After a historic win at home last week, Columbus Crew SC will host Vancouver Whitecaps FC aiming to build off its current regular-season 14-match unbeaten streak at MAPFRE Stadium in a cross-conference match Saturday at 3 p.m. ET
In a night of firsts, Columbus defender Milton Valenzuela opened the scoring with his first professional career goal. Midfielder Ricardo Clark followed up with a goal for Columbus in his starting XI debut. Finally, Pedro Santos secured Crew SC’s century goal in the all-time regular-season series against D.C. United, and the 3-1 victory.
The highlight of the night, however, came from Acura Man of the MatchFederico Higuain. Higuain set up Clark’s goal with on a corner kick to cement himself in Black & Gold lore, becoming the first member of Major League Soccer’s prestigious 50-goals, 50-assists club exclusively with Crew SC.
The Black & Gold closed Week 4 atop the Eastern Conference table and landed five representatives on MLSsoccer.com’s Team of the Week: Sporting Director and Head Coach Gregg Berhalter (coach), Higuain (M), Cristian Martinez (M), Santos (M - bench) and Valenzuela (D).
Vancouver played LA Galaxy last week in a defensive duel that ended scoreless. Crew SC has not beaten Whitecaps FC since 2011. Leading scorer for Vancouver, Kei Kamara will look to guide Whitecaps FC to their third win of the season.
With Wil Trapp and Zack Steffen back in Columbus after their time with the US Men’s National Team, Crew SC will strive to continue their unbeaten 2018 before hitting the road for Weeks 6 and 7.
In search of No. 15 in the club’s current multi-season unbeaten run, Crew SC returns to MAPFRE Stadium to host the Vancouver Whitecaps on March 31 at 3 p.m. ET.
