Columbus Crew huffed and puffed and did everything but put the ball in the net as a defiant Nashville SC held the black and gold to a 0-0 draw on Wednesday night at Lower.com Field.
The Crew are still without Gyasi Zardes, and his absence was noticed as Columbus looked off the pace and lacking shape during the first half and again had to rely on the excellent Eloy Room as the Crew number one produced a huge diving save after just two minutes.
Columbus reorganized for the second half and the introduction of Marlon Hairston, Kevin Molino and Bradley Wright-Phillips allowed the home team to dominate the game and produce wave after wave of attack.
A heart-pounding final 15 minutes of the game saw a Crew onslaught but no player was able to produce a final moment of magic to win the game and as the referee blew the final whistle, several Columbus players fell to the ground either from exhaustion, frustration or most likely, both.
Next up is an away trip to Atlanta United on Saturday afternoon.
For more information, visit columbuscrewsc.com.
Matt Ellis is a freelance photographer who covers bands that visit the city and the Columbus Crew MLS team. More about Matt can be found on his Instagram.
All photos by Matt Ellis