COLUMBUS – The Columbus Crew were just minutes away from escaping with a point. Instead, one late breakdown turned a frustrating night into another defeat.

New York Red Bulls found the winning goal in the 89th minute, handing Columbus a 1-0 loss in a match where the Crew’s biggest problems weren’t necessarily a lack of possession or effort. They were a lack of danger in front of goal and too many costly turnovers throughout the night.

For much of the match, Columbus struggled to make its possession mean anything.

The Crew could move the ball into the attacking half, but once they reached the final third, the attack frequently lost its edge. Passes went sideways rather than forward, promising possessions fizzled out, and the Red Bulls rarely faced the sustained defensive pressure that can create cracks.

That’s ultimately the problem with controlling a match without creating enough danger. It gives the opponent a chance to hang around.

And New York did exactly that.

The Red Bulls didn’t need to dominate possession or create chance after chance. They simply needed to remain organized, capitalize when Columbus made mistakes and wait for an opportunity.

Columbus gave them plenty of opportunities to stay in the game through turnovers.

Too many Crew possessions ended with giveaways, particularly in areas where losing the ball immediately exposed the team to New York’s transition game. The Red Bulls were able to turn those mistakes into counterattacking opportunities, preventing Columbus from establishing the consistent pressure it needed.

Against a team built to punish turnovers, that is a dangerous formula.

Still, Columbus managed to keep the match scoreless deep in the second half.

That made the lack of attacking production even more frustrating.

When the Crew wasn’t threatening New York’s goal, every turnover carried greater weight. Every missed chance to create quality scoring chances increased the importance of staying defensively focused. And with the match still level late, one moment was always going to have the potential to decide everything.

It did.

New York broke through in the 89th minute, off of a turnover from midfielder Tarun Karumanchi that was finished by Ronald Donkor. That goal left Columbus with virtually no time to respond.

The Crew can point to the late goal as the decisive moment, but the problems started much earlier.

A team doesn’t lose a match like this simply because it conceded in the 89th minute. It loses because it spent too much of the previous 88 minutes failing to pressure the opponent, making that late goal irrelevant.

Columbus needed more from its attack. It needed to be cleaner with the ball. Most importantly, it needed to make New York uncomfortable.

It didn’t do enough of those things.

And against an opponent willing to wait for its opportunity, that lack of cutting edge ultiamtely proved costly.

What’s next?

The Columbus Crew are back home on Wednesday, September 16, to take on Orlando City SC in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. Kickoff from Scott’s Miracle-Gro Field is slated for 7 p.m. EDT.