A last gasp strike from Gyasi Zardes stole the victory for Columbus Crew SC against a resilient Houston Dynamo, as the home team pulled off a grinding 1-0 victory on Saturday evening at MAPFRE Stadium.
Crew SC returned to MAPFRE Stadium for the first and only time during the month of August, after their impressive road win against the New York Red Bulls. The Crew mostly failed to find a way to break through the bullheaded defense of their opponents, as Houston sat back and allowed Columbus to dominate possession, and restricted the home team to only a handful of long range efforts.
Fan favorite Justin Meram made his return midway through the second-half and was welcomed with a stadium-wide standing ovation. The play-maker quickly reverted back into his familiar defense-penetrating role.
With time ticking away, and with Houston looking like their plan to frustrate had paid off, Zardes popped up in the box with the ball landing at his feet, and the striker’s clinical finish landed the sucker punch for the visitors.
A heart-in-mouth moment proceeded the goal as calls for offside were reviewed by the video officials. Yet Crew fans were given the freedom to celebrate as referee Mark Geiger gave the signal for the goal after a brief, yet agonizing, delay.