Birchall fires Columbus past DCU

The telling strike came early on in the second half as Birchall latched on to
a brilliant through ball from Jairo Arrieta and fired a powerful shot past Joe
Willis for his first goal since joining the Crew back in May.

D.C. came close to equalizing on a couple of occasions as Dwayne De Rosario
had a goal pulled back for offsides in the 50th minute and Long Tan struck the
woodwork two minutes from time.

But Columbus, having entered Saturday’s match with four goals conceded in its
last two league matches, held on to the clean sheet thanks to some organized
defensive play, led by goalkeeper Andy Gruenebaum.

The Crew (7-7-4) improve to 25 points on the season and return to action July
28 with a trip to Livestrong Sporting Park to take on Sporting Kansas City.
United (10-7-3) has a friendly match with French side PSG slated for next
Saturday, but returns to league play the following week in another meeting
with Columbus.