The Columbus Crew came into Saturday’s home match with the Houston Dynamo having won their first two MLS contests of the season. This past Tuesday, however, they suffered their first loss of the year in their Concacaf Champions Cup match at LAFC, 3-0. The Black & Gold’s offense sputtered again Saturday, but their defense delivered and the match ended in a 0-0 draw.

After the match, Crew head coach Wilfried Nancy said he wasn’t worried about his squad being shut out in their last two outings. “If you remember last year, we were worse the way we started. I don’t know if you remember, it was worse. We scored more goals than the last year after I don’t know how many games.”

The Dynamo constantly packed their zone to prevent a lot of chances for the Crew. “I mean, they made it really difficult for us, as you can see,” said Crew midfielder Sean Zawadzki. “As a team, they sat in, made us break them down. It’s really difficult when you do that with the team. They sit in, block the middle, made it really hard to go through the middle.”

Columbus goalkeeper Patrick Schulte recorded his second clean sheet in three MLS contests this season, the 19th in league play in his career. “… all the guys defensively handle the transition moments extremely well. Yeah, I think they had one shot on goal. And as a goalkeeper, you can’t ask for much more than that.”

The Crew are back in action Tuesday at Lower.com Field with the second leg of their Concacaf series against LAFC. They need to win by four goals to take the opening round crown. If the match ends specifically with a 3-0 Crew victory, the teams will play an overtime period to determine who moves on. The match will start at 8:30 p.m.