Columbus Crew 2 make history behind Noah Fuson Goal

On a chilly Sunday evening in the Windy City, Columbus Crew 2 looked to rebound from their heart-breaking opening loss against a hungry Chicago Fire FC 2 team that also suffered defeat in their opening.

First Half

With Captain Marco Micaletto dealing with a hand injury, Coach Laurent Courtois started Phillip Quinton as team Captain for the match. It didn’t take long for the rivalry to kick in, with Mohamed Farsi suffering an injury in the first minute. The ensuing free kick missed keeping the score level at 0-0.

The Crew were a little jittery and seemed to be playing in their head early on, letting Chicago have success against the Crew on the right wing when pressing up the field. The Fire had the Crew’s backline pinned in their defensive-third for a majority of the first half.

Chicago had a couple good chances with Patrick Schulte blanking Chicago on all their chances. Colman Gannon came alive in the 37th minute, having a shot on goal after nifty footwirk to get into the penalty area, but the Fire’s Chris brady made a sliding save to keep the game at 0-0. The Black and Gold were more aggressive when attacking the Fire’s defensive backs in the box, but couldn’t find an opening goal to end the first 45.

Columbus come alive

At the start of the second half, The Crew came out with the same aggression they ended the first half with. Gannon continued to attack the back line of Chicago with crisp passes from Quinton Elliot and others. With all the adjustments at half, the Black and Gold were able to find the pockets in the Fire’s defense.

Although the Fire had more time of possession, The Crew were still able to outshoot the fire 16-6 with 7 shots on goal.

In the 72nd minute, the Black and Gold would catch lightning and Noah Fuson would play the ball in and get behind The Fire’s back line and put a beautiful shot in behind Chris Brady to the back of the net for the first ever Columbus Crew 2 goal.

For the next 12 minutes The Crew would begin to play a little conservative and slow the game down so that the minutes would tick away. After 4 minutes of stoppage time “America’s Hardest Working Team” would celebrate their 1st win, clean sheet, and shut out in club history.

On a weekend packed with all types of emotions from the retiring of the Maestro Himself, Federico Higuain, the devastating loss to Nashville SC, and now the first ever club win for Crew 2, the win caps off a weekend of excitement, jubilation and honoring a legend.

What’s next?

Crew 2’s next game is next Sunday at Subaru Park as the Crew 2 take on the Philadelphia Union II at 5pm on the MLS Next Pro website.