Patrick Schulte’s four saves helped the Columbus Crew to a 0-0 draw with the host New York Red Bulls on Saturday in Harrison. N.J.
The Crew (12-6-10, 46 points) have two ties and two losses in their past four matches.
Carlos Coronel made his only save in the 65th minute on Daniel Gazdag for his eighth shutout of the season for the Red Bulls (11-11-7, 40 points).
The Red Bulls are 10-2-3 at home as they doubled the shot attempts (8-4) on the Crew.
New York’s Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting cracked a side volley that Schulte made a strong save at the goal line in the 56th minute for his third and best stop to deny the Red Bulls’ leading scorer his 16th goal on the season.
The Crew had done very little to that point, but moments later, top scorer Diego Rossi found himself on a break only to push his shot right of the net.
The first half was New York’s defense smothering the Crew and the Red Bulls being stymied by Schulte.
Columbus managed just one shot through 45 minutes, that being a weak off-target header by Andres Herrera from a free kick in the second minute of stoppage time.
Meanwhile, the Red Bulls took four shots with three on goal, beginning with Schulte saving Choupo-Moting’s strike in the opening minute.
Schulte won the battle against him again right before the 20-minute mark when he covered the near post.
In the 21st, Schulte used his chest to stop a shot from Dylan Nealis.
The Red Bulls did put the ball past Schulte just prior to the break, but goal scorer Emil Forsberg was caught offside.
The match was their first encounter since the Red Bulls swept the best-of-three first round of the 2024 playoffs to deny the Crew a chance to defend their MLS Cup title.
Columbus holds a 35-33-14 regular-season record against the Red Bulls. but their three-match regular-season winning streak in the series ended.
–Field Level Media
