Columbus Crew rout D.C. United 3-0 as visitors miss costly penalty

Sean Zawadzki barely had to crane his neck to put the Columbus Crew ahead in the 15th minute, and from there the game never had another storyline: the Crew ended up routing D.C. United 3-0 at Historic Crew Stadium, in an MLS clash that served as a shakeup at the bottom of the Eastern Conference.

Zawadzki's goal came off a close-range header, finished from a cross into the box by Dylan Chambost that originated from a free kick. It was the first sign of an afternoon in which the Crew dominated comfortably: before that goal, Chambost had already tested the keeper with a shot from outside the box, and Anass Zaroury and Malte Amundsen had come close as well.

D.C. United got their best chance to get back into the match in the 21st minute, when VAR awarded a penalty for a handball by Sekou Bangoura inside the area. But Keisuke Kurokawa, who stepped up to take it, sent his shot just wide of the right post two minutes later. It was the turning point: with the 1-0 deficit turned into a tie, the complexion of the match would have been different, but the miss left the visitors empty-handed and with the sense of a missed opportunity.

The Crew wasted little time punishing that reprieve. In the 40th minute, Anass Zaroury curled a right-footed finish from inside the box into the top corner, again assisted by Chambost, to make it 2-0 at halftime.

In the second half, United tried to respond with substitutes Oscar Avilez and Brandon Servania coming on, and had a few looks with shots from Avilez and Peglow, but the blow that sealed the match was self-inflicted: in the 59th minute, a shot from Santiago Rodriguez deflected off Kimito Nono and into his own net to make it 3-0.

What the numbers say

The Crew's dominance showed up in the possession and passing numbers: they controlled the ball 61.2% of the time compared to 38.8% for United, completing 646 passes to their opponent's 400. Columbus also generated more shots and more clear-cut chances, though both sides finished level on shots on target.

As for expected goals calculated after the fact based on shot locations, the Crew generated 1.62 xG to United's 1.134, a gap that confirms the home side's superiority but also shows that the final scoreline ended up more lopsided than the run of play suggested, largely due to the missed penalty and the own goal.

Pre-match projections had given Columbus Crew a 62% chance of winning, with 23% for a draw and 15% for a United win, with an expected goals projection of 2.05 for the home side and 0.93 for the visitors. The final result ended up even more favorable to the Crew than projected, though the flow of the match, home dominance and a missed penalty for the visitors, lined up with that forecast.

With this result, the Crew remain in eighth place in the Eastern Conference with 44 points from 33 matches, while D.C. United stay in 13th place with 33 points from the same number of games. The gap between the two sides stands at 11 points, a fairly accurate reflection of what played out on the field this afternoon.