Salomón Rondón recorded a brace to lead host CF Pachuca to a 3-0 victory over the Columbus Crew on Saturday in the final of the CONCACAF Champions Cup.
Pachuca defeat Columbus Crew in CONCACAF Champions Cup final
Rondon's goals in the 12th and 67th minutes sandwiched a 32nd-minute tally from Miguel Rodríguez against the reigning MLS Cup champions.
The Crew are taking no chances ahead of their crucial final in Mexico.
The Columbus Crew will be playing against Liga MX’s CF Pachuca in the CONCACAF Champions Cup final on Saturday, the final decider of who will be the last CONCACAF team to qualify to next year’s inaugural 2025 Club World Cup.
Goals from Aidan Morris and Diego Rossi on either side of halftime led the Columbus Crew to a 3-1 victory over Monterrey on Wednesday in Guadalupe, Mexico, giving the Crew a 5-2 aggregate win in the CONCACAF Champions Cup semifinals.
Columbus, the reigning MLS Cup champion, opened the semifinal series with a 2-1 home victory on April 24.
The Crew advance to oppose another Mexican team, Pachuca, in the final on June 2. Pachuca beat Liga MX rival Club America 2-1 on Tuesday to cap a 3-2 semifinal victory.
Jacen Russell-Rowe contributed the winning goal and an assist as the host Columbus Crew earned a 2-1 victory over Monterrey on Wednesday in the first leg of the Concacaf Champions Cup semifinal series.
The two-leg series will conclude on May 1 in Mexico.
Russell-Rowe headed home the winner in the 72nd minute after setting up Cucho Hernandez's goal in the 25th minute. Monterrey had pulled level on a goal from Maximiliano Meza in the 58th minute.
Columbus goalie Patrick Schulte saved the first two attempts in a penalty shootout as the Crew advanced past Tigres UANL on Tuesday in the quarterfinals of the Concacaf Champions Cup at San Nicolas de los Garza, Mexico.
Tigres grabbed an early lead on a goal from Gignac in the third minute. Schulte got caught in possession inside his own 6-yard box, and Gignac tapped the ball into the vacated goal.
Henry Martin scored in the 16th minute, Alejandro Zendejas added a goal eight minutes later and America never looked back in a 4-0 drubbing of the New England Revolution in Foxborough, Mass., on Tuesday night in the first leg of a CONCACAF Champions Cup quarterfinal series.
The 2024 Major League Soccer All-Star Game will once again feature the best players from MLS against a team of All-Stars from Mexico's top flight on July 24 in Columbus, Ohio.
It will be the third All-Star clash between MLS and Liga MX. Last year's game pitted the MLS All-Stars against English Premier League power Arsenal.
2024 MLS All-Star Game
The Crew is iced out.
Columbus Crew players received championship rings to conmemorate their 2023 MLS Cup title before playing their season opener against Atlanta United this Saturday.
The ring, also given to coaching staff and club management, is 10-karat yellow gold and studded with approximately 250 diamonds. The conmemorative piece was revealed at the stadium in a ceremony held before the start of the match.
Cucho Hernández put on a historic performance for the Columbus Crew this weekend for what he did with the ball, and somewhat of another historic performance for what he did off of it. Bring him the MVP and Oscar award.
The Columbus Crew outlasted LAFC 2-1 to win MLS Cup on Saturday in front 20,802 fans at Lower.com Field in Columbus, Ohio. An unbelievable Malte Amundsen assist to Yaw Yeboah gave the Crew their second and game-winning goal.
Amundsen might just have won himself the assist of the season as the Danish center back delivered an inch-perfect ball that cut LAFC’s back line wide open.
Amundsen assist vs LAFC in MLS Cup