Cucho Hernandez breaks club record, leads Columbus Crew to victory vs Philadelphia Union

Before the Crew's matchup against the Philadelphia Union on Saturday, midfielder Dylan Chambos t had taken just six corner kicks since joining the club in July. Even in the three starts Chambost made, the Crew preferred forward Diego Rossi , who had taken 111 corners since the season opener.

With Chambost and Rossi both in the starting lineup on Saturday, the Crew steered away from the normal. Knowing that Chambost would be taking a majority of the corners, striker Cucho Hernandez made it clear to him what to do before the game.

"I told Dylan, if he sees me running to first post, I told him, put the ball there," Hernandez said. "And it was easy because the two balls were great, they were amazing balls. So, thank you to Dylan."

Of Chambost's seven corners against the Union, two turned into goals for the Crew in their 3-2 victory at Lower.com Field , both off the head of Hernandez.

Replay: Columbus Crew secure 2nd place in Eastern Conference, beat Philadelphia Union 3-2

The performance put Hernandez at 19 goals for the regular season. Combined with his 13 assists, Hernandez has broken the Crew's single-season goal contribution record. Hernandez's 32 contributions surpassed Stern John's 31, a mark set in 1998, which was a year before Hernandez was born.

"I believe in me. That's my secret," Hernandez said. "I always try. If you see me in the game, I always try things. I miss four or five balls, but the next ball, I have an assist, or I have a goal. I try to say to my teammates, 'We need to try something different because the other teams know us too much.' ... I'm working to better every day. And that's the goal."

Along with Hernandez's production, the Crew were lifted to victory by a goal from midfielder Mo Farsi , his fourth of the season.

With FC Cincinnati losing 3-1 to Orlando City SC on Saturday, the win over Philadelphia was enough to secure the Crew second place in the Eastern Conference ahead of the playoffs. Columbus sits four points ahead of Cincinnati, who can pick up a maximum of three points with one game remaining.

Columbus Crew coach Wilfried Nancy's challenge for Dylan Chambost went beyond corner kicks

According to Crew coach Wilfried Nancy , the reason the team went with Chambost taking the corners over Rossi was because Chambost has a "good left foot."

When Chambost was playing for AS Saint-Etienne in France's Ligue 1, he became accustomed to attempting corners, something Chambost confirmed he liked doing. The unfamiliar part of his start against the Union was playing at center midfield , a position Chambost just started logging minutes at with Columbus.

"He never played in this position in the past as a double pivot (defensive midfielder)," Nancy said. "This is what I like, to try to challenge my players with certain positions that they don't know but I know that they are able to do it. I like this attitude because he got in an uncomfortable situation at certain moments, but he was comfortable after that. For me, this is a win."

Columbus Crew send out new defensive lineup without Rudy Camacho, Steven Moreira vs Philadelphia Union

Ahead of the Philadelphia game, Nancy had to make some significant adjustments to the back line with regular defensive starters Rudy Camacho and Steven Moreira unavailable.

Camacho's absence was expected following the Crew's 3-2 loss to Inter Miami on Wednesday , in which he received a red card violation, suspending him for Saturday. Moreira was injured Wednesday, Nancy said.

"When he (Moreira) did a tackle against Miami, he felt something in his ankle," Nancy said. "We tried (to have him play) yesterday. He could have played, but he was not ready or at 100%. That's why I decided to put him on the side."

The Crew's back line consisted of Yevhen Cheberko, Malte Amundsen and Andres Herrera , who was making his first start with the Crew at that position.

"It doesn't matter who plays on this line, we feel comfortable," Cheberko said. "The coaches always tell us and explain what we need to do all the time. Only Andres is new in this line ... Malte and me play a lot of games. So, I feel it's not that hard to adjust."

Columbus Crew denied on a majority of shot attempts vs Philadelphia Union due to goalkeeper Andre Blake

There have been games in which the Crew have struggled to find offensive opportunities, but that was far from the case on Saturday.

Columbus finished the game with 19 shots, 10 on goal, but were limited to three goals due to the efforts of Union goalkeeper Andre Blake.

Blake, despite playing with a lower body injury, was able to record seven saves on Saturday and allowed Farsi's goal to score due to being off his mark after making a save on a shot attempt from Rossi.

"I was fortunate," Farsi said. "The ball just came straight at me, and I didn't ask questions, especially (because it was on my left. I just shot it, that's it."

bmackay@dispatch.com

@brimackay15

Get more Columbus Crew content by listening to our podcast

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Cucho Hernandez breaks club record, leads Columbus Crew to victory vs Philadelphia Union