2024-08-26 11:45:01
The Crew have won the 2024 Leagues Cup title, defeating Los Angeles FC 3-1 behind two goals and an assist from striker Cucho Hernandez.
Hernandez scored the Crew’s first goal in the first half with a header off a cross from Mo Farsi at the 45-minute mark.
Columbus held the edge until the 57th minute when Olivier Giroud tallied his first-ever goal for LAFC. It came off a corner kick and tied the score 1-1.
That is where the score would stand through the 90th minute of play, and with the Leagues Cup rule stating there is no overtime, the final would be determined by penalty kicks if neither team had broken through in the four minutes of stoppage time. Less than two minutes into that additional time, Hernandez found the back of the net again.
From the top, left corner of LAFC’s box, Hernandez ripped a shot through the air and past goalkeeper Hugo Lloris to take back the lead as time ticked on.
In the game’s waning moments, Hernandez created a run off an LAFC turnover. He found Jacen Russell-Rowe near the middle of the field with a pass. Two touches later, Russell-Rowe secured the victory with a third goal.
This is the Crew’s second title in less than a year, having won the MLS Cup title in December of 2023 with a 2-1 victory over LAFC at Lower.com Field.
The Crew have won the Leagues Cup Final by a score of 3-1 over LAFC.
Jacen Russell-Rowe scores a third goal for Columbus to extend the lead to 3-1 in additional time. Russell-Rowe scores off an assist from Cucho Hernandez.
Cucho Hernandez scores in additional regulation time to give Columbus a 2-1 lead over LAFC in the Leagues Cup final.
The Crew had two more lineup changes as time is running out in the second half:
Prior to the substitutions, LAFC came close to scoring its second goal of the match when Cristian Olivera took a shot on an uncontested goal. Goalkeeper Nicholas Hagen had stepped up to contest Olivera, but Olivera slipped passed Hagen and had an open opportunity. Olivera’s shot ended up being too far right.
LAFC has taken forward Olivier Giroud, who scored the team’s only goal in the 1-1 tie, out of the match for Kei Kamara.
The announced attendance for Leagues Cup final at Lower.com Field was 20,190 and is being considered a sellout.
For the first time in the match, Columbus made two lineup changes:
Christian Ramirez took a shot attempt with a header off a cross in the middle of the box, a type of goal Ramirez has scored often with the Crew. Goalkeeper Hugo Lloris was able to snatch the ball for a save, avoiding falling behind once again in the match.
There were two more substitutions made by LAFC in the second half, putting Los Angeles at four overall substitutions made in the match.
Olivier Giroud was able to score the first goal of the match for LAFC off a corner kick, tying the match at 1-1. Giroud’s goal was scored off a header following the corner executed by Mateusz Bogusz and despite being covered by defender Malte Amundsen, Giroud easily sent the ball to the left of goalkeeper Nicholas Hagen.
This is Giroud’s first MLS goal since his first appearing for LAFC at the beginning of the tournament.
Following the goal, Crew defender Rudy Camacho was down for several minutes and had to be evaluated by medical staff, but was able to stay in the match.
It looked as though Mateusz Bogusz had LAFC’s first goal of the match, sending the ball to the right of goalkeeper Nicholas Hagen but Bogusz was ruled offsides. Hagen was quick to signal for the official to make the call, which he did right away.
LAFC defender Jesus Murillo went down with a non-contact injury outside his own box, forcing coach Steven Cherundolo to make a substitution after Murillo was evaluated. Eddie Segura replaced Murillo.
LAFC’s Maxime Chanot earned his first yellow card following a foul against Cucho Hernandez near LAFC’s goal line. Hernandez was slow to get up after the hit but was able to do so on his own and remain in the match.
This is LAFC’s second yellow card of the match.
Entering the second half, Los Angeles has made a change in the lineup:
In the first half, Atuesta accounted for three of Los Angeles nine fouls and also received a yellow card.
Cucho Hernandez’s goal at the end of the first half was enough to give Columbus the advantage going into halftime against LAFC. The Crew took eight shots, two on goal in the first half while LAFC took three shots, one on goal. The possession battle was controlled by Columbus with a 66% possession rate.
In terms of fouls, three were called against Columbus and nine were called against Los Angeles.
Cucho Hernandez was able to find the back of the net with a header from the middle of LAFC’s goalkeeper’s box. Hernandez’s shot came off a cross from Mo Farsi. Columbus takes a 1-0 lead over LAFC ahead of halftime.
Crew were given a free kick outside a few feet LAFC’s box following a foul charged to Eduard Atuesta against Diego Rossi.
Prior to the Rossi foul, Cucho Hernandez took a rough hit, falling into the sideline advertising board and leading to a heated exchange between Christian Ramirez and Denis Bouanga.
LAFC had its first yellow card of the Leagues Cup final assigned to Eduard Atuesta following a foul against Crew’s Darlington Nagbe near midfield.
Columbus was given another corner kick when LAFC goalkeeper Hugo Lloris tapped the ball over the goal line. Diego Rossi once again executed the corner, a soft pass to Max Arfsten who quickly dumped the ball to Cucho Hernandez.
Hernandez attempted to get the ball back to Arfsten but was deflected and LAFC was able to force a turnover.
At the 24-minute mark, Columbus had another corner attempt and this time, Rossi took it from the opposite sideline, on the right of LAFC’s goal. Once again, LAFC forced the ball out of the box, and Darlington Nagbe retrieved the ball for a shot attempt that was too far to the right of the goal.
Following a foul against LAFC midfielder Eduard Atuesta on near the midfield line, Crew defender Rudy Camacho was given a yellow card, the first of the match.
After Darlington Nagbe’s shot attempt was deflected high, out of bounce over the goal line, Columbus was awarded the first corner kick of the match. Diego Rossi took the corner, sending it into Los Angeles’ box, but Columbus was unable to make anything of it.
LAFC was given a free kick following a foul charged to Steven Moreira against Mateusz Bogusz on the left side of the field, right outside Columbus’ box. After a short pass forward to Denis Bouanga off the free kick, Crew striker Cucho Hernandez blocked Bouanga’s shot attempt to eliminate the threat of LAFC scoring.
Crew coach Wilfried Nancy is starting goalkeeper Nicholas Hagen over usual starter Patrick Schulte. Since his rookie season last year, Schulte has started a majority of games for Columbus, including the MLS Cup and CONCACAF Champions Cup finals.
On MLS Season Pass’ pregame show, Nancy commented on his decision to started Hagen.
“It was planned before, because when I started the competition, I wanted to give Nico the possibility to play,” Nancy said. “So, he started the competition and did it well. So, Pat (Schulte) came back from the Olympics Games, and we gave him two games, but at the same time, I wanted to see Nico (Hagen) finish the tournament.”
Hagen started the first two Leagues Cup games for the Crew against Sporting Kansas City and Inter Miami, recording two conceded goals and three saves. Schulte got the start for the Crew in the quarterfinal against New York City FC, a match in which he faced penalty kicks, and the semifinal against the Philadelphia Union.
Here are the officials for the Crew vs LAFC on Sunday night:
Here is the starting 11 for Los Angeles vs Columbus:
Here is the starting 11 for Columbus vs Los Angeles:
It was announced yesterday that the Ohio State marching band will be performing before and during halftime of the Leagues Cup final. This is the band’s first performance ahead of the college football season but will only feature half the band.
On Thursday, the Crew announced that midfielder Cole Mrowka was sent to the USL’s Colorado Springs Switchbacks via loan. The loan runs through the end of 2024 USL season.
More:Columbus Crew send homegrown talent Cole Mrowka to USL’s Switchbacks via loan
The Crew are 2-3-1 against LAFC. In their last two meetings, Columbus has picked up the victory, including in the 2023 MLS Cup final.
Replay:Crew defeat LAFC 5-1 behind two goals from former LAFC forward Christian Ramirez
The Crew defeated Sporting Kansas City 4-0 in the round of 32 behind two goals from forward Diego Rossi. Columbus avoided group play as the 2023 MLS Cup champion.
To advance to the quarterfinals, the Crew had to complete a three-goal comeback in the final 25 minutes of their match against Inter Miami. Columbus was again led by Rossi, who once more scored two goals. Christian Ramirez scored the other.
In the quarterfinals, the Crew finished regulation tied 1-1 against New York City FC after giving up the fastest goal in franchise history. NYFC forward Alonso Martinez found the back of the goal 14 seconds into the match. The game went to penalty kicks, and the Crew pulled out the 4-3 victory with transfer window addition DeJuan Jones converting on Columbus’ final attempt.
Columbus faced the Philadelphia Union in the semifinals, and behind another two-goal outing from Rossi, the Crew won 3-1. Striker Cucho Hernandez scored Columbus’ third goal, which was his 50th goal with the club.
Los Angeles finished the group stage of Leagues Cup second in West 7 behind the Vancouver Whitecaps.
In the round of 32, LAFC shut out Austin FC 2-0 and then defeated the San Jose Earthquakes 4-1. The goal conceded to San Jose is the only goal Los Angeles has given up in the knockout stage of the tournament. Los Angeles held the Seattle Sounders scoreless in a 3-0 quarterfinal victory and defeated the Colorado Rapids 4-0 in the semifinals to secure their spot in the final.
The Crew started the 2023 Leagues Cup in the Central 1 group with St. Louis City and Club America.
After defeating St. Louis 2-1 in their opening match of the tournament, the Crew faced Club America, one of the top teams in Liga MX, on the heels of Columbus announcing the transfer of their star midfielder Lucas Zelarayan to Saudi Pro League’s Al Fateh. Hours after the announcement, the Crew picked up a 4-1 victory over Club America.
Columbus went into the knockout stage with home-field advantage in the round of 32 against Minnesota United. The two clubs finished regulation tied 1-1, sending the game straight to penalty kicks. With missed attempts from Kevin Molino, Steven Moreira and Malte Amundsen, the Crew fell to Minnesota 4-3 in penalty kicks and were knocked out of the tournament.
The Crew vs. LAFC 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-LAFC match will be available on Apple TV with an MLS Season Pass subscription. Here are the broadcast teams for tonight:
Kickoff: 7:15 p.m., Sunday, Aug. 25 at Lower.com Field.
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