As Real Salt Lake’s Jeff Cunningham, last season’s leading scorer with 16 goals, got behind the Crew defense and bore down on goal, Gruenebaum cut off the angle, held his ground and made a crucial stop.
The strong play of Gruenebaum was to be the theme of the night. He made a string of pivotal saves en route to recording his second clean sheet of the season with a 0-0 draw against Real Salt Lake, Saturday at Rice-Eccles Stadium. It was the Crew’s second scoreless draw in as many games.
“You know, it feels really good (to get the shutout),” he said. “It’s like I said before, though – the guys in front of me are working extremely hard and that’s the reason we are getting shut outs,” Gruenebaum said.
Gruenebaum, now in his second MLS season, was selected by Columbus as the third overall pick in the 2006 MLS supplemental draft from the University of Kentucky, where he recorded 21 shutouts.
After playing with the Crew’s reserves part of last season, Gruenebaum made his senior team debut in May after Jon Busch tore his ACL. He started the club’s final two games – a 4-1 win against Chicago and a 1-0 loss against New England.
Gruenebaum said playing behind a veteran defense has been beneficial.
“If you look at our back four, everyone’s a veteran. They’ve been playing a long time and it definitely helps me, being younger,” he said. “They are working incredibly hard and it makes things easy for me – it limits the chances.”
Scoring ConcernsThe Crew, which scored a league-worst 30 goals in 32 matches last season, has not scored this year. Despite the scoring drought, the team has created scoring opportunities.
Defender Marcos Gonzalez came close Saturday, as his powerful header from six yards out was cleared off the line in the sixth minute. In the 14th minute, forward Jason Garey dribbled around Salt Lake goalkeeper Nick Rimando, but had his shot blocked by Eddie Pope. Forward Kei Kamara had the Crew’s best chance in the match’s final stages, but he could only direct his header from Frankie Hejduk’s cross over the goal.
“I think we are going to definitely work on finishing,” midfielder Eddie Gaven said. “We’re probably going to do a lot of shooting drills, because that’s what this game is all about – putting the ball in the net. It doesn’t matter how good or bad we play if we aren’t putting the ball in the net.”
Coach Sigi Schmid concurred: “Obviously we need to finish chances. We need to be a little more definite in the final third. We need to do a better job of being clever.”
Up NextThe Crew plays the New England Revolution (1-1-0) Thursday at Crew Stadium. The match starts at 7 p.m. and will be televised nationally on ESPN2. New England, which reached the 2006 MLS Cup final, beat Toronto FC 4-0 Saturday behind two goals from U.S. international Taylor Twellman.
George Kioussis can be reached at [email protected].
