Crew continue winless ways with draw against CF Montreal

Updated: Apr 27, 2024, 10:09 pm

The Columbus Crew extended their winless streak to six matches in MLS play with their fifth consecutive tie, 0-0, against visiting CF Montreal on Saturday.

Patrick Schulte made two saves for his third shutout of the season for the Crew (3-1-6, 15 points), who have not won since March 16.

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Jonathan Sirois' four saves, all in the second half, helped Montreal (3-3-3, 12 points) to its third consecutive match without a loss (win, two ties), moving to 1-3-2 in the past six matches.

Sirois earned his second shutout thanks to a fantastic save with an extended left arm on a strike by Max Arfsten in the fifth minute of stoppage time.

The Crew made six changes from its 2-1 home victory over Monterrey in the first leg of the CONCACAF Champions Cup semifinals Wednesday.

With the return match in Mexico next Wednesday, forwards Cucho Hernandez and Diego Rossi, midfielder Darlington Nagbe and defender Steven Moreira were on the bench. All but Nagbe entered in the 66th minute.

The match was the first in Columbus for Laurent Courtois since he was named Montreal's head coach before the 2024 season. The previous two seasons he was coach of Columbus Crew 2 in the developmental MLS Next Pro, winning the league championship in 2022 and reaching the final last season.

There are five players on the senior Crew roster who played for Courtois in the past two seasons, and four started against him, including goalkeeper Patrick Schulte.

Adding to the familiarity, second-year Crew coach Wilfried Nancy was the Montreal coach in 2021-22.

As such, there was little to note in the first half with Montreal having the only shot attempt - an easy save for Schulte - and each team having 0.0 expected goals.

The malaise ended 35 seconds into the second half when the Crew's Alex Matan fed Marino Hinestroza at 6-yard box but the Colombian missed horribly with a shot off the crossbar.

Within the next two minutes, Sirois made three saves to keep the match scoreless.

The Crew was on a counter in the 61st minute when Jacen Russell-Rowe's header from 7 yards went off the bar.