Nashville SC made sure there would be no comeback by visiting Columbus by scoring two first-half goals as part of a 3-0 victory to end the Crew’s five-match unbeaten streak.
Sam Surridge tallied his MLS-best 17th goal and had an assist and Hany Mukhtar also scored for Nashville (13-5-5, 44 points), which is 9-1-4 in the past 14 matches and maintained its perfect home record (2-0-2) all-time vs. the Crew.
The Crew (11-4-8, 41 points) had an opportunity to vault over Nashville into third in the Eastern Conference but instead saw their 4-0-1 run end.
Nashville SC went up 65 seconds into the match thanks to an own goal by Crew defender Sean Zawadzki. Then, their three MLS All-Stars shredded the Crew for a 2-0 advantage in the 30th minute when Mukhtar scored his 11th goal from Surridge and Andy Najar to put the Crew down by two for the second time in four days.
Conceding an early goal is nothing new for the Crew. FC Cincinnati scored in the opening 35 seconds last Saturday and added another in the fifth minute before the Crew rallied for a 4-2 win.
Also, Surridge put Nashville ahead in the second minute in Columbus on May 28. The match ended 2-2 because the Crew rallied for the equalizer, ironically, an own goal.
Another Columbus comeback wasn’t in the cards Wednesday. Surridge scored the final goal in the 82nd minute.
While Columbus led in shots, 23-10, Nashville goalkeeper Joe Willis needed to make only four saves for his eighth shutout of the season.
Nashville took control of the match immediately and was rewarded when a shot from the left side by Alex Muyl went off the upper body of Zawadzki.
The second goal was clinical. Najar sent a perfect diagonal ball to Surridge down the left flank. He sent a leading ball to the goal box where Mukhtar outran Darlington Nagbe and Steven Moreira for a sliding redirection past Patrick Schulte.
Surridge capped the scoring off a set up in front by Ahmed Qasem.
–Field Level Media
