Live updates and results from the Leagues Cup
Columbus Crew players sing “Wise Man” and chant “Columbus!” with fans
Columbus Crew players sing the traditional “Wise Man” with fans in the north corner after a penalty shootout win against New York FC in a Leagues Cup soccer match
It has been 326 days since the Crew last played against the Philadelphia Union, even though both teams are in the Eastern Conference.
Their first meeting of 2024 was originally scheduled for August 24 as a regular season game, but Columbus and Philadelphia will face off in a Leagues Cup semifinal tonight a little earlier than expected. When both the Crew and Union advanced to the quarterfinals with 4-3 wins in penalty kicks, it added to the excitement of their first meeting of the year and pushed the game back to Wednesday on the original schedule.
This is the first time in the tournament that the Crew will face an opponent they have not faced in the regular season. For Columbus, it was the second time they played in the knockout rounds of the Leagues Cup against Sporting Kansas City, Inter Miami and New York City FC.
“It’s going to be a tough matchup (against Philadelphia),” said Crew forward Christian Ramirez. “Two different football styles, but we have the utmost respect for them. I think Wilfried (Crew coach Wilfried Nancy) does too, because that’s where the season started last year and he learned a lot about the group there last year. To see where we started, that was a good step.”
Nancy’s first game as Crew coach was against the Union, a 4-1 loss in the 2023 season opener. Columbus’ second game against Philadelphia on September 30 ended in a 1-1 tie.
The winner of Wednesday’s semi-final will advance to Sunday’s Leagues Cup final, while the loser will play in the third-place match on the same day.
Arace: Five notes before the semifinals of the Columbus Crew-Philadelphia Union Leagues Cup
Follow live updates from the Leagues Cup semi-finals against the Crew and the Union:
With a header goal that coach Wilfried Nancy had been demanding from Diego Rossi since the start of the tournament, Rossi gave the Crew a 1-0 lead in the first half.
Crew forward Diego Rossi had the first shot on goal of the game for either team. Near the Union goal, Rossi received the ball after a pass on the right side of the box, but the attempt went over the goal post.
Here are the attendance figures for Crew Leagues Cup games at Lower.com Field this season:
- Friday, August 9 against Sporting Kansas City: 20,397
- Tuesday, August 13 against Inter Miami: 14,031
- Saturday, August 17 against New York City FC: 14,071
The Crew’s Leagues Cup Round of 32 opener against Sporting Kansas City was included in season ticket packages. Subsequent games were an additional cost for season ticket holders and there was only a four-day break between games.
Union leading scorer Tai Baribo will not be available for Philadelphia’s League Cup semifinal against Columbus after picking up a red card in the quarterfinals. On Saturday against Mazatlan FC, Baribo received a red card after receiving his second yellow card of the game in 10 minutes.
These are the top scorers in the Leagues Cup (still in the tournament):
- Tai Baribo (Philadelphia Union): 5 goals
- Denis Bouanga (Los Angeles FC): 4 goals
- Cristian Olivera (Los Angeles FC): 4 goals
- Diego Rossi (Columbus Crew): 4 goals
When the Crew reached the Leagues Cup semifinals, they set a goal of 52 games to ensure a place in the MLS Cup final, guaranteeing them two more games in the tournament before returning to the MLS regular season.
For Columbus, the 34th semifinal against Philadelphia Union will take place on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.
“The staff knew how important it would be to put a lot of emphasis on fitness and to start the season fit since we had so many games to play,” said Crew midfielder Sean Zawadzki.
Read more: Columbus Crew continues to play in the Leagues Cup. How does the club avoid season fatigue at the end of the season?
Here is the starting lineup for Philadelphia against Columbus:
- Goalkeeper: Andre Blake
- DF: Jack Elliott
- DF: Jakob Glesnes
- DF: Nathan Harriel
- DF: Kai Wagner
- Midfield: Alejandro Bedoya
- MF: Leon Flach
- MF: Daniel Gazdag
- MF: Jack McGlynn
- MF: Quinn Sullivan
- MF: Mikael Uhre
Here is the starting lineup for Columbus vs. Philadelphia:
- GK: Patrick Schulte
- Defense: Rudy Camacho
- Defender: Yevhen Cheberko
- DF: Steven Moriera
- MF: Max Arfsten
- MF: Mo Farsi
- MF: Darlington Nagbe
- MF: Sean Zawadzki
- FW: Cucho Hernandez
- FW: Christian Ramirez
- FW: Diego Rossi
Here are the officials for Crew vs. Union on Wednesday night:
- Referee: Armando Villarreal
- Assistant Referee 1: Cory Richardson
- Assistant Referee 2: Kyle Atkins
- VAR: Daniel Radford
- Fourth Official: Jon Freemon
The winner of the Crew-Philadelphia match will face the winner of the Los Angeles FC-Colorado Rapids match in the final. The loser will face the loser of LAFC-Colorado in the third place match.
Los Angeles vs. Colorado kicks off tonight at 10 p.m. EST in Los Angeles.
The Crew has a 15-13-6 record against the Philadelphia Union. Columbus last defeated Philadelphia in November 2020, picking up a 2-1 regular season victory.
The Crew defeated Sporting Kansas City 4-0 in the round of 32 thanks to two goals from striker Diego Rossi in their first Leagues Cup match. Before the knockout phase, Columbus had a bye into the group stage as 2023 MLS Cup winners.
To advance to the quarterfinals, the Crew had to overcome a three-goal deficit in the final 25 minutes of their match against Inter Miami. Columbus was led by Rossi, who again scored two goals, and striker Christian Ramirez.
In the quarterfinals, the Crew finished regulation time with a 1-1 draw with New York City FC after NYCFC scored the fastest goal ever against Columbus when striker Alonso Martinez fired the ball into the net 14 seconds into the game. The game went to penalties and the Crew took the 4-3 victory when transfer window addition DeJuan Jones converted Columbus’ last-gasp attempt.
Although Philadelphia Union entered the Leagues Cup with a 6-10-9 record, out of playoff positions, Philadelphia managed to finish first out of the East 4 group. In the tournament’s opening games, Union defeated Charlotte FC 1-0 before losing to Liga MX’s Cruz Azul 5-4 on penalties, earning Philadelphia a point in the group stage.
Philadelphia played against CF Montreal in the first round of the knockout phase and defeated Montreal 2-0. The Union then faced FC Cincinnati in the round of 16 and picked up a surprise 4-3 victory that took them to the quarterfinals.
Similar to Columbus, Philadelphia’s quarterfinal match against Liga MX’s Mazatlan FC ended 1-1 at the end of regular time and required a penalty shootout. Mazatlan missed its first and fourth penalties, allowing Union to advance to the semifinals with a 4-3 win.
The Crew started the 2023 Leagues Cup in Group Central 1 with St. Louis City and Club America.
After defeating St. Louis 2-1 in the opening match of the tournament, the Crew faced Club America, one of the top teams in Liga MX, shortly after Columbus announced the transfer of their star midfielder Lucas Zelarayan to Al Fateh of the Saudi Pro League. Hours after the announcement, the Crew claimed a 4-1 victory over Club America.
Columbus entered the knockout phase of the Round of 32 against Minnesota United with home advantage. The two clubs finished regulation time in a 1-1 draw, meaning the game went straight to penalties. After missed shots by Kevin Molino, Steven Moreira and Malte Amundsen, the Crew lost to Minnesota 4-3 in the penalty shootout and were eliminated from the tournament.
The English-language radio broadcast of The Crew vs. Philadelphia will air on Alt 105.7 FM and is available on the iHeartRadio app. Columbus’ regular radio host Chris Doran will be on the call.
The Spanish radio broadcast can be heard on La Grande 102.5 FM and the La Grande radio app with Juan Valladares as live commentator.
The Crew-Philadelphia game is available on Apple TV with an MLS Season Pass subscription. Here are the teams broadcasting tonight:
- English broadcast: Jake Zivin (live commentary), Taylor Twellman (analyst)
- Spanish broadcast: Sammy Sadovnik (live commentary), Diego Valeri (analyst)
Kickoff: Wednesday, August 21, 7:30 p.m., at Lower.com Field.
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