With the Columbus Crew battling hard to ensure that they get the best chance to secure at least the second seed in the Eastern Conference, Cucho Hernandez’s heroics come to life once more as he delivered a massive performance to carry the club to its 15th win of the season and keeping their hopes alive at the seeding.

While Inter Miami FC is way ahead to be chased down from the top spot, the defending MLS Cup champions can still settle for a best-case scenario finish by clinching the second seed. Beating the Toronto FC in this game yesterday allowed them to stay on par as the season goes down to its final games before the playoffs begin.

Luckily, Cucho Hernandez’s impressive performance came at the right time to help lead the way for the Crew. Columbus has now allowed a league-low and a club-record of 28 goals in 28 matches this season alone – and that says a lot about their improvement as a defensive club with a high-octane offensive unit led by Cucho.

Another Day, Another Cucho Hernandez Show

Cucho Hernandez’s clutch performance has saved the day again without much problem. No team has found the goal until the 51st minute where Cucho found a pass from Jacen Russell-Rowe and calmly sank the goal – his 14th of the season. That goal also marked the first assist for Russell-Rowe this season.

The onslaught would not stop for the Columbus Crew at that point. The team later took a 2-0 lead when Andres Herrera, who is playing in his third start and fourth game, received a late pass from Cucho and scored his first career goal. Hernandez’s dish was the 11th of this campaign – matching the same total that he has last season with still a few more games to go.

Amidst the shadow of Cucho’s show, Patrick Schulte also impressed well in his game as he came up with three saves to claim his 12th clean sheet of the season – which ties him with LAFC’s Hugo Lloris for the most clean sheets this season. Overall, it was a team effort – and Cucho’s big game certainly helped them come up with a promising victory now more than ever.

Chasing the 2nd Seed

Columbus has already clinched a playoff berth for the season, but now the team is battling for the best playoff spot possible. With Inter Miami already 10 points ahead of them, it is easy to expect that Crew will now have to settle for the second spot held by Cincinnati FC. As of the time of writing, Cincinnati only has a two-point lead in the standings ahead of Columbus.

This means that the Crew will need to take on a promising pace if they are going to make the most of their chances in the final games of the season. Columbus has six games left to play in the season. The team will battle Orlando City FC next up in their schedule this weekend, followed by clashes against DC United, Inter Miami, Philadelphia, and New England before wrapping up their season campaign in a showdown with the New York Red Bulls.

The showdown against Inter Miami will be crucial in their chances of winning, but experts predict that the club will not field its best players and rest them up instead for the postseason – and this gives the Crew a promising chance to stay on target for second seed in the final games of the season.