Preseason match number one is in the books for Crew SC as Columbus kicked off the Desert Diamond Cup against Sporting Kansas City Wednesday night. The teams shook off the offseason cobwebs, playing to a 2-2 draw in Tucson, Arizona.
“I thought it was a decent performance; certainly a good building block to keep progressing as a team,” Sporting Director and Head Coach Gregg Berhalter said. “There were some things we were really happy with, some things that we need to keep working on; but overall, it was a good game against a tough opponent.”
Featuring 22 different players, the Black & Gold were able to test the waters with some of the new guys. Berhalter reacted positively to the first match for a few of the team’s recent additions. Veterans Corey Ashe and Conor Casey both came close to scoring, while SuperDraft selection Chase Minter recorded an assist.
“With some of these young guys, some of the rookies, it’s going to take them a while to get integrated into how we play and the speed of play,” he said. “With Emil [Larsen] and Amro [Tarek], you can see right away that they were able to get into the level of the game.”
As some of the new players made their impressions, Crew SC’s tenured guys stuck to what they know best. Kei Kamara made his debut at the start of the second half and put the ball in the back of the net within the first minute.
“I’m just going to keep doing what I’ve been doing,” he said. “But it’s a new year, new stuff and scoring a goal in the first minute—it’s good, it’s fun.”
That wasn’t it for the striker, though. Kamara drew a penalty kick after being fouled in the box on a goal-scoring opportunity, and finished the rebound of his own penalty to give Columbus the 2-1 lead in the 74th minute.
Not surprisingly, Ethan Finlay was active in Crew SC's attack as well, combining with Minter ahead of Kamara's first goal. Finlay said the match provided a good opportunity for the team to mix up the lineups.
“Obviously on the positives, putting two goals away, creating some good chances, the buildups I thought were pretty nice in the second half,” he said. “Some things we have to shore up a little bit in the back. I think that starts a little bit with the pressure in the front, and I think that just comes with getting your legs under you, all the guys knowing their positions and what they need to do.”
A little uncertainty was apparent, but that’s expected for the first competitive match of the year. Sporting managed to score twice in the second half, on either side of Kamara’s goals. The first one came from Soni Mustivar on a jumble in the box in the 52nd minute, followed by Faik Hajderovic’s back-post tap-in on a slotted ball from Connor Hallisey in the 88th minute.
“We coped well with some of the pressure that we were under,” Berhalter said. “We still had some good offensive moves and we still would’ve liked to have been able to pressure a little better; but we’ll take a look at that and improve in the next game.”
Crew SC’s next opportunity to improve comes on Saturday against Real Salt Lake. The Western Conference club lost 3-1 to USL’s Swope Park Rangers in its tournament debut.
“We have about a week-and-a-half left to continue to develop these relationships, but I think what we’ve showed already this is a good group—a good group that has a lot of depth and a lot of potential, so it’s exciting,” Finlay said. “We’re excited going forward into Saturday, and hope to get a result, a win and make our way to the final from there.”
The second match of the Desert Diamond Cup is set to kick off at 7 p.m. ET. A live stream will be available on ColumbusCrewSC.com.
