The Crew are coming off a much-needed bye week. The time was well spent. a few players needed the time to recover from injuries, and a few that are just starting to begin rehabbing their injuries. This Saturday, Columbus will play host to Orlando City for the annual "On Our Sleeves" match highlighting juvenile mental health awareness. The Black & Gold will look to get back on track and get back to playing Nancy ball.
This past Wednesday, the Crew were in action taking on USL Championship Loudon United in the fourth round of the US Open Cup. The Black & Gold got of to a quick start and never looked back. Defeating Loudon 5-1 on Wednesday, pushed Columbus on to the next round of the US Open Cup and created momentum going into Saturdays match against Orlando.
Last time the Crew was at home the match ended in a 2-1 loss to Inter Miami. Cucho Hernandez scored his first goal of the season in that match and looked to be back in form to score more.
Injury report: Both Josh Williams and Milos Degenek are out with ankle injuries. Kevin Molino, Eloy Room, Will Sands are out with knee injuries and Luis Diaz is out with a back injury. Steven Moreira is questionable for the match on Saturday.
Keys to the match: First, get Cucho involved early, and play through Lucas Zelarayan. If the Black & Gold can get off to a fast start and dictated the game early and play through Zelerayan, it will open up room for Cucho to be involved and active early and set the pace. The second key is: young stars continue to shine. The Crew have been plagued by some injuries so far this season which opened spots for some of the younger stars such as : Jacen Russell-Rowe, Mo Farsi, Alex Matan, Isaiah Parente, Max Arfsten, and others to step up and show the world that they belong here. If the younger stars continue to shine bright while the injured players are rehabbing to come back, the Black & Gold will be just fine.
Orlando comes into this match against Columbus in sitting in 9th place in the standings and has a record of 4-4-2. Orlando is coming off a 2-0 loss to Montreal last week and a 1-0 loss to Charlotte in the US Open Cup on Tuesday.
Both teams boast the same record of 4-4-2. This will surely be a good match to see who can break out of their slumps first. Will Orlando have an edge against Columbus with having an extra day to prepare or will Columbus come out firing like they did against Loudon on Wednesday and set the tone early?