Sandy » Everybody on the Real Salt Lake side was surprised to see reigning league Most Valuable Player Guillermo Barros Schelotto and veteran forward Alejandro Moreno on the bench for Columbus in its Major League Soccer playoff game Saturday.
But coach Robert Warzycha had his reasons.
"We didn't score any goals the last five games, and they were on the field," he said. "So I felt like maybe we would go with ... a different combination."
Actually, the Crew had scored just one goal in its last four regular-season league games -- three of them losses. And when they used forwards Steven Lenhart and Jason Garey against RSL at home in July, they emerged with a 3-1 victory, so Warzycha was comfortable starting Lenhart and recently acquired Emilio Renteria in what turned out to be a 1-0 loss at Rio Tinto Stadium.
"We have to occupy two defenders," Warzycha said, "which we did today, but we didn't create too many chances."
To RSL, though, that simply proved the Crew was not seriously going for the win.
After all, Schelotto and Moreno scored 16 goals with four assists between them in the regular season, while Renteria had played only five games with the Crew and Lenhart was only a part-time starter.
Of course, the Crew is almost as tough at home as RSL, so it made some sense to play for a draw and hope for a victory at home in the second leg of the series next week -- no doubt with a rested Schelotto and Moreno back in the lineup.
"They wanted to bunker in and get a zero," RSL goalkeeper Nick Rimando said. "So to catch them on their heels and come out and get a win, it's great going in there."
