Back in action for the club’s second away match across all competitions in four days, Columbus Crew SC visited Major League Soccer-expansion side Atlanta United FC on Saturday night at Bobby Dodd Stadium on the campus of the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Despite the 46th goal of Federico Higuain’s MLS career and seventh of the season pulling the visitors even at 1-1 in the 26th minute, Atlanta took control in the second half with two unanswered goals.
The 3-1 defeat was just Columbus’ third ever loss to a first-year expansion side. Atlanta opened the scoring in the 16th minute when Hector Villalba scored off a Yamil Asad assist before Miguel Almiron (67) and Josef Martinez (88) scored in the second half.
After falling behind just 16 minutes into the wide-open and fast-paced match, Higuain pounced on a ball that Ola Kamara touched backward toward the 6-yard box before poking the fine finish into the back of Atlanta’s net. The play produced the second assist of Kamara’s season and the first assist of Harrison Afful’s.
Crew SC next plays the Montreal Impact at MAPFRE Stadium on Saturday, June 24 with a 7:30 p.m. ET kickoff.
The Black & Gold welcome German Bundesliga-side and DFB Pokal-finalist Eintracht Frankfurt to MAPFRE Stadium for an international friendly on Monday, July 17. The match is set to kick off at 7:30 p.m.
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