In his first time returning to Columbus since leaving, Justin Meram's homecoming didn't go as he hoped for. The whistle blew and the game was underway. The Black & Gold started off fast and aggressive.
A boy amongst men. Alex Matan has developed and progressed into a key contributor for the Crew. Just 2 minutes into the match and the Crew looked to attack. dribbling through defenders and still maintaining possession of the ball, Matan was able to place a crossing pass to where only Christian Ramirez could get it. On the cross, Ramirez dove to use his head and put it past Real Salt Lake's keeper Gavin Beavers, however Beavers got there in time for the save.
Do you believe in Deja Vu? And just like that, for the second straight game, Aidan Morris has scored the opening goal for Columbus in the 14th minute. Lucas Zelarayan inviting the defense to him, gave a cheeky no-look back heel pass to Morris and he just buried passed Beavers. With that goal the Crew went up 1-0.
The 31st minute saw Patrick Schulte get a test from RSL. As Columbus was trying to clear their defensive box, Meram was able gain possession, and with a no-look pass to Chang, Chang caught Vallecilla biting and quickly changed directions and shot the ball towards what had appeared to be an open net. Fortunately, Schulte saw the ball coming towards the goal and was able to get there in time and swatted the ball away.
RSL unable to clear their defensive third, Ramirez got the ball and passed back to Will Sands to set up the attack. Quickly, Sands found Zelerayan. With the ball, Zelerayan saw an opening and turned in the box and was tripped up and drew a penalty and penalty kick. 41st minute, Zelerayan was set to take the penalty kick. On the run up, with ice in his veins, Zelerayan hesitated and froze Beavers in his tracks and scored an easy penalty kick in the bottom right corner.
The halftime whistle blew and the Columbus Crew went into halftime with all the momentum and a 2-0 lead.
At the Half, RSL head coach Pablo Mastroeni made some changes to his lineup. He brought in Diego Luna for Justin Meram, and also brought in Anderson Julio for Ilijah Paul in an attempt to creat some chaos for the Crew. Right out the gate, RSL attacked the Black & Gold's defense.
With the Crew stifling RSL's quick and aggressive attacks, Columbus got back to their game plan. In an effort to dribble around the defender, Will Sands had stopped and reversed his direction to where he found Darlington Nagbe. After receiving the pass fro Sands, Nagbe decided to play a game of "Hot Potato" with Zelerayan in the 53rd minute. With one swift touch of his heel, Zelerayan gave it back to Nagbe who was streaking into the box and fired a missile of a shot to which Beavers was unable to maintain control and the rebound trickled past him, where a trailing Morris was there to tap it in for his first ever career MLS brace and put Columbus up 3-0.
As the game went on and it approached the 74th minute, coach Nancy made the first round of his tactical substitutions. The trio of Ramirez, Nagbe, and Zelerayan coming off in the 74th to get a well-deserved rest, saw Jacen Russell-Rowe, Sean Zawadszki, and Yaw Yeboah emerge with fresh legs and a new sense of energy.
With the end of the match insight, coach Nancy made his final two subs by bringing in Max Arfsten and Jimmy Medranda for Matan and Sands who left the field to a thunderous ovation from the fans.
Just when you thought it was over, the Black & Gold's attack said," Hold my beer!!" Russell-Rowe stole the ball with a beautiful sliding tackle and then quickly went to work. As he attracted a congregation of RSL players he found Arfsten with a beautiful pass where he had a shot to chip it over Beavers who had left his line and barely poked it away from Arfsten. Yeboah had been trailing Arfsten and the ball had just bounced at the perfect time for Yaboah to gently lay it in the back of the net for his first goal as a member of the Crew just 3 minutes into stoppage time and increased the lead to 4-0.
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Just mere seconds after the ensuing kick off, the final whistle blew and the Columbus Crew went 3-0 at home this season with a 4-0 victory of RSL and also resulted in Patrick Schulte earning his first ever MLS career clean sheet. The "Man of the Match" award went to none other than Aidan Morris for his 2 goals and excellent performance, the team gathered in the North End for the tradition of singing of "Wisemen Says" with The Nordecke and all fans that stayed after.
With this match now in the books the Crew will get back to work and travel to Washington D.C. to take on D.C. United on Saturday, April 8th at 7:30pm from Audi Field.