Lucas Zelarayan and Christian Ramirez each scored to lift the Columbus Crew to a 2-0 win over host D.C. United on Saturday in Washington.
Patrick Schulte made four saves to earn the shutout for the Crew (4-2-1, 13 points), who have outscored the opposition 12-1 during their three-game winning streak.
Zelarayan has scored four goals this year, with three coming against D.C. United. He scored both goals in Columbus’ 2-0 win on March 4.
The Crew maintained possession for 55.9 percent of the game and put five of their 13 shots on target, in addition to completing 82.8 percent of their 471 passes.
D.C. United (1-4-2, 5 points) put five of their 14 shots on goal and completed 70.5 percent of their 373 passes.
Leading 1-0 at halftime, the Crew doubled their lead in the 47th minute.
After corralling a cross-field pass from William Sands, Mohamed Farsi beat his defender down the right wing and cut to the goal before centering a pass to Ramirez, who one-timed it past goalie Tyler Miller.
D.C. United helped put themselves in an early deficit when Russell Canouse took down Columbus’ Alexandru Matan in the penalty box, giving the Crew a penalty kick.
Zelarayan promptly gave Columbus a 1-0 lead when he slid the ball into the lower-right corner past Miller in the 39th minute.
The Crew dominated the first half. Columbus maintained possession for 70.2 percent of the game but put just two of their eight shots on target. They also completed 89 percent of their 274 passes.
D.C. United put just two of their four shots on target, in addition to completing just 57.4 percent of their 117 passes prior to halftime.
D.C. United haven’t scored since Christian Benteke’s team-leading third goal of the season in the 45th minute of a 2-1 loss to the visiting New England Revolution on March 25. D.C. United played host Chicago to a scoreless draw last week.
–Field Level Media
