The Columbus Crew put their sparkling home record on the line Sunday when they face FC Cincinnati in the season's third installment of the "Hell is Real" derby for Ohio bragging rights.
The Crew (6-1-2), who have the early lead in the race for the MLS Supporters' Shield with 20 points through nine matches, have been perfect at home. Columbus has won all three of its matches this season without conceding a goal and is unbeaten in its last eight at MAPFRE Stadium (5-0-3) dating back to 2019.
Caleb Porter's team has been absolutely miserly defensively, conceding two goals in those nine contests and coming off a 1-0 victory over Philadelphia on Wednesday for its seventh clean sheet. Eloy Room made four saves for his fifth shutout in six starts, and Lucas Zelarayan's goal on 55 minutes proved to be enough for the three points.
"We are taking pride in not giving up goals and chances, but I think the reason is because we are an attacking team, not because we are a defensive team," Porter explained to the club's official website. "We take a lot of pressure off the defense when we have the ball.
"You don't see teams get too close to our goal, but when they do, you see we are organized, we aren't stretch, and you see our guys will do whatever it takes to win games and make plays to win games."
Two of Columbus' seven shutouts have come at the expense of its instate rival, including a scoreless draw at Nippert Stadium on Aug. 29. The Crew are 2-0-2 against FC Cincinnati (2-4-3) in MLS since the rivalry began last season, but the Orange and Blue are showing defensive chops of their own.
Jaap Stam's side has not scored a goal in 369 minutes dating to Jurgen Locadia's marker in the round of 16 at MLS Is Back, and 394 minutes when using regular-season matches, yet FC Cincinnati has claimed three points in the last four matches because of its discipline behind the ball. FCC claimed a point Wednesday following a 0-0 draw against the Chicago Fire - their fifth clean sheet in six contests.
"Everybody today was locked in and we didn't give a lot of chances to Chicago and we played some good soccer today," midfielder Haris Medunjanin told FCC's official website. "We were confident on the ball and our backline was dribbling in with the ball and finding Siem de Jong in good spaces where he has the quality to be behind the strikers and then find Jürgen and Adrien (Regattin) up front."
The five shutouts equal the total for all of last season during its inaugural MLS campaign, but the challenge is getting the offense to click. FC Cincinnati has six goals - with four coming in its two games against the New York Red Bulls.
"(We're) just missing that last moment, that last chance to finish off games," defender Greg Garza said. "But in time, those things will just come. The team did very well on both sides of the field tonight, and as I said before, just have to get those final chances in."
FC Cincinnati's trip to Columbus last year ended in a 2-2 draw, with the Crew rallying on goals by Gyasi Zardes and Pedro Santos after FCC bolted to a two-goal lead through Darren Mattocks and Emmanuel Ledesma in the first 23 minutes.