Drilling down on: at Portland 0, Columbus 0

Man of the match: Andy Greunebaum had six saves (including two layouts on Rodney Wallace efforts) and was commanding coming off his line during a particularly tenuous stretch just shy of the 40-minute mark. He continues to be one of the Crew’s bright spots.

Packaged for takeaway:

• File this one under “For MLS diehards only”. Within the context of each team’s season, there were some interesting story lines playing out. As a stand alone game, Saturday’s offering wasn’t the ideal display of MLS’s product.
• John Spencer made a number of changes to the starting XI that lost in Montreal, with Jack Jewsbury moving to right back (as Steve Purdy recovers from a concussion). With Rodney Wallace, Frank Songo’o coming in to midfield while Futty Danso (returning to health) was slotted into central defense, the lineup had an experimental feel.
• Danso impressed on his return, combining with Mike Chabala to lock down the left side (not that Columbus was knocking). Eric Brunner, who dressed but did not play against his former club, may now be the odd man out.
• Jewsbury was strong when the play was in front of him, but he was obviously rusty positioning himself when not engaging a player in possession. Still, as a pseudo-emergency fill in, he acquitted himself well.
• One person not changed from last week was Troy Perkins, though he did play with a face mask protecting the nose laceration sufferd last week at the boot of Sanna Nyassi.
• But all notes about Portland’s defense come with a huge caveat. Although Columbus had an aberrational first half sequence that saw two balls cleared off the line, the Crew offered very little going forward. Emilio Renteria was a non-factor, as was his replacement, Justin Meram. There was no push from the midfield, and with Chad Marshall on the bench, Columbus had now threat from dead balls. Put it all together, and Troy Perkins was only credited with one save on the night.
• Against a Portland midfield that’s not exactly thought of as the league’s best, Columbus needed somebody to step up. Eddie Gaven, Tony Tchani, and Milovan Mirosevic were all pretty transparent, while Danny O’Rourke may as well have been a defender. There was nothing in this Crew side at said “this team can get the goal.”
• As the match wore on, a series of like-for-like substitutions implied both coaches felt their sides were going in the right direction. The only meaningful change saw Spencer debut Mike Fucito and drop Darlington Nagbe back to left midfield, though Portland’s approach stayed the same. It was as if neither team was aware wins are worth three, draws are worth one.
• While both struggling teams got a point, neither should be happy with the result.
  • Portland was just drawn at home by one of the East’s struggling sides, and without Marshall in the lineup, they should have expected a better result.
  • For the Crew, they failed to take advantage of a back line that made three changes from a week ago. Potentially worse, they never seemed too worried about it.
• Portland now gets a bye while Columbus returns home to face FC Dallas next weekend. Both teams have a lot of work to do before they’re ready to face the rest of the league again.