[Sport] Columbus Crew, MLS champion with Zelarayán

[FNX Magokiler]

El Chino, formerly Belgrano, scored two goals and provided an assist for his team's 3-0 match against Nicolás Lodeiro's Seattle Sounders. Second title for Columbus, who had won the first from Guillermo Barros Schelotto.

Led by Lucas Zelarayán, who converted a double and an assist, the Columbus Crew became the United States MLS champions by defeating the Seattle Sounders 3-0. The triumph allowed the Crew to secure their second MLS Cup champion title after in 2008, with Guillermo Barros Schelotto as the great leader, they won the first by beating the New York Red Bulls 3-1.

This time, the great figure was Zelarayán, who imposed his talent and class in the center of the field, in addition to being the author of the first goal that he scored at minute 25 when he finished off the ball that was placed below him on the left leg. from the body to the goalkeeper of the Sounders, Stefan Frei. The goal was the deserved prize for the greater dominance of the Crew, which could have already been with the advantage on the scoreboard before, and six minutes later, at 31, it left the game sentenced With the 2-0, the work of the American Derrick Etienne, after receiving a great assistance from Cordoba.

 

 

The scoreboard would no longer move in the course of the first half, with a Crew in total control of all facets of the game and some Sounders, who defended the title of champions, without any inspiration and contribution on the field. Things changed in the second half with those from Seattle more identified with their offensive game in which Uruguayan Nicolás Lodeiro began to stand out, who had the opportunity in the 70th minute to have scored the first goal for the Seattle team, but the ball he was slightly deflected by the bottom of the right post of the frame defended by the Dutch goalkeeper Eloy Room.

Then it would be Room himself, who put in a miraculous hand to prevent the ball from sneaking through the right corner of his frame, and there was the last chance for the Sounders to have gotten into the game. Because at minute 82 came the decisive play that starred the young Costa Rican midfielder Luis Díaz, who put a perfect pass to Zelarayán so that with his left foot he took a perfect shot that sent the ball through the entire squad of the frame defended by Frei, who nothing could do to avoid it would be the final 3-0.

El Chino, 28 years old and former Belgrano, became in his first season in MLS the great figure in the final and winner of the Most Valuable Player (MVP) award of the match. Crew coach Caleb Porter, in his second year at the helm, also claimed his second MLS champion title, but with a different team, after winning his first with the Portland Timbers.

Poter joins Bruce Arena and the late Sigi Schmid as the only three coaches in MLS history to have achieved championship titles with different teams. While the Sounders FC were on the verge of repeating the title in what was their fourth MLS Cup Final in the last five years, with two championships under their belt after winning the first in 2016.