOOD NEWS FOR GRUENEBAUM
After missing nine matches with left shoulder weakness, there is positive news on the injury front for Andy Gruenebaum ... Gruenebaum was removed this week from the club’s injury report after being upgraded to “questionable” last week ... Gruenebaum started the first 20 matches of 2013 and Matt Lampson made his 10th overall start and ninth consecutive go in net in Gruenebaum’s place last Saturday ... Lampson has five shutouts this season, while Gruenebaum has four cleansheets to his name.
