Disturbingly, a Crew fan was hit by a car on Neil Ave near the intersection with Vine St. We were walking way up by Kemba Live when it happened. Traffic in that vicinity was not moving. An ambulance arrived on the scene by the time we got to the stone lot between Neil and Spruce.
I saw it. Was 100% the pedestrians fault and they're lucky AF it wasn't worse. Walking against a green is dumb.
I parked on the gravel surface lot between Spruce and Vine streets and had no issue after the game. Walked to my car. Hopped in. Drove straight to the highway without waiting in any traffic. And parking was only $5. I don’t know why anyone parks in the garages, aside from mobility issues.
What a game. Massive win. That Zawadzki assist was almost identical to the Zawadzki assist vs Nashville. He is without a doubt the best header of the ball Columbus has. Diego…woof. He didn’t dwell on the miss and definitely helped in other ways throughout the game, but man do you hate to see that. Not Yeboah’s best game on either side of the ball really. If anyone is to blame for the goal it’s probably 90% on him. He also seemed to slow down any transition moments for the crew, I understand him being out there for speed so I’m not too upset. It happens. I love how animated Nancy gets on the sideline. When the Monterrey player and Cucho were battling around the 90th minute and the ball went out on the Rayados player, I was literally getting so pumped watching Nancy get so excited.
After reevaluating it’s like a 50/50 split on who is responsible for giving up the goal, awful giveaway by Zawadzki but some poor effort by Yaboah
I don't think Yaboah can be responsible for anything. It looked to me, live, like the AR had an offside on the Rossi miss early. Cucho was fantastic tonight. Schulte as well. Cheberko, Morris, & Nagbe not far behind. JRR was patchy, but a goal and assist is a good day. Rossi & Moreira pretty good for the most part. Is that our first win vs a Mexican team & Monterrey's first loss vs MLS?
Morris was literally pointing backward to Cucho, telling him to reset and start over. Cucho decided to play it in to JRR instead. I saw him start to make that run, and I yelled out "Brilliant!" Then JRR slotted it back to him, and I shouted "Brilliant" again, and I knew even before he took the shot that we were scoring. I want to ask if now that hockey season is over, they moved the cannon down to the LDC, because Cucho looked like he'd been shot out of a cannon the whole match. There was no way he was missing from that spot. Terrific header from JRR to win it. I like that we're trying re-directs on corner kicks and such, because we don't have a lot of height to just straight up win headers. Changing the direction gives us a chance to deke and dodge and shake people loose. Andrada was good in goal for Monterrey. Denied Cucho on a couple tough shots. Schulte was OK; I don't blame him for trying to go for the cross on their goal. Meza was so wide open from that spot that even if Schulte stays on his line, he's probably cooked anyway unless the guy shoots it right at him. I would have like to have gotten another goal. Monterrey probably should have had more than the one they did get, so I'm not comfortable by any means. But we're going to Mexico with a lead in a CCC Semifinal. Hot damn.
The Fletcher lot is great. With Astor, the walk is shorter, but you miss out on some of the ambiance of the game; you park essentially at Betty's back door and get that buzz, then join the crowd walking down Nationwide, go under the bridge and there's the stadium and that whole feeling, followed by crossing the plaza, climbing the stairs, grabbing the freebie and into the building. And then you walk out with the happy buzzing crowd, but only as far as Betty's and your car. And getting on the road from there is always a snap. They send you west to 315 or the 71 ramp and hit the pedal. It's just a great vibe. Sure you can park in a concrete mausoleum and walk fewer steps, and if you have plantar fasciitis issues that's probably best but otherwise I much prefer it.
Anthony Precourt you big dumb bitch https://t.co/4rezpRIWFb— Patrick (@TheRealPaddyMac) April 25, 2024 You know you caught that acute #CCCFever when your 5-foot-5 Romanian dribbly boi comes off the bench and immediately gets involved in some 💩🏠ery— Charles Boehm (@cboehm) April 25, 2024
This. I know we've been our new digs for a couple years now, but I still remember so many nights at HCS with empty seats and a much smaller atmosphere. I still pinch myself every time I emerge from under the bridge past Betty's and feel the energy seeing Lower.com come into view.
Heck of a win but honestly a lot to still be done. They could have had 3-4 goals. We will need to be sharper in Mexico if we are going to advance. That first 30 mins was some of the worse I have seen Nagbe play in a long long time. He turned it around and looked his normal self but started poorly. Imagine this team with another DP level attacker!
I'm partial to the Neil avenue garage. Easy in and out. $7 per game(cheaper if you buy a season pass), plus you get all the before and after game vibes from walking in and out with thousands of your friends. I also feel like it's nice to get a few steps in after sitting for 2 hours.
I really liked how they used Rowe as a sort of on the ground target forward. Takes a lot of guts to play the ball such long balls on the ground to him. Not sure if Farsi needed rest, but I think Nancy might have thought Monterrey would line up with both Vasquez and Berterame, where having Sean back there would come in handy. They switched to the inverted Sean and wide Rossi look when Berterame came on. And Sean made up for being beat by making one huge recovery run at the end. I'd probably run the same look back next week. I assume Cucho and Moreira rest Saturday.
It was way too narrow a prop bet. GWG was a good hurdle. 90+ was too small. But...but...but...just a few days ago people on here were complaining about him not being able to fill Camacho's shoes and how desperately Bez need to find a replacement. Watch the Rayados goal again, if you can stand it, and watch Cheberko, who is shading the guy coming into the middle. After the goal, he turns, looks at Yeboah and gives him a very clear "what the f*ck were you doing?" gesture, then just looks down and shakes his head.
Deservedly so. IDK if Yeboah could have made up the ground to clear that or not. But I do know he did not really even try. I could see Sands or Amundsen down in Mexico.
I don't know how someone could watch any amount of Columbus games on tape and come away thinking "yeah, we'll high press these guys, that's a good idea". This is a team that is absolutely built to go against pressure. They invite it. They feed on it. They practically beg the defense to stretch themselves out, then find those open spaces, break two lines with a single pass, and suddenly everyone is running downhill like an avalanche toward goal. And the crazy thing is that most of Monterrey's best chances were coming off of counters. They're out there trying to force turnovers and win the ball in Columbus's half all game and they absolutely did not need to do that.
Two notes: 1. That was definitely a home crowd. I was worried that it would be a 50/50 split, but I'd say it was closer to 90/10. We brought the noise even though it wasn't a sellout. 2. Grouchy point!
Typically I park in Marconi but I knew I’d be late last night and just wanted to get in the game as quick as possible
Watching the game from section 140 last night, here are a couple of my takeaways. Cucho was the best player on the field. We all know the guy can score, but his passing vision and range is ridiculous. Probably the best on the team. His motor also never stops running. I remember late in the game, maybe even in stoppage time, he sprinted back and won a tackle to stop a Monterrey attack. That type of effort is incredibly rare with a goal scorer of his caliber. JRR really grew into the game well. He started off a bit shaky, but ended up having a very solid game. He was essentially playing as a target forward to break out of the Monterrey high press (which was quite good), but instead of remaining in the center of the field like most target forwards, he roamed around and often picked up the ball on the wing. It was a tough task against a far better backline than any MLS team but he did a great job. Speaking of Monterrey's high press, man was it good. We handled it incredibly well. They regularly had 4 players pressed up against our backline when we were trying to play out, and we handled it surprisingly well. That press will be turned up about 10 notches next week, so hopefully we are ready. Cheberko was solid yet again. The competition between him and Amundsen for the LCB position is going to be tight. Amundsen might end up getting more playing at LWB than LCB. I liked hearing the Nordecke sing "Cucho's on fire" after his goal. I think that will catch on pretty well after we sing it a few more times.