Vancouver Whitecaps headed to Columbus this evening looking for their first MLS away win against eastern opposition. Somehow, they got it.
The Caps played ugly, rode their luck on several occasions, and kept another clean sheet under intense pressure throughout from the home side.
Teams that pull off such feats, are the teams that compete for championships.
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The Whitecaps were forced to make one change from last week's winning starting line up against Dallas. A quad injury to Camilo Sanvezzo in training on Tuesday prevented him from making the trip to Ohio, and Eric Hassli regained his place up front to partner Sebastien Le Toux and Omar Salgado.
Michael Nanchoff has been the story of the week in the build up to the game and he found a place on the bench for the first time this season, after finally recovering from a heel injury he sustained pre-season in Orlando.
The 500 plus members of his family and friends that were in attendance were delighted to see him there, although he wasn't able to see any gametime action.
Columbus themselves were plagued with injury problems going in to this game and had a weakened side from the start. You couldn't tell, as they immediately took the game to Vancouver and thought they had opened the scoring in the third minute.
A Crew inswinging corner from the left was met perfectly by Josh Williams in the six yard box, and although he buried the ball past Joe Cannon, the goal was ruled off for a foul by Chad Marshall on Jay DeMerit as the ball had come over.
It was an early let off for Vancouver, but showed the danger that the home side posed on set pieces.
Three minutes later and Columbus had the ball in the net again, through Eddie Gaven, only for this effort to be ruled off for a clear offside.
Vancouver's marking was already being called into question, but the whole team were struggling to stamp any authority onto the game in the opening stages.
With nine minutes on the clock, and against the run of play, the Whitecaps forced Andy Gruenebaum into the first save of the game.
After miscontrolling a short pass from Young-Pyo Lee, Matt Watson showed tenacity to first win the ball back in a challenge with Danny O'Rourke, before playing a neat one-two with Eric Hassli, powering through the Crew backline and firing a shot on goal from 12 yards out.
Gruenebaum could only parry the fierce shot but Sebastien Le Toux blasted the rebound high and over.
Gaven was given another chance to break the deadlock in the 11th minute when he was left wide open to get on the end of an Aaron Schoenfeld cross but headed over from just inside the box.
Crew rookie Schoenfeld had done well to push DeMerit off the ball and get the cross in, as the usually solid Whitecaps defence looked very out of sorts.
Columbus were looking the more dangerous and forced a couple of corners, and they came close again to opening the scoring off one of them in the 16th minute.
Nemanja Vukovic sent a corner deep to Marshall at the back post, which the Crew captain headed dangerously across the goalmouth and Williams met it with a spectacular overhead effort which crashed off the bar.
It was yet another lucky escape for the Whitecaps and you had to wonder how long they could hold firm under the constant Crew pressure.
Luckily for the Whitecaps, the pressure relented and although the home side were dominating possession, the Caps backline had regrouped and were looking more composed.
With seven minutes of the half remaining, Cannon was forced to turn a long range Gaven effort out for a corner, after his dipping ball took a dangerous hop in front of the veteran stopper.
And Cannon had to show quick reactions again in the 44th minute when Schoenfeld collected a short pass on the edge of the box and DeMerit allowed him time to turn and fire off a goalbound effort, which saw Cannon do well to get down to his right and turn around the post.
The half time whistle must have come as a relief to the Whitecaps and gave Martin Rennie the chance to regroup and re-look at the tactics for the second half, with Columbus dominating possession 58.3% to 41.7% and looking likely to score on most attacks.
And it only took the home side 53 seconds of the second half to come close again to the game's opening goal.
Gaven cut the ball back to Olman Vargas inside the box and his shot ricocheted off the side of DeMerit back into the path of Gaven, who hit narrowly wide under pressure from Martin Bonjour.
Omar Salgado had his first success of the game out left four minutes into the half, when he powered through to the byeline before Vukovic turned his cross over for a corner, with Le Toux waiting to pounce on the goal-line.
Tony Tchani was allowed to run at the Caps defence just past the hour mark and shot into the side netting, after first Hassli just gave up tracking back and then DeMerit continued to stand off him.
Gershon Koffie responded for the Whitecaps, with a weak shot from the edge of the box and, moments later, Le Toux had a quick breakaway but was let down by the lack of support, which when it finally came through Hassli and Salgado, wasted the opportunity.
A quick turn from Hassli in the 73rd minute saw O'Rourke bring him down for a free kick to right of the box.
It was the be the Frenchman's last action in the game and he unhappily made way for Atiba Harris.
As both sides regrouped for the Y-P Lee's free kick, the Korean's diagonal outswinger lost a bit of curl, and with Gruenebaum flapping, the ball settled into the top left hand corner of the net for an unlikely Vancouver lead.
The goal seemed to take all the wind out of the Crew's sails and they became a spent force.
Vancouver had a couple of half chances to wrap things up, but easily saw out the remaining time. That alone, is a marked difference between the team this year and the Whitecaps of last season. This team can hold on to a lead.
Columbus will be left wondering how they came out of this game with nothing.
Vancouver may have staged a smash and grab, but the morale boost that winning after such a performance will give the team is huge. Now they can look ahead to the forthcoming Voyageurs Cup with even more confidence.
ATT : 11,978
FINAL SCORE : Columbus Crew 0 - 1 Vancouver Whitecaps
COLUMBUS : Andy Gruenebaum; Sebastian Miranda (Kirk Urso 87), Chad Marshall, Josh Williams, Nemanja Vukovic; Eddie Gaven, Danny O'Rourke, Milovan Mirosevic, Tony Tchani; Olman Vargas (Emilio Renteria 71), Aaron Schoenfeld (Ethan Finlay 57) [subs Not Used: Matt Lampson, Eric Gehrig, Cole Grossman, Shaun Francis]
VANCOUVER : Joe Cannon; Young-Pyo Lee, Martin Bonjour, Jay DeMerit, Jordan Harvey; Jun Marques Davidson, Gershon Koffie, Matt Watson; Omar Salgado (John Thorrington 83), Eric Hassli (Atiba Harris 74), Sebastien Le Toux [subs Not Used: Brad Knighton, Greg Klazura, Carlyle Mitchell, Michael Nanchoff, Davide Chiumiento]
REFEREE : Hilario Grajeda
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