 Seattle had most of the early scoring opportunities . Two minutes into the match , Montero took the first shot of the game with a header at close range which was saved by Crew goalkeeper Gruenebaum . Seconds later , Montero had another shot from distance which went just over the bar . Four minutes later , Seattle midfielder Zakuani got around Crew defender Frankie Hejduk and passed the ball to Blaise Nkufo whose tap @-@ in attempt was saved by Gruenbaum . In the 12th minute , Gaven took the Crew 's first shot of the match but it flew high over the crossbar . In the 16th minute Zakuani had a run up the middle before passing to Montero , whose shot was again saved by Gruenbaum . Columbus successfully defended crosses from Zakuani and Nkufo in the 18th minute and kept Seattle from getting a shot off . Columbus nearly took the lead in the 20th minute as Emmanuel Ekpo got behind the defense and made a quick pass back to Gaven , who missed a wide @-@ open shot over the bar . 
