A moment of brilliance from U.S. international Benjamin Cremaschi was all that separated the Columbus Crew and Inter Miami Saturday afternoon, as the Herons came away with a thrilling 1-0 victory over Wilfried Nancy's men. In a battle between the two lone unbeaten MLS teams through Matchday 8, the South Beach side came out on top - despite a relatively dominant performance from Columbus.
Miami are now the last unbeaten team in the league, with Saturday marking the first loss of the campaign for the Crew - despite a record home crowd of 60,614.
A first-half diving header from Cremaschi, delivered off a stupendous cross from Marcelo Weigandt 30 minutes into the match, was the lone goal - despite numerous attempts from each side. The majority of the game was with the ball on the feet of the Crew - Nancy's team had 59.6 possession and Miami barely found themselves with it at their feet.
Two key opportunities for Columbus, a wide-open shot from Diego Rossi and a header from Jacen Russell-Rowe, were some of their best chances. But the Crew lacked a clinical final touch all match. They created chance after chance, but only managed a mere three shots on target despite 15 total shot attempts. Miami had just two on target off of six attempts.
In second half stoppage-time, Hungarian forward Daniel Gazdag had a fantastic chance to draw level, but his brilliantly-timed run ended with a wide-open shot slipping off his boot and dragging wide. The new $4.5M forward couldn't prove to be the difference.
Lionel Messi, meanwhile, was kept quiet all evening long by MLS veteran and standout midfielder Darlington Nagbe. The former U.S. international was the best performer on the pitch and barely let the Argentine out of his sight. Luis Suarez, too, lacked influence in the game.
A standout performance from Cremaschi at the No. 10 earned Miami three points, while some terrific defensive play from the likes of Sergio Busquets, Noah Allen and Gonzalo Lujan helped protect the lead.
GOAL rates Inter Miami's players from Huntington Bank Field in Cleveland, Ohio.
