After falling on penalty kicks to Toluca in their opening Leagues Cup match Tuesday, the Columbus Crew rebounded with a dominant 3-1 victory over Puebla Friday at Lower.com Field. The win in regulation gave the Crew three points to go with the one garnered for forcing PKs in the opener.

Malte Amundsen got the scoring started for the Black & Gold in the fourteenth minute. Diego Rossi sent a free kick from outside the top right corner of the box to the left side of the goal where Amundsen headed it past Puebla goalkeeper Jesus Rodriguez. Amundsen was back in the starting lineup for the first time since suffering a knee inury on May 31.

Two minutes later, Rossi made it a two-goal lead. Columbus native Taha Habroune brought the ball up the left side of the pitch, then circled to the top of the box. He found Rossi streaking in from the right side with a perfect pass and Rossi finished with a quick touch into the net.

After having a goal erased from the board on an offsides call, the Crew’s final score of the evening came on another Habroune assist. He brought the ball up the middle of the pitch and, after playing give-and-go with Rossi and Dylan Cambost, hit Andrés Herrera with a pass that Herrera lined into the goal.

Puebla scored in first-half extra time, but were unable to do much against the Columbus defense after that. The Black & Gold are the first MLS team to get to four points in Leagues Cup action, but a majority of the MLS’s clubs have only played one match. The top four of the 18 teams playing from each league move on to the knockout stage.

Crew head coach Wilfried Nancy talked about his team’s performance Friday, “What I know is we stayed on the task and we did well. We wanted to get better and attempt certain things, like try to score more goals, also try to defend better and try to play with more urgency when it was the good moment. I really like the energy that we had, and that’s why I think that it was interesting what we did tonight.”

The Crew’s third and final match of the group stage comes on Tuesday at Lower.com when León comes to Columbus. Los Panzas Verdes have a draw and a loss in their two Leagues Cup matches. Tuesday’s contest gets underway at 7:30 p.m.