Columbus Crew hands FC Cincinnati 3-0 shutout in 'Hell is Real' rivalry showdown

In a rivalry whose namesake literally evokes the gates of eternal damnation, the Crew still found a way to add an extra pinch of spice.

The scoreboards at Lower.com Field were tinged with electronic flames, an unintentional callback to the scoreboard at Historic Crew Stadium. A special menu of spicy foods was offered on the Chase Plaza, and it was difficult to turn your head too far without seeing the “Hell is Real” slogan emblazoned on a T-shirt, banner, scarf or advertisement.

First-place FC Cincinnati was clearly in town for the latest battle of Ohio, and a pregame ceremony that included Cleveland rock back Welshly Arms ripping through a couple of songs, on-field fireworks that resembled pitchforks and the requisite playing of “Highway to Hell” over the speakers. The topper, though, came when Wilfried Nancy burst through a faux brick wall and pushed the plunger to fulfill his duties as the official “match ignitor.”

The Crew’s coach, on account of a two-game suspension, was not able to be with his team. Instead, he was with the people, waving a checkered Crew flag as the Nordecke went wild at his surprise appearance.

He watched the game from a box at the press box level. With assistant coach Kwame Ampadu in his place, the Crew (11-7-6) took control with a 10-minute sequence during the first half and went on to a 3-0 win against Cincinnati (15-3-6).

The Crew didn't even need much from its newly acquired "cheat code," as it labeled forward Diego Rossi in a pregame hype video. The team's newest designated player made his debut in the 58th minute and recorded his first shot on goal a moment later. Jacen Russell-Rowe, a 90th-minute substitution, scored deep into five minutes of stoppage time to set the final score.

The win came in front of an announced crowd of 20,730, the third-largest in Lower.com Field history and 10th consecutive sellout. It moved the Crew to 6-2-4 all-time against Cincinnati, and when the final score was announced, the public-address announcer called out, "Hell is real for FC Cincinnati."

"I think we know what color Ohio is now, baby," Crew midfielder Aidan Morris said in an on-field interview.

With both teams trading end-to-end attacking runs early, the Crew found the back of the net first. After a blast from about 25 yards out was parried wide left by goalkeeper Roman Celentano a few moments earlier, this time Morris took a pass from Yaw Yeboah again from outside the penalty area. Just left of center, Morris took a touch, collected himself as Cincinnati’s defenders left him a pocket to work in and let go with a right-footed blast that sailed past a diving Celentano and nestled itself into the upper right corner of the net.

It was a heck of a goal, and it came in the 15th minute, giving Morris his fourth goal of the MLS season.

The celebratory smoke was still lingering over the Nordecke when the Crew again pushed their attack into the area where a redirected flick appeared to strike the arm of Cincinnati’s Álvaro Barreal. The midfielder was whistled for a handball in the 21st minute and, two minutes later, Cucho Hernandez finished the penalty kick for a 2-0 lead and his sixth goal of the season.

As the Crew headed back to midfield to resume play, forward Christian Ramirez turned toward the blue-and-orange Cincinnati supporters, cupped his hands to his ears and gestured toward them to ask why he couldn’t hear them.

They very nearly had a goal to celebrate a moment later, when recently acquired designated player Aaron Boupendza took in a long ball along the right side of the Crew’s penalty area and got his attempt past a charging Patrick Schulte. The ball trickled toward the open mouth of the goal, but not faster than a charging Sean Zawadzki. Running at full-tilt, the Crew center back cleared the ball off the line with a sliding effort.

Zawadzki wound up in the back of the net, but the ball didn’t, and the 2-0 lead remained intact.

"I saw the play (on the other side of the box) with Patrick coming off of his line," Zawadzki said. "My first instinct was to cover the goal. I was lucky enough to take it off the line."

Without Nancy on the sideline, the Crew had three changes from their starting lineup in their previous MLS game. Hernandez replaced Jacen Russell-Rowe at forward, Alex Matan was in Lucas Zelarayan’s vacated spot in the midfield and Julian Gressel replaced Mo Farsi on the right flank. In that game against the Timbers, Zelarayan hadn’t yet been sold to a club in Saudi Arabia and Gressel hadn’t yet been acquired from Vancouver in two of the Crew’s notable summer transfer window moves.

The game was the first in 16 days for both teams, who each bowed out of the Leagues Cup in the round of 32 on August 4.

Camacho came on in the 90th minute for Zawadzki, who appeared to be dealing with a cramping issue.

ajardy@dispatch.com

@AdamJardy

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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus Crew hands FC Cincinnati shutout loss in 'Hell is Real' match