The 2023 Columbus Crew can’t stop making club history. And in a good way. A week after the 6-1 dismantling of Atlanta United in historic fashion, the Crew throttled Real Salt Lake, 4-0, adding to their recent run of scoring records.
Last week, Aidan Morris scored his first career goal on a diving header off a deflected cross that popped into the air in the middle of the box. This week, in the 14th minute, his second career goal came off a much more artful feed. Steven Moreira played the ball into the box and Lucas Zelarayan’s first touch was a back heel pass right into the path of Morris, who drilled a low shot into the far side netting. This type of quick, confident, and precise play is an exhilarating development in the Wilfried Nancy era.
The Crew took a 2-0 lead on a Zelarayan penalty kick in the 41st minute and then extended the lead to 3-0 in the 53rd minute when Morris pounced on a goalmouth rebound off a saved Darlington Nagbe shot for an easy finish. If Aidan Morris were an SAT question, we would expect him to score a hat trick next Saturday.
But the true history came in the third minute of stoppage time, when Yaw Yeboah scored his first career Crew goal after a pair of nice in-the-box passes by Jacen Russell-Rowe and Max Arfsten. That meant the Crew hung a four-spot on 17-year-old Salt Lake goalkeeper Gavin Beavers, and with such child abuse came another slate of notable Crew achievements.
Yaw Yeboah’s 93rd minute goal put the Crew in the club record books for the second consecutive week. (Photo courtesy of the Columbus Crew)
TEN GOALS IN TWO GAMES!
After winning 6-1 and 4-0 the last two Saturdays, the Crew scored a combined ten goals in two games for the first time in club history. The previous record had been nine goals, when they won 3-2 at D.C. United on October 19, 2003, followed by a 6-2 win vs. Chicago on October 26, 2003.
CONSECUTIVE GAMES WITH FOUR OR MORE GOALS!
Saturday marked on the second time in club history that the Crew scored at least four goals in consecutive games. The other instance occurred way back in 1999.
7/24/99: Won 4-1 vs. Dallas. Goals by Ansil Elcock, Jeff Cunningham, Stern John, Brian West.
8/1/99: Won 4-0 vs. Miami. Goals by Stern John 3x and Brian Maisonneuve.
CONSECUTIVE VICTORIES BY FOUR OR MORE GOALS!
Until Saturday, the Crew had never won consecutive games by four or more goals. Saturday night was unparalleled history in that regard.
In fact, there had only been three prior instances of the Crew winning consecutive games by three or more goals.
* The aforementioned 1999 games. 4-1 vs. Dallas on 7/24/99 and 4-0 vs. Miami on 8/1/99.
* In 2014, the Crew had a 4-1 win vs. LA Galaxy on 8/16/14, followed by a 3-0 win vs. Houston on 8/23/14.
* In 2015, the Crew had a 3-0 win vs. Orlando on 4/18/15, followed by a 4-1 win vs. Philadelphia on 4/25/15.
A PLUS-NINE GOAL DIFFERENTIAL IN TWO GAMES!
This one also was a brand-new club record. The previous mark had been the +7 from the two 1999 games referenced above.
CREW AND GUARDIANS WITH A SHUTOUT ON THE SAME DAY!
I know this one will only apply to a specific subset of Crew fans, but Crew supporters who also love Cleveland baseball as much as I do may be interested to know that when the Guardians beat the Seattle Mariners 2-0 later on Saturday night, it was the ninth time the Crew and Guardians shut out their opponents on the same day. Amazingly, in those nine instances, the Guardians have had nine different starting pitchers and the Crew have had eight different starting goalkeepers. Despite the Guardians running a slew of Cy Young Award winners out to the mound in the Crew’s lifetime, and despite the Crew having numerous talented goalkeepers over the years, former Crew goalie Steve Clark is the only player from either team to appear on the list twice.
Note: In the shootout era, regulation shutouts were credited as shutouts for the goalkeeper, regardless of the “goal” awarded for the postgame shootout tiebreaker. That only applies to the first item on this list, which was a shootout loss.
5/5/96: Crew 0-0 vs DAL (Bo Oshoniyi), Cleveland 2-0 at SEA (Dennis Martinez)
5/9/97: Crew 2-0 at NE (Brad Friedel), Cleveland 5-0 at DET (Charles Nagy)
4/14/07: Crew 0-0 at RSL (Andy Gruenebaum), Cleveland 4-0 at CHW (Paul Byrd)
5/24/14: Crew 2-0 vs CHI (Steve Clark), Cleveland 9-0 at BAL (Corey Kluber)
9/7/14: Crew 3-0 vs CHV (Steve Clark), Cleveland 2-0 vs CHW (Carlos Carrasco)
9/15/18: Crew 0-0 at DAL (Zack Steffen), Cleveland 15-0 vs DET (Mike Clevinger)
8/20/20: Crew 3-0 vs CHI (Andrew Tarbell), Cleveland 2-0 at PIT (Shane Bieber)
9/2/20: Crew 1-0 vs PHI (Eloy Room), Cleveland 5-0 at KC (Triston McKenzie)
4/1/23: Crew 4-0 vs RSL (Patrick Schulte), Cleveland 2-0 at SEA (Aaron Civale)
Considering that the Guardians game started a mere ten minutes after the Crew game ended, the seamless transition from one shutout to the next made for an exquisitely assembled evening of sports-watching excellence.
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