Sean Zawadzki scored in the fourth minute of second-half stoppage time as the short-handed Columbus Crew rallied for a 1-1 draw against visiting New York City FC on Saturday night.
With the result, each team extended its unbeaten streak to eight matches.
Zawadzki scored through traffic from the top of the box for the Crew (10-6-6, 36 points), who are riding a 5-0-3 streak.
Justin Haak gave New York City (5-7-11, 26 points) a 1-0 lead in the 75th minute, taking advantage of an ejection of star forward Cucho Hernandez. Hernandez received his second yellow card in the 68th minute, and Haak struck for his first career goal seven minutes later.
NYCFC are on a 1-0-7 stretch and are 1-5-8 in their past 14 matches.
Patrick Schulte made eight saves for the Crew. Luis Barraza made three saves for New York.
The match turned when Hernandez was called for a bad foul for his second caution after he received a card for dissent at halftime.
Columbus was frustrated with the officiating all match, and coach Wilfried Nancy was ejected in the 90th minute.
The Crew were issued six yellows in addition to the red card, while NYC had four cautions.
In an attempt to smother Columbus’ scoring chances, NYCFC often put 10 men behind the ball.
It worked in the first half. The Crew had the ball 60 percent of the time, but the visitors led in shots (5-4) and shots on target (3-2) and possibly would have had a lead at the break if not for Schulte.
Schulte made three big saves in the first half to keep Columbus in contention, and he added another just five minutes after the break.
The Crew are on a six-match home winning streak. NYCFC fell to 1-5-7 on the road this season.
–Field Level Media
