COLUMBUS, Ohio—On Sunday, Kei Kamara's moment of redemption was a game-winner.
The veteran forward scored in the 111th minute of Columbus Crew SC's 3-1 victory over the Montreal Impact at MAPFRE Stadium, putting his team through to the Audi 2015 MLS Playoffs Eastern Conference Championship.
“It went in and I was running to the side to celebrate with the fans and I didn’t see any of my teammates around me, so I thought something went wrong – I thought the ref called something,” said Kamara, with a laugh. “[Then] I felt people just jumping on me. It was a relief. You can’t have it any other way. That’s just how the game is supposed to go, right there. It was a packed house – [I] enjoyed every minute of that.”
As entertaining as he found scoring the winner, Kamara could have done without some of the early drama.
Though his first goal gave Crew SC a lead in the 4th minute, Kamara had the chance to take the match to overtime with a 68th-minute penalty kick. Impact goalkeeper Evan Bush made the save.
Fortunately for Kamara, an Ethan Finlay strike in the 77th minute offered another chance, and as he'd done 23 other times this season, Kamara converted. After scoring the winner, Kamara able to poke fun at the idea of missing his only PK attempt of the season.
"What penalty?" he quipped, before admitting it initially proved hard to move on.
“It’s tough,” Kamara said. “For every striker, you think about it for a little bit. But they tell you to have a really short memory. You miss goals, you miss stuff. I hit the crossbar; that could have gone in.”
“There was a lot of saying during the season that I didn’t score any penalties to get the Golden Boot,” he continued. “I guess I still haven’t scored any penalties.”
Kamara credited his wingers, Finlay Cedrick Mabwati, for putting him in position to succeed: Finlay for putting the team back in the game with his aggregate-equalizing strike and Mabwati for creating the game-winner with his crossing assist.
Shut down against Montreal in the away leg last Sunday, Kamara thought the roaring Columbus crowd helped him find the energy to score the winner, but didn't discount a special week in training.
“I wasn’t as involved in the last game and I wasn’t so happy about that,” he said. “I pushed myself during the week and said, ‘It doesn’t matter what happens because it’s do-or-die in this game. If we don’t win it, there’s no other chance that I’m going to get. So no matter what’s happening, I just have to keep pushing myself.’ That’s what I did today, and there were great crosses into the box.”
Head coach Gregg Berhalter praised Kamara for battling – for every ball – and helping the team in all the ways necessary for a successful striker. Even while acknowledging the penalty miss, the coach called Kamara's performance "excellent."
Midfielder Michael Parkhurst acknowledged the team has been leaning on Kamara all season.
“He was our MVP for a reason," Parkhurst said. "We knew he would come through for us – he always does. Tonight was no different. He was fantastic.”
That the redemptive victory came against Kamara’s idol, Ivorian legend Didier Drogba, made it extra sweet. Columbus held Drogba scoreless, and Kamara's two goals ended the Impact's playoff run. Yet the Crew SC striker resisted making it a two-man story.
“[Drogba] is still a legend, to me,” Kamara said. “I got his top after the game and he gave me some advice and all that. Just being on the field with him, it’s amazing. It’s a dream. So I cherished it, but it was about us tonight. We got that win. I’m sure back ion Sierra Leone they’re writing in the paper, ‘Kei Kamara beat Drogba,’ but that’s not it. Crew SC won.”
