Enemy Scouting Report - Columbus Crew
(image via Columbus Crew)
The Houston Dynamo are burning hot after beating Real Salt Lake in Utah on Saturday and will hope to continue giving opponents hell in Shell Energy Stadium against the Columbus Crew tonight.
Columbus Crew are currently sitting in 5th place of the Eastern Conference. Like we have seen from the Dynamo, the Crew are finding their form later in the season under a new head coach. Wilfried Nancy took over the helm in December when Caleb Porter was fired after missing consecutive post-seasons. Apart from the arrival of Nancy changing the dynamic of the team, the Crew saw important players like Pedro Santos, Artur, Jonathan Mensah, and most recently Lucas Zelarayan leave the club. In other words, it was going to take time for Nancy’s team to gel together. They lost 6 of their first 14 games. But now they have been defeated just once in their last eleven regular season matches.
Even after losing Zelarayan, who had 10 goals and 7 assists in 2023, the Columbus Crew still have plenty of players that will attempt to find the back of Steve Clark’s net. Christian Ramirez, a familiar face to Dynamo fans, has had a great season since arriving to Columbus in January from Aberdeen. The self-proclaimed Super Man has 8 goals and 4 assists thus far. Ramirez will surely love to score against his former team. Another player that the Dynamo will look to contain is Cucho Hernandez. The Colombian striker has the ability to find the back of the net from short and long range. Hernandez has scored 6 goals and added 10 assists in regular season play, while also scoring 3 goals during Leagues Cup. Lastly, but definitely not least, new Crew signing Diego Rossi is a threat to be dealt with. Rossi knows the league well after spending multiple years with LAFC before joining Fenerbahce in the Turkish topflight. Diego was brought in as the guy to replace Zelarayan this summer. The Uruguayan striker already opened his goal tally with the Crew in his first start with the club last time out.
Columbus Crew Season Record: 12W-6D-7L
Results in the last 30 days:
July 31 – Club America 1-4 Columbus Crew (Leagues Cup)
August 4 – Columbus Crew 3-3 (3-4) Minnesota United (Leagues Cup)
August 20 - Columbus Crew 3-0 FC Cincinnati
August 26 - Columbus Crew 2-0 Toronto FC
Past Match Staring XI (from mlssoccer.com)
There will likely be some variation but look to see many of the players in the graphic starting.
2023 Active Roster
Goalkeepers: Evan Bush, Patrick Schulte, Brady Scott
Defenders: Philip Quinton, Josh Williams, Rudy Camacho, Julian Gressel, Gustavo Vallecilla, Malte Amundsen, Yevhen Cheberko, Mohamed Farsi, Steven Moreira, Jimmy Medranda
Midfielders: Darlington Nagbe, Aidan Morris, Luis Diaz, Yaw Yeboah, Isaiah Parente, Alexandru Matan, Sean Zawadzki, Will Sands
Forwards: Cucho Hernandez, Diego Rossi, Kevin Molino, Christian Ramirez, Jacen Russell-Rowe, Maximillian Arfsten
Can Houston stay hot and beat the Columbus Crew tonight?
