Saturday, the Columbus Crew traveled south to take on Nashville SC for a honky tonk rumble without star forward Cucho Hernandez (team decision). After the chaotic match last Saturday, The Crew looked to turn things around against a Nashville team that was embarrassed last Saturday 5-0 by LAFC.
With the Crew's star striker, Cucho Hernandez out, it was next man up. Young sensation Jacen Russell-Rowe got 3rd start tonight for The Crew. It was all Columbus to start the match. Columbus looked more poised and composed at the start. In then 17th minute The Crew earned a corner kick. Stepping up take the corner, Diego Rossi took a deep breath, sent the corner toward the back post of Elliot Panicco to a waiting Sean Zawadzki for the header to put the Black & Gold up 1-0 over Nashville.
As the first 45 minutes came to a close and 6 minutes of stoppage time was announced, The Crew stood tall unitl, the 90th +3 came around. Hany Muhktar was in the right place at the right time as tapped the rebound from Patrick Schulte's save and tied the match up.
Just 6 minutes later, Nashville was back on the attack. Nashville's Jacob Shaffleburg sent the ball into the box where Anibal Godoy was left unmarked and rose up for the bicycle goal to put Nashville up 2-1 right before halftime.
Halftime whistle blew and the Black & Gold went into the locker room to regroup and come out in the second half swinging.
As the second half got underway, Diego Rossi was fouled by Jack Maher in the 45th minute. The ref allowed the play to continue while VAR took a look. Play finally stopped and the center ref went over to look at the VAR screen. The check was completed, and a yellow card was issued to Maher and The Crew were awarded a penalty kick in the 49th minute. Rossi stepped to try and end his goal drought. Rossi stepped up with the stutter step and sends it to the near post and it deflected off the post. Rossi's scoring struggles still continue.
Nashville seemed to have Columbus on their heels after that missed PK. Then the match started to turn towards Columbus' favor. After coming on at halftime for Sean Zawadzki, Marino Hinestroza finally got his first goal with the Black & Gold. With Yaw Yeboah charging on the left side towards the box, he gave a little chip shot of a pass to Hinestroza who timed it perfectly to head the ball across Panicco and into the back of the net for the equalizer 2-2.
After the game-tying goal, Columbus still had their foot on the gas pedal but began to slowly take it off. 90 minutes down and the 4th official announced 6 minutes of stoppage time. So far this year stoppage time really hasn't been good to Columbus. Just look at the first half. Nonetheless, Columbus still tried for the win.
The final whistle blew and Columbus hobbles out of Nashville sharing the points and leaves with a record of 3-1-2.
With all the injuries that have plagued Columbus within the last week, walking away with a draw doesn't seem like the ideal outcome, but The Crew left it all out on the pitch. Now the Black & Gold turn their attention to the next round of the CONCACAF Champions Cup match against Tigres on Tuesday at 7pm.