Columbus, OH (My Sportsbook) - Columbus Crew coach Sigi Schmid, in his ninth season in Major League Soccer, became the second coach in league history to reach 100 wins by leading his club to a 1-0 victory at Crew Stadium on Saturday night against the Houston Dynamo.
"It is a great feeling, it means I have been around for a little while," Schmidt said. "It means I'm old. It means as well that I've had some good players and some good teams. It is definitely special to reach a milestone like that."
An Alejandro Moreno goal in the first half was the difference as Schmid joins current U.S. national team coach Bob Bradley, who has 124 MLS wins, in the century club.
"Well, it's important because - and I think Sigi will tell you that - we have a pretty good relationship and we have a lot of mutual respect for what we do, and to be able to help in his 100th win is special for me," Moreno said. "It's special for him and I certainly wish him all the best."
Schmid began his MLS coaching career in Los Angeles in '99 and stayed there until '04, leading the Galaxy to an MLS Cup title in '02. In his third season as Crew coach the team has yet to make the playoffs, but a strong start to the '08 campaign - four wins in five tries - has the club looking like a playoff contender early on.
Crew 'keeper Will Hesmer made six saves to keep the back-to-back defending champion Houston Dynamo winless in five games this season.
"We're disappointed right now, but I can't say it's because of not playing good soccer," Houston coach Dominic Kinnear said. "It's just sometimes you're getting the breaks and sometimes you're not, and we're getting punished for mistakes and getting punished severely. We never really have gotten a game this year where we've taken the pressure off ourselves, one way or another, and we just told them in there that we have to stick together and we can't let our heads drop too low for too long. Obviously, we're disappointed because I think we came here and deserved something out of the game, but I know this group and I know we'll bounce back."
The result was Hesmer's second clean sheet of the season.
Moreno's goal came off a corner kick taken by Guillermo Barros Schelotto in the 22nd minute. The Argentine veteran swung a ball into the Houston box that was headed on goal by Crew defender Chad Marshall. After a defender blocked the shot, Moreno pounced on the rebound and fired it past goalkeeper Pat Onstad for his fourth goal of the season.
The Dynamo possessed the ball for much of the second half, pushing for the equalizer while out shooting the Crew 16-9 in the game, but were unable to beat Hesmer as they fell to 0-2-3 on the season, good for last place in the Western table.
"That's something that's been missing from this team, I think, in the past couple years, is that willingness to just find a way to win,' Hesmer said. "We persevered, we pressed through some tough times and dodged some bullets, for sure, but at the end of the day we made those critical plays that we had to."
The Crew improved to 4-1-0, which is good for tops in the entire league.
Columbus, which is 3-0 at home this season, will look to continue its scorching start to the season when it hosts Kansas City next Saturday. Houston will aim for its first win of the season when it hosts Chivas USA later the same day.
