It took two minutes for the Crew to go from snakebitten to superb in a 3-1 victory over Charlotte FC on Oct. 14 at ScottsMiracle-Gro Field.
Despite dominating every statistical measure but the actual score through the game's first 60-plus minutes, the Crew (9-15-5) finally broke it open in their favor on goals two minutes apart by Anass Zaroury and Taha Habroune in the second half to turn a 1-1 tie into a commanding 3-1 lead.
Zaroury scored off a feed from Mo Farsi in the 63rd minute, breaking the tie, and Habroune followed in the 65th minute to make it 3-1 by scoring off a turnover he forced with a steal while pressing up the field in Charlotte's half of the field.
Brais Mendez scored
the Crew's first goal to pull even at 1-1 in the first half (28th minute), which Columbus dominated statistically. The score remained 1-1 at the half, but the Crew could've led by two or three goals if not for the excellence of Charlotte goalkeeper Kristijan Kahlina, who finished with 11 saves against 14 shots on target.
Eight of those stops were in the first half, as Charlotte allowed just Mendez's goal while being thoroughly outplayed by a team that started the match seven points outside the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
Charlotte, tied for fourth in the East going into the game, scored its lone goal in the game's 17th minute. Toklomati made it 1-0 seconds after stealing the ball from the Crew's Steven Moreira, but that turned out to be Charlotte's lone offensive highlight.
The Crew finished with dominant advantages in possession (54% to 46%), shots (33-9), shots on target (14-3) and expected goals (4.1 to 0.8).
DispatchBlue Jackets/Crew reporter Brian Hedger can be reached at bhedger@dispatch.com
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus Crew surge past Charlotte FC with dominant performance
