Columbus Crew SC took on New York City FC at Al Lang Stadium in St. Petersburg, Florida, in the Black & Gold’s first scrimmage since their arrival in the Sunshine State during their third preseason camp. For this match, one group started and played the first 60 minutes, while another group closed the final 30 for Crew SC.
CREW SC LINEUP FOR THE FIRST 60 MINUTES
Evan Bush, Miguel Berry, Marlon Hairston, Perry Kitchen, Aidan Morris (Elton Chifamba, 33’), Grant Lillard (Aboubacar Keita, 46’), Isaiah Parente (Sam Sarver, 33’), Anthony Samways, Pedro Santos, Josh Williams and Bradley Wright-Phillips
SCORE
NYCFC 1, Crew SC 0
CREW SC LINEUP FOR THE LAST 30 MINUTES
Evan Bush, Harrison Afful, Derrick Etienne, Aboubacar Keita, Jonathan Mensah, Aidan Morris, Darlington Nagbe, Isaiah Parente, Anthony Samways, Gyasi Zardes and Lucas Zelarayan
SCORE
NYCFC 2, Crew SC 0
“For me, the preseason and these training matches are about growth,” head coach Caleb Porter said following Wednesday’s scrimmage. “That’s why we schedule them. When you get to the last couple, you want to see the complete picture because you know that’s the last time for your team to play in a game before you’re playing a real game for points. We still have a ways to go, obviously, we still have 15 days until we play that first game and we have three more games, so we knew this one was going to be a little bit of a game where we were going to tinker.”
The Black & Gold return to action for their next scrimmage on Saturday, March 27, at Orlando City SC.
