The Columbus Crew travels to Sandy, Utah to battle Real Salt Lake. In years past, this would be a perfect trap game for the Black & Gold. Columbus does not do well with interconference away games, their last away win in MLS play against a Western Conference opponent was at Minnesota on July 4th, 2017. The Crew did beat the Houston Dynamo in Houston this season but in Concacaf Champions Cup (CCC) play. Head coach Wilfried Nancy has done so much right since coming to Columbus and victories over Houston and Tigres away will give fans more hope for a cross-conference away win.

Once again the Black & Gold will be without star forward Cucho Hernandez who picked up a red card for a frustrated kickout on a DC United defender. Hernandez is showing a team player mentality as he traveled with the team for this away match. Forward Christian Ramirez remains out with a leg injury. Sean Zawadzki has returned to the team and traveled to Utah. Columbus should not rush Zawadzki back with both defender Rudy Camacho and midfielder Alex Matan returning to action. 

Here is how the Crew could lineup:

The positive vibes will continue for goalkeeper Patrick Schulte starts in this match. The Crew backstop showed great strength of character in the away match against Tigres as he overcame an early error that gifted the Mexican team an early goal but finished the match making two critical saves in the penalty shootout. 

Defender Rudy Camacho returned to the starting lineup against Tigres and will get the start against Real Salt Lake. The next challenge for Camacho is to go a full 90 minutes after returning from injury. Defenders Steven Moreira and Malte Amundsen will flank Camacho in this match. Amundsen and defender Yevhen Cheberko seem locked in a battle for the left center back position with both defenders playing at a high level, a good problem for Nancy to have. Cheberko was named to the Best XI for the quarterfinal round of CCC. 

Wingbacks Mo Farsi and Yaw Yeboah should start in this match. Winger Max Arfsten made a splash against Tigres, providing energy and good attacking ideas attacking a tired Tigres backline in extra time. Arfsten also sealed the game with his penalty kick, Nancy may reward Arfsten’s hard work, if not with a start then more playing time. 

Midfielder Aidan Morris will be happy to be back on the field after watching the Champions Cup match from the stands. The homegrown midfielder seems to find another level when his team needs him most, whether that is a surprise MLS Cup start as a teenager or scoring a 30-yard banger of equalizer in the dying moments of a match down a man. Joining Morris will be midfielder and captain Darlington Nagbe. Inter-conference games are the lowest stake matches in an MLS season since neither team can surpass the other in conference standings, lessening the impact on playoff standings. Due to this, it could be a match for midfielder Taha Habroune to make a cameo appearance.

With Hernandez out, forward Diego Rossi will need to be more goal-dangerous for Columbus to have a chance to win the match. Rossi scored both goals and his penalty kick to facilitate the win over Tigres, but he has yet to score in MLS play this season. Joining Rossi will be Matan as he makes his first start back since his injury in early March. Forward Jacen Russell-Rowe will round out the attacking trio. The Crew have scored in 10 of their 11 matches (90.9%), but have only scored two or more goals in three of those contests (27.27%). RSL’s forward, Chicho Arrango, has been a goal machine and the Black & Gold will likely need to score more than one goal to win this match. 

Surprisingly, the attack has faltered a bit this season, as the Crew scored two or more goals in 31 of 46 matches last season (67.39%). But the defense has been stout as Columbus has given up more than one goal in only two of their 11 matches so far (18.18%). Last season the Black and Gold allowed two or more goals 18 out of 46 matches (39.13%). Columbus scored a goal in 43 of 46 matches (93.48%) last season, failing to score only three times.

All three times were on the road against Charlotte, Pittsburgh, and Houston.