For the second time this season, the Crew recorded a draw against D.C. United.
The Crew finished tied 2-2 on Saturday in a road match against D.C. United. This followed up their 1-1 draw against D.C. in April.
In both matches, all of D.C. United's goals were scored by MLS leading scorer Christian Benteke.
Benteke scored his first goal Saturday in the 30th minute off an assist from defender Aaron Herrera. D.C. United went into halftime with a 1-0 lead but would quickly relinquish the advantage in the second half.
At the 54-minute mark, Crew leading scorer Cucho Hernandez scored his 16th goal of the season. Three minutes later, Hernandez assisted on Jacen Russell-Rowe's goal to give Columbus a 2-1 lead.
Benteke scored his 21st goal of the season in the 81st minute to tie the game 2-2, putting him four goals ahead of second place for the MLS Golden Boot.
More: Columbus Crew use Campeones Cup loss, trip to White House as motivation
After a disagreement with official Rubiel Vazquez, Crew striker Cucho Hernandez was given a yellow card. In the Crew's last match against D.C. United in April, Hernandez had a red card violation for a non-soccer foul.
Following Hernandez's yellow card, Crew substituted midfielder Andres Herrera in for Mo Farsi.
Christian Benteke was able to score his second goal of the match against Columbus, and a league-leading 21st of the regular season, to tie the game 2-2 for D.C. United.
With a pass from midfielder Gabriel Pirani, Benteke took control of the ball inside Columbus' box and despite midfielder DeJuan Jones' efforts to contest, Benteke took one dribble before sending a shot past goalkeeper Patrick Schulte.
D.C. United substitution Boris Enow was given a yellow card for a foul against the Crew's Diego Rossi.
Following the yellow card, multiple substitutions were made:
- D.C. United replaces defender Jared Stroud with Cristian Dajome
- D.C. United replaces defender Christopher McVey with Pedro Santos
- Columbus replaces midfielder Alex Matan with Derrick Jones
The Crew made two more substitutions against D.C. United:
- Forward Dylan Chambost replaces Jacen Russell-Rowe
- Midfielder DeJuan Jones replaces Max Arfsten
With its first substitution of the game, D.C. United replaced midfielder Dominique Badji with Gabriel Pirani.
Three minutes after a goal from striker Cucho Hernandez scored the first goal for the Crew, Hernandez assisted on the second goal, scored by forward Jacen Russell-Rowe. Columbus takes a 2-1 lead.
Hernandez's pass came from midfield, and made it to Russell-Rowe who was inside D.C. United's box, ready to take a header shot.
Crew striker Cucho Hernandez put his team on the board with a long goal from the top of D.C. United's box, tying the match 1-1. Hernandez's shot was high and went above D.C. goalkeeper Alex Bono, just missing his fingertips, while also avoiding the crossbar.
For the second time against the Crew, D.C. United was able to find the back of the net, this time off the foot of Dominique Badji. Quickly after, Badji was called offsides and the goal was overruled.
D.C. United Mateusz Klich was called for a foul, and yellow card for fouling Crew defender Yevhen Cheberko while he was on the ground. Klich seemingly kicked Cheberko while attempting to jump over Cheberko.
Once Cheberko got up, he got in the face of Klich and earned himself a yellow card as well.
The Crew made their first substitution against D.C. United, replacing defender Malte Amundsen with Yevhen Cheberko.
The Crew are going into the locker rooms down 1-0 after D.C. United's Christian Benteke scored his 20th goal of the regular season. The first half stats:
- Shots: Crew (5), D.C. United (4)
- Shots on goal: Crew (2), D.C. United (3)
- Fouls: Crew (4), D.C. United (5)
- Possession rate: Crew (57.5%), D.C. United (42.5%)
The Crew had the opportunity to score their first goal against D.C. United when midfielder Mo Farsi was called offsides before finishing his shot attempt from close-range.
Off an assist from defender Aaron Herrera, MLS leading scorer Chrisitan Benteke scored his 20th goal of the season, giving D.C. United a 1-0 lead against Columbus Crew.
Herrera was in control of the ball and was able to power his way past Crew defender Malte Amundsen, who was contesting Herrera up-field. Crashing toward the middle of Columbus' box was Benteke, and once Herrera sent a pass to Benteke, the D.C. United forward took a one-touch shot.
Inside the Crew's box, D.C. United defender Aaron Herrera took a shot attempt that was straight down the middle toward the goal, but the shot rolled right into the arms of goalkeeper Patrick Schulte.
After receiving the ball on the far on the left side of D.C. United's goal, Crew forward Diego Rossi took a shot attempt that was heading straight toward the back of the net before goalkeeper Alex Bono got his hand on the ball to stop the scoring play.
The Crew are tied 0-0 with D.C. United.
With the first shot attempt of the game against D.C. United for the Crew, forward Jacen Russell-Rowe missed on a header. Crew striker Cucho Hernandez sent a pass into the box for Rusell-Rowe, but Russell-Rowe's attempt would go too high, above the crossbar.
Crew striker and leading scorer Cucho Hernandez was slow to get up, holding his right foot, following a fall in the first minute of the match against D.C. United. Hernandez has remained in the game.
Here is the starting 11 for D.C. United vs Columbus:
- GK: Alex Bono
- DF: Lucas Bartlett
- DF: Aaron Herrera
- DF: Christopher McVey
- DF: Matti Peltola
- DF: Jared Stroud
- MF: Dominique Badji
- MF: Mateusz Klich
- MF: Theodore Ku-Dipietro
- MF: Martin Rodriguez
- FW: Christian Benteke
Here is the starting 11 for Columbus vs D.C. United:
- GK: Patrick Schulte
- DF: Malte Amundsen
- DF: Rudy Camacho
- DF: Steven Moreira
- MF: Max Arfsten
- MF: Mo Farsi
- MF: Alex Matan
- MF: Darlington Nagbe
- FW: Cucho Hernandez
- FW: Diego Rossi
- FW: Jacen Russell-Rowe
Here are the officials for the Crew vs D.C. United on Saturday night:
- Referee: Rubiel Vazquez
- Assistant Referee 1: Jose Da Silva
- Assistant Referee 2: Matthew Nelson
- Fourth Official: Joshua Encarnacion
- VAR: Geoff Gamble
- Assistant VAR: Jonathan Johnson
On Thursday, Crew coach Wilfried Nancy confirmed that midfielder Sean Zawadzki suffered a rib injury against Club America and could be out "a few weeks."
"I’m sad for him because he received a knock during the game," Nancy said. "We're going to have an update a little bit later, but what I can tell you is this is not good news for us. It is a knock on the rib, and you know the rib, this is so painful.”
Zawadzki is officially listed as out for the D.C. United match on the Crew's availability report, and it was confirmed that Zawadzki was unable to attend the club's visit to the White House due to his injury.
It is believed that Zawadzki suffered this injury in the first five minutes of the Campeones Cup, as he needed medical attention for a torso injury following a Crew corner kick attempt. Zawadzki was able to remain in the match until the 78th minute.
The Crew are 34-32-13 against D.C. United in regular-season matches.
The Crew vs. D.C. United English-speaking radio broadcast will be on Alt 105.7 FM and available via the iHeartRadio app. Columbus' regular radio broadcaster Chris Doran will be on the call.
The Spanish radio broadcast can be found on La Grande 102.5 FM and the La Grande radio app with Juan Valladares doing play-by-play.
The Crew-D.C. United match will be available on Apple TV+ with a required MLS Season Pass subscription. Here are the broadcast teams for tonight:
- English broadcast: Neil Sika (play-by-play), Llyod Sam (analyst)
- Spanish broadcast: Jesus Acosta (play-by-play), Carlos Suarez (analyst)
Kickoff: 7:30 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 28 at Audi Field in Washington D.C.
bmackay@dispatch.com
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus Crew tie DC United 2-2; Christian Benteke scores 2 for DC United: Replay
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