RSL road woes let Crew snap losing streak

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Frankie Hejduk scored two first-half goals to lead the Columbus Crew past Real Salt Lake 2-0 on Saturday.

The Crew (3-5-0) snapped a four-game losing streak.

Hejduk's first goal came despite an excellent play by Salt Lake goalkeeper D.J. Countess, whose leaping, right-handed denial of Chad Marshall's header in the 14th minute sent the ball against the crossbar. It was deflected onto the goal line, where a charging Hejduk touched it into the net.

Hejduk scored again 13 minutes later, using his head to redirect a pass from Simon Elliott past Countess into the right side of the goal.

"Anytime you get two goals you feel good about yourself, especially if you win," Hejduk said. "You could score five goals, and if you lose, who cares? The main thing is we got a victory."

Salt Lake (3-4-2) continued to struggle on the road, where it has added only one point in five road matches — a season-opening tie.

Real Salt Lake Coach John Ellinger suggested the midweek game against CD Chivas USA in Salt Lake City may have left his team short of energy against Columbus.

"Up until today maybe you could say it was (not) putting together two good halves of effort," Ellinger said of Salt Lake's poor road record. "But today I think it wasn't a lack of effort. I just think we gave as much as we could give based on playing a hard game on Wednesday."

The Crew finished the game with 10 men after Cornell Glen was shown a red card for violent conduct in the 77th minute. Glen was sent off after appearing to strike Salt Lake defender Rusty Pierce.

Earlier in the half, referee Kevin Stott allowed play to continue after Glen was tackled from behind by Brian Dunseth inside the Salt Lake penalty area.

Crew coach Greg Andrulis praised Stott as "one of the best (referees) in the league" but said he planned to review videotape of the two decisions.

"I thought there were harder fouls for red cards tonight than the one Cornell got," Andrulis said. "I didn't see the whole thing. Maybe (Stott) saw something different. . . . It didn't seem to me to be a red card."

Salt Lake did little to trouble Crew goalkeeper Jon Busch after Jason Kreis outmaneuvered three Crew defenders to force a good save from Busch in the sixth minute.

Pierce's hard shot from outside the penalty area grazed the crossbar in the second half.

Ellinger said his team's inability to find good scoring opportunities against Columbus was costly.