By Daniel O'Leary
Columbus Crew 2 battled back after trailing 2-0 early to claim a 4-2 victory at SeatGeek Stadium Saturday evening over Chicago Fire FC II. That was Crew 2’s eighth win in the last nine games.
Chicago Fire FC II started the match hot, scoring two goals in the first 20 minutes. The first was off the foot of Alex Monis in the 11th minute followed by Josh Penn’s goal in the 20th minute. Chicago carried the 2-0 lead into halftime, but Crew 2 responded by dominating the play in the second half.
Crew 2 captain, Marco Micaletto, rocketed a shot past Chicago’s keeper from the top of the box just two minutes into the second half. Capitalizing off of this momentum, Noah Fuson scored his fourth goal of the season assisted by Mo Farsi and Isaac Angking in the 68th minute.
The two teams were not tied for long as Ryan Telfer scored his first goal for the Club in the 78th minute assisted by Jacen Russell-Rowe. Russell-Rowe made it 4-2 minutes later, this time assisted by Micaletto. This was his seventh goal of the season.
The Eastern Conference matchup resulted in Crew 2 reclaiming its position atop the Eastern Conference standings in MLS NEXT Pro tied with New England Revolution II.
Crew 2 finished the match with 13 shots, six of them being on target. The team’s dominant second-half performance posted four unanswered goals despite falling behind 2-0 early in the first half.
The Black & Gold are back in action on June 9 at 7:00 p.m. ET at Historic Crew Stadium against Inter Miami CF II. The match will be available live via a free stream at MLSNEXTPro.com.
