Five minutes into the Columbus Crew’s match at FC Cincinnati and things did not look promising for the Black & Gold. Cincinnati scored off the opening play in the first minute of the contest and added a goal in the fifth minute. The Crew managed to tie the match just before halftime and then score two more to win, 4-2.

The teams had to wait for just over an hour to kick things off due to a thunderstorm warning. When they did start, Cincinnati didn’t waste any time with Pavel Bucha scoring just 39 seconds into the match. Then, at the five-minute mark, the Blue and Orange’s Evander da Silva Ferreira hit on shot from the top of the box.

The Crew came back to tie the match later in the first half. In the 42nd minute, Diego Rossi took a pass from Ibrahim Aliyu at the top of the box and sent it past Cincinnati goalkeeper Roman Celentano. In first half extra time, Max Arfsten, just back from the U.S. Men’s National Team, scored the equalizer moving toward the net.

On coming back, head coach Wilfried Nancy noted, “To be honest, I cannot tell you what [I] was feeling because I want to stay humble, but I knew that we were still in the game if we scored. I felt it in the middle of the first half and again in the locker room the way we were calm, composed, and tried to be precise and concise.”

Columbus took the lead in the 59th minute on a Cincinnati own goal when Max Robinson attempted to clear the ball off an Aliyu shot. The Black & Gold’s final score came in extra time when Columbus native Taha Habroune posted his first MLS goal. Habroune, 19, became the second youngest Crew player to score, behind only Christian Martinez by 41 days.

Habroune was thrilled after the match, “It’s amazing. It couldn’t have been a better first goal. And here, in [Cincinnati], you know, growing up in Columbus, I always went to the games, and I know how big the rivalry is, so it means a lot to me to seal the game for us today.”

With the win, the Crew moved into a third place tie with Nashville in the MLS Eastern Conference and moved to within two points of Philadelphia’s lead. Cincinnati is now in the second spot just one point in front of the Black & Gold. Next up for the Crew is an important match in Nashville this Wednesday at 8:30 p.m.