Columbus Crew 2 -San Jose Earthquakes 1
On a night that celebrated some of the most popular superheros in the world Columbus Crew fans were greeted by a new one: ‘Iron’ Mike Grella. On Saturday night at MAPFRE Stadium Grella started his Crew career off with a bang, netting the game-winner in Columbus’ (4-3-2, 14 points) 2-1 win over the San Jose Earthquakes (1-4-2, 5 points).
Columbus took the lead in the first half thanks to a goal from defender Harrison Afful in the 28th minute. But the Earthquakes tied things up just before halftime with Danny Hoesen scoring his third goal of the season. In the second half Columbus continued to pressure the Earthquakes defense, looking for that little bit of a spark to snap their four game winless run. They found it in the form of Grella, who came on in the 65th minute. Coach Gregg Berhalter’s move paid dividends late as Grella finished off a cross by Pedro Santos, coolly slipping it far post past Earthquakes goalkeeper Andrew Tarbell for the 2-1 lead.
Ryan Kozlowski’s recap of the match should be up shortly. In the meantime please enjoy some of our photos from the newest member of the Prost Soccer team, Julie Jackson. She will be covering the Crew all season long so make sure to give her a follow on Twitter and check out all of her work from the 2018 season on SmugMug.
Columbus Crew
San Jose Earthquakes
