Christian Ramirez capped off his debut with a brace as Columbus Crew pulled off a 6-1 demolition of Atlanta United FC on Saturday night at Lower.com Field.
With the rest of the footballing world on international break, the two teams lined up with major first-team players missing and many new faces being given game time they wouldn’t normally be seeing. However, modern football is a squad game and the MLS is always going to do things its own way, and on this night it was the Crew that showed a better togetherness and adapted well to the changes. Atlanta, on the other hand, was missing seven starters and looked like a collection of players that had just met with errant passes and players being out of position resulting in their on field collapse.
Aidan Morris scored his first MLS goal as the Crew took the lead early after a barrage of attacks led to Morris popping up in the box to head the ball into the net from close range.
Columbus dominated much of the first half yet were unable to capitalize on their lead until early in the second half as the floodgates flew open and Atlanta fell to pieces.
Ramirez picked up his first with a smartly-taken left footer that flew past a wrong-footed Brad Guzan in the Atlanta goal before Philip Quinton added to the tally with a towering header.
Ramirez added a forth as Atlanta gave away possession in midfield and sat back and watched as the Crew forward confidently dispatched the ball and put the game out of site.
Jacen Russell-Rowe also got his name on the score sheet with a tidy finish as the game almost became an embarrassment with Atlanta looking like they’d rather be anywhere else, yet they did manage to get a minor consolation goal when Lennon lashed a ball beyond Crew ‘keeper, Patrick Schulte.
Max Arfsten capped off the night with a cool finish in the dying moments of the game as Columbus pulled off their biggest league win in quite a long while.
For more information, visit columbuscrew.com.
Matt Ellis is a freelance photographer who covers music that happens in the city and the Columbus Crew SC home games. More photography from Matt can be found at his Instagram page.
All photos by Matt Ellis