The Columbus Crew put on their most impressive performance in recent memory in front of 20,729, beating an in form LA Galaxy 4-1. The Galaxy were flying high coming into this match, having only lost once in their last 13 matches. The win also moves the Crew up to fourth and back into the playoff position with ten games remaining.
The game started at a relentless pace with both teams setup to attack, creating an open and free-flowing game. The Galaxy started off better with their high pressing giving the Columbus defense no time on the ball and quick passing caving through Columbus, but they were unable to find the first goal.
Columbus started to come back in the game and opened the scoring on 23 minutes through the ever-improving Justin Meram. After he collected a pass from Tony Tchani, he spun on the edge of the penalty box and dispatched a curling effort into the top corner, giving Galaxy goalkeeper Jaime Penedo no chance.
The Crew were starting to play some scintillating attacking football and was 2 up after 33 minutes. Meram was again at the heart of it, collecting the ball and running at the Galaxy defense. His reverse pass found the overlapping Ethan Finlay, who blasted a shot that hit the underside of the bar and dropped in.
LA started the second half in similar fashion to the first and got back into the game on 49 minutes. Dan Gargan’s right field cross found Gyasi Zardes, whose first time volley found the corner past Crew keeper Steve Clark. As Galaxy started to press for the equalizer, Robbie Keane had two great chances to level the scores. The best was on 71 minutes after a direct ball was flicked on, but his shot was straight at Steve Clark.
With the Galaxy pressing there was more space at the back and on 74 minutes Columbus restored their two-goal advantage. Finlay, who was finding space down the right, cut in and played a ball across to Ben Speas who took a touch and blasted across Penedo and into the back of the net.
LA had chances to get back into the game with the best falling to Zardes, who managed to miss a Keane cross with the goal at his mercy. Columbus then wrapped up the 4-1 win with a Giancarlo Gonzalez header from a Federico Higuain corner. Tonight was a win where every Crew player arguably played their performance of the season, but the real test is if they can consistently play at this level starting next week at home to Houston.
Justin Meram is our Subside Sports Man of the Match. An inspired two-goal performance from Meram paced the Crew attack in a match against the surging LA Galaxy. Meram will be that missing link that the Crew sorely need in their offense if he can maintain anything close to this pace.
Before the match, the Crew named Andy Loughnane as their President of Business Operations. Loughnane previously worked for the Columbus Blue Jackets, Detroit Pistons, and Detroit Red Wings.
