On Monday night Columbus Crew SC suffered its first loss of the 2020 Major League Soccer regular season to Eastern Conference foes New York City FC, 1-0. With several key contributors missing, including club-record signing Lucas Zelarayan, goalkeeper Eloy Room, center back Vito Wormgoor and winger Youness Mokhtar, the Crew was still competitive and felt the group was in a position to take some points from the match. Thus, all is not lost for Columbus in 2020.
Here are the biggest takeaways from Monday night’s defeat.
Get used to the physicality
NYCFC certainly didn’t back away from this matchup against the Crew, as was evidenced by the team’s physical play, especially in the first half.