The streaking Columbus Crew will try to keep rolling on Saturday when they host a New York City FC side they defeated two weeks ago en route to winning the 2024 Leagues Cup.
The Crew (13-4-7, 46 points) required penalties to topple NYCFC (11-9-6, 39 points) in a home quarterfinal on Aug. 17 following a tightly contested 1-1 draw.
Thar was the only imperfection during Columbus’ five-match run to a second major title in less than a year.
For NYCFC, sitting only two places behind the third-place Crew in the Eastern Conference standings, the rapid rematch represents a chance to measure some progress.
“We know that they’ve been really successful of late, but we played well in that game, and it was fairly even in the sense of possession and goal chances,” NYCFC manager Nick Cushing said. “It’s a difficult place to go to, but there’s definitely parts of that game that have helped us to prepare.”
NYCFC also may be getting Columbus at a good time, after the Crew had to regroup from last Sunday’s Leagues Cup final win over LAFC for a gritty 1-0 league victory at the Philadelphia Union on Wednesday night.
Crew manager Wilfried Nancy rotated much of his lineup and brought attacking stars Cucho Hernandez and Diego Rossi off the bench during the second half. The former helped set up Yaw Yeboah’s 75th-minute winner for his ninth assist of the season to go with 13 goals.
“I’m really proud of what they did because again, this is so difficult to play against this team, the way they play and the intensity that they put,” Nancy said. “The fact that everybody was involved and we were able to start with a few guys and after that to finish with other guys and they keep the level great because everybody was tired — I really like that.”
NYCFC have drawn four consecutive league matches, most recently giving back a two-goal lead in a 2-2 draw against the visiting Chicago Fire last Saturday. Alonso Martinez continued his somewhat overlooked breakout season in that one with his ninth and 10th league goals.
–Field Level Media