Crew learning to put teams away decisively
Their previous four matches ended with decisive goals in the final minutes, but Saturday the Crew put a flair for the dramatic aside to for a 3-0 win over the New York Red Bulls at Lower.com Field.
"It's not easy to play against the New York Red Bulls, after many games in a row," said Crew coach Wilfried Nancy. "When I was in the locker room, I wanted to step back a bit, just to think about how we did it. The way we played ... was a really, really good game with the ball, but also without the ball."
Striker Cucho Hernandez scored the first goal from directly in front of Red Bulls goalkeeper Carlos Coronel off a pass from Yaw Yeboah in the 13th minute. At the 56-minute mark, Hernandez gave Columbus its first multiple-goal lead of the season with Jacen Russellrowe recording an assist.
Midfielder Aidan Morris increased the lead to 3-0 in the 66th minute, finding the back of the net following a Crew corner kick, marking Columbus' first goal off a set piece this season.
Once the game went into second-half stoppage time, Nancy made his last round of substitutions, including putting Will Sands in for Yeboah. Sidelined with an ACL tear back in April of 2023, this was the 23-year-old's first match since the injury.
"It's a moment I've been waiting for, for a very long time," Sands said. "After a kind of rough last year, it's good to finally be back and get back into the swing of things."
Columbus held the advantage in terms of possession, controlling the ball 57.9% of the time, and the club's defense stifled the Red Bulls, allowing just three shot attempts, two on goal. The Crew had 13 shots, six on goal.
"They've been really good all year
limiting teams to not as many chances," said Crew goalkeeper Patrick Schulte of the players in front of him. "And I think that was a goal of ours from last year, we allowed too many goals. Having two shots makes my life a lot easier."
The match was a physical one. At one point during the first half, Yeboah and New York's Peter Stroud had to be separated after a brief scuffle. The two teams combined for 27 fouls and five yellow cards, with New York's Daniel Edelman being given a red during stoppage time.
"I don't like to talk about the referees because I know that they tried to do a good job, and I respect that it's not easy to ref, but it's difficult" Nancy said. "Sometimes they make calls, and this is not common sense. So, I cannot compete with that, so it's just difficult."
The win marked the end of a 15-day stretch in which Columbus played five games, and now the Crew are off until Saturday when they will face Charlotte FC on the road. bmackay@dispatch.com @brimackay15