The Miami Fusion redeemed their April 18 5-1 loss to the Crew by shutting out visiting Brian McBride and his mates 2-0 Saturday afternoon in Lockhart Stadium.Reports that Crew coach Tom Fitzgerald said that Carlos Valderrama had given up with 15 minutes to go in the second half of the 5-1 shellacking by the Crew posed an added incentive for the Fusion. The reported statement apparently infuriated Fusion coach Carlos Cordoba, and served as locker room bulletin board material for Valderrama and the Fusion. Fitzgerald denies making the comment, saying “the person who wrote that misquoted me, I never said that.” It didn’t take Valderrama much time to prove that he had no intent on giving up Saturday. Thirteen minutes into the match he finessed a pass to forward Dan Stebbins, who fired a shot off his left boot to the right corner past Crew keeper Juergen Sommer. The Crew lost a lot more than just the game Saturday. The team’s second leading scorer, Stern John, who scored a hat trick in the Crew’s last meeting with the Fusion, separated his left elbow. The injury came after a collision with Fusion keeper Jeff Cassar. The collision, which slammed John to the ground as he was breaking through the penalty box with 1:50 to play in the first half, will put John out of the Crew line-up for 2-to-4 weeks. The collision warranted a free kick for the Crew. McBride lined up one-on-one with Cassar and sent a bullet towards the left corner, but Cassar guessed right and dove left to make the save. The Crew played bounce pass with the goal pipes all day. The Fusion goal pipes had four saves on the day, blocking shots from Thomas Dooley, McBride, and Jeff Cunningham.The 95-degree heat wore the Crew down. By game’s end they substituted four players to try to revitalize the line-up with fresh legs. But their attempts were in vain as the Fusion out-hustled them for 90 minutes.The nail was pounded into the coffin in minute 82 by the “samurai,” Jerry Tamashiro, when he broke past the Crew defense and snuck a shot past a diving Sommer.With the loss, the Crew dropped to 5-3 and lost their share of first place in the Eastern Conference, which they shared with D.C. United. D.C. earned sole possession of first place by shutting out the NY/NJ MetroStars 2-0 Saturday afternoon. The four Crew World Cup players will be leaving today to join the U.S. National Team in preparation for the World Cup in June and July. McBride, Dooley, Brian Maisonneuve and Sommer will miss as few as five matches and as many as ten matches, depending upon how far the U.S. team advances in the tournament.