Crew Celebrate Making History

The Columbus Crew have been in Major League Soccer since the league was launched in 1996, yet have never contested a match with the MLS Cup on the line. That's all changed now, as the team advanced to the title game for the very first time.

Nov 14, 2008 12:08:37 AM

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COLUMBUS, Ohio -- In what is surely one of the best days in the recent sporting history of Columbus, the city's beloved Crew continued to play passionate soccer and dumped the high-scoring Chicago Fire from the playoffs. The win sends the club to the MLS Cup Final for the first time.
In striker Alejandro Moreno’s mind, the team had it in them all season to make it this far, based in large part to how unified the players were with regards to the system put in place by coach Sigi Schmid.

“We were going to be a good enough team to be in the playoffs,” said Moreno of his early season thoughts. “I thought that once we got into the playoffs, if we were on a good run, we could find ourselves in the MLS Cup and once we were there, anything can happen. The way the season has gone on and the way the players have matured and come together and bought into the system. The way we’ve made losses into ties and ties into wins is something to be really proud of, and that’s what we did all year.”

Despite going into the locker room at halftime down 1-0, the mindset of the Crew players never faltered and they came out for the last 45 the way they have all season, with a ‘losing isn’t an option’ attitude that prevailed tonight.

“We lifted each other’s heads up and lifted each other’s spirits up and we knew we could get one back,” said team captain and emotional leader Frankie Hejduk. “There was an aura around the team and we knew we could come back, and that’s what we did.”

Two quick goals in the second half secured the comeback for the determined Crew, and after the lead was taken, they never looked back.

Now Columbus is off to sunny Los Angeles to play in their first-ever MLS Cup next Sunday. This year’s MLS Defender of the Year and one of the night’s goal-scorers, Chad Marshall, couldn’t be happier.

“That’s the happiest I’ve ever been!” said the usually placid Marshall. “I just started sprinting, I don’t know why, but definitely the happiest I’ve been in a long, long time.”

--Shane Evans, Goal.com

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