By Canadian Press

Crew clinch MLS top-4 seed, eliminate Montreal with 2-1 win

Oct 21, 2023 | 7:19 PM

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Darlington Nagbe scored the winner in the second half and the Columbus Crew clinched a top-four seed in Major League Soccer’s Eastern Conference, while eliminating CF Montreal from post-season play with a 2-1 victory on Saturday night.

Columbus (16-9-9) finishes 12-1-4 at home this season, posting a club-record 40 points. The Crew’s previous record was 38 in 2017. The Crew have just one loss at home in their last 27 matches in all competitions.

Nagbe took a pass from defender Malte Amundsen five minutes into the second half and scored for a third time this season.

Sunusi Ibrahim used an assist from Zachary Brault-Guillard in the seventh minute to give Montreal (12-17-5) the early lead.

Cucho Hernández scored the equalizer for the Crew in the 17th minute when he snagged a pass from defender Steven Moreira to notch his 16th goal this season. Hernández’s 27-goal contributions this season are the third most in club history. Hernández has scored 10 goals since the start of September, tops in the league.

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Patrick Schulte saved one shot for Columbus. Jonathan Sirois had three saves for Montreal.

Montreal entered play having won two of its last three matches in Columbus after going 1-9-2 in its first 12 trips there.

Montreal totalled only eight points on the road this season, going 2-13-2. Last season the club had 11 wins away from home, the most by any club in the post-shootout era (2000 on).

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

The Associated Press