Columbus Crew vs Minnesota United 29/07/20

29 July 2020

Columbus Crew and Minnesota United will face off against each other at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in the MLS play-offs round of 16.

Columbus finished top of Group E with all three triumphs, all of which saw them win ‘to nil’ and score the opening goal inside the first 30 minutes of play. Additionally, the ‘Black & Gold’ have won all but one of eight home fixtures this calendar year, friendlies included, with the last five all yielding a blank sheet. The ‘clean-sheet’ theme remains quite significant here, as three of their previous four H2H meetings saw the winner on the day shut out the loser (W3, L1), which has been true in seven of Columbus’ ten wins this calendar year, friendlies included.

Meanwhile, the visitors finished as the runners-up in Group D without losing once (W1, D2), with two of those fixtures seeing over 2.5 goals and both teams on the scoresheet. Interestingly, all four goals Minnesota scored across those games came inside the final ten minutes of either the first or the second half. Moreover, the ‘Loons’ have yet to taste defeat away from home this calendar year (W6, D3), friendlies included. Impressively, free-scoring Minnesota have scored over 1.5 goals in one half in all but one of those nine matches. But, a lack of defensive quality has seen them concede at least twice five times during the same timeframe.