RSL blanked by Columbus at home, draws 0-0

Well, this match had the promise of being interesting, but RSL struggled to get out of third gear (or, you know, some other gear. I drive a car, but I’m not really a car guy) for 90 minutes against a Columbus Crew lacking real verve.

• The biggest early match discussion was certainly a fire at an At Home store, which was quite visible from the east side of the stadium. It was probably more of a talking point than the first 20 minutes, which didn’t provide much in the way of interest or excitement, outside of, well:
• 8’ Rubio Rubin has a strong shot saved at the near post and pushed on to the post, and it was a screamer of a shot. Just really good stuff from the striker.
• 21’ Justen Glad sends a header just past the near post, and nobody would have complained if he’d scored. Except Caleb Porter. He’d probably complain loudly about it.
• 23’ Zac MacMath makes a very nice save from a long shot, pushing the ball onto the bar — Pedro Santos was very, very open from deep and made an incredibly audacious attempt on goal.
• 26’ Justen Glad has a nice read to prevent a clear one-on-one opportunity, proving once again that he’s a very good defender, and that we should all be grateful that he’s ours.
• 45+3’ Marcelo Silva picks up a yellow card for catching a Columbus attacker with his elbow going up for a header.
• 45+4’ Pablo Ruiz picks up a yellow card, too, pushing a defender in the face while applying some high pressure. Or maybe he didn’t get a card? It looks like the official count doesn’t have a yellow card. Maybe this is what I get for watching on the television.
• 62’ Justin Meram sends a low, dipping shot on goal, forcing an excellent save. Excellent shot, excellent save. It’s the best soccer we’ve seen all night.
• 66’ Jonathan Menendez and Scott Caldwell replace Rubio Rubin and Pablo Ruiz, respectively.
• 69’ Sergio Cordova makes a really nice run, picking up a superb pass from Justen Glad. One-on-one with the goalkeeper, he lifts it right into his path. Nothing terribly threatening.
• 83’ Maikel Chang subs in for Justin Meram, who had a nice opportunity earlier.
• 90+3’ We have four minutes of stoppage time, but substitutions and injury delays will prolong our misery.
• 90+5’ Columbus Crew earn a corner kick. They’re not playing it short. There’s a foul. Play continues.
• 90+6’ RSL has a corner kick after some slow, deliberate play.
• 90+7’ The game is over.