The befuddled look on the Columbus Crew’s goalkeeper Jon Busch said it all following a disappointing 1-0 loss to Eastern Conference foe New York/New Jersey MetroStars on Saturday afternoon at Crew Stadium.

Busch’s dazed and confused appearance from the MetroStars’ (1-1-1) decisive goal that prevented the Crew (2-1-1) from continuing their best start in franchise history.

After a MetroStar corner kick, the ball rolled out to defender Steve Jolley who ripped a shot that sailed wide of the goal, but the shot found the foot of rookie forward Mike Magee, whose touch directed the ball to the top of the net in the 59th minute of play.

“Jolley mishit his shot, it went to Magee and he mishit his – danced under the side of the crossbar,” Busch said.

“It was kind of a fluky goal, but on our part we’ve got to do better defending on that,” he said. “Jolley was way too open, and whoever was marking Magee left him too early and allowed him the opportunity to knock it in our goal.”

Magee became the hero for the MetroStars after replacing forward Jaime Moreno at the 22-minute mark. Moreno was forced to leave the game after suffering a sprain in his lower back.

At age 18, the youngest member on the MetroStars’ roster, the goal was the first in Magee’s Major League Soccer career.

“I got a goal – my first goal,” he said. “It takes a lot of pressure off for the next games. I don’t have to worry about scoring that first goal. It’s an amazing feeling.”

The 12,165 Crew fans in attendance didn’t have much to cheer about, as the team was unable to convert its seven shots on goal. New York/New Jersey reverted to playing a defensive game once it got the lead to limit the Crew from creating any real scoring opportunities.

“Certainly a lack of inspiring performance by us today, but I think we have to give credit to the MetroStars,” said Crew coach Greg Andrulis. “Defensively, they bottled things up pretty good for us. We weren’t able to get things done in the final third and ultimately getting shut out at home is pretty disappointing.”

Crew forwards Jeff Cunningham and Brian McBride had a tough day as both were marked at different times by veteran MetroStar defenders Eddie Pope and Jolley.

“They did a good job of defending Brian and myself by not allowing us any room to get shots,” Cunningham said, who got his first start of the season, replacing the injured Edson Buddle.

When the forwards were able to push ahead on the attack, the tough MetroStar midfield and defense stopped the Crew’s offensive flow with its rough play. New York/New Jersey finished with 12 fouls.

Cunningham had two of the best chances to score during the game, but he came up just short on his attempts.

The first scoring threat came with five minutes left before half time, when MetroStar goalkeeper Tim Howard rolled the ball onto the field to clear it, but Cunningham sneaked up from behind him and stole it.

“The goalkeeper has six seconds to get rid of the ball out of their hands and get it in play, so sooner or later he had to get rid of it,” Cunningham said. “Howard did a good job of recovering it. As soon as I took it away from him, he got down and got a hand on it.”

The second scoring chance came in the 68th minute, when Cunningham found some open space and struck a 10-yard shot. The attempt found the side of the net, which half of Crew Stadium thought went in.

“I should have done better with that,” Cunningham said. “It was not as accurate a shot as I wanted it, but it was a good attempt.”