The Columbus Crew came back from a goal down to steady the ship and calm the nerves brought on by the past few weeks as they dispatched the Colorado Rapids 3-2 at Lower.com Field on Wednesday evening.
Things didn’t start out so great for the Crew after yet another defensive blunder let Colorado’s Sam Nicholson find himself through on goal and calmly put the ball past Crew ‘keeper Patrick Schulte to take an early lead.
Columbus looked shaky and took awhile to get back into the game, but in the 37th minute the talismanic Lucas Zelarayan once again took charge of the game and leveled the score with a neatly placed shot.
Half-time sub Sean Zawadzki put the Crew ahead on the hour when he headed home Zelarayan’s perfectly delivered corner.
Zelarayan added another assist to his tally in the 72nd minute when his pass into the box was well finished by a grateful Cucho who finally managed to break his recent scoring drought.
Cole Bassett pulled a goal back for Colorado in the dying moments but it was too little too late as the Crew picked up a very welcome victory.
The Crew return to action this coming Saturday with another home game against Charlotte FC.
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