When a red card to Mohammed Saeid seemed to cripple Columbus Crew SC just 33 minutes into the club's 2-0 loss to the San Jose Earthquakes on Saturday, many teams would have gone into a defensive shell.
But for Gregg Berhalter's club, a change of style wasn't an option. And even without his deep-lying midfielder, Berhalter said after the match that he still felt the club could find a win with only 10 men.
"To lose Mohammed, it hurt," Berhalter told MLSsoccer.com after the match. "We wanted to compensate for it by moving Federico [Higuain] back, and I think he did a good job. But I think we lost our ability to threaten up top. So that's what put us in a difficult situation.
"I think we could have sped up to keep the ball, and it would have been an extremely tough task. I ask a lot of these guys, and sometimes it's not always possible. But we still had the intention to try and control the game. We just couldn't do it."
And while that task may have been too much for the team, Berhalter said that's the standard he holds his players to, naive or not.
"The expectations I have for this group are extremely high," he said. "I expect them to still be able to control the game, even down a man. Maybe that's foolish of me; maybe that's not always possible. But I know this is a good group, I know we have a lot of talented players, and I believe in these guys. That's why I ask a lot of them."
After a scoreless first 45 minutes, Crew SC captain Michael Parkhurst said the players thought that result was possible. But thanks to goals by San Jose's Chris Wondolowski and Shea Salinas within the first 15 minutes of the second half, that plan was quickly dashed.
"We came in at halftime and regrouped and thought we could hang in there and defend well and catch one maybe on the counter or come out of here at zero-zero," Parkhurst said. "That didn't go according to plan. Given the early goal in the second half, we were in trouble."
Berhalter said he'll talk to Saeid during the week of training about the fouls that resulted in two early yellows, and midfielder Ethan Finlay stood by his teammate after the game.
"Mo is a smart player; he's just trying to make a play on the ball," Finlay said. "I think he knows it wasn't a good decision. But we stand by him; he's a great player. We move on to the next game."
Perhaps more concerning than Saeid's dismissal is the continued trend of disappointing road results for Columbus. The team has yet to win away from MAPFRE Stadium in 2015, posting a 0-3-2 record to start the season.
Berhalter reiterated his one-game-at-a-time mentality, and said he hopes players aren't thinking about the streak. But Finlay made it clear that the club needs to improve.
"What we need to realize is that we have to bring the same intensity that we have in home games on away games," he said. "Our road trips have not been as successful as we had hoped. So this is another disappointing road result, but it's something we can turn around."
Asked what positives he can take from the match, Parkhurst paused before an honest assessment of the San Jose trip.
"We'll take our positives from other games," he said.
Andrew King covers Columbus Crew SC for MLSsoccer.com.
