Union blanks Columbus, 3-0, for third win in four games

SHEANON WILLIAMS took a pass from fellow defender Maurice Edu in his own half and raced up the right side of the PPL Park field.

Williams turned on the boosters and danced by two defenders, getting all the way into the box to find Sebastien Le Toux with a quick crossing pass, and the Frenchman found the back of the net. It was Le Toux's second game in a row with a goal after not scoring in the team's first 13.

It was the 58th minute. And the remaining 32-plus didn't matter.

The Union had just scored its second goal in seven minutes to take a 3-0 lead over a Columbus Crew team that pounded the Union, 4-1, on April 25. The 3-0 score held final.

"That's what we talked about at halftime," Union coach Jim Curtin said. "This is going to be a game that's going to need a second goal. It's nice to get that second goal, and then the third one, obviously, is good."

The first goal in that game-seizing stretch was gift-wrapped when Crew goalkeeper Steve Clark stumbled trying to roll the ball to a teammate and the ball squirted free into no-man's land.

Union midfielder Cristián Maidana barely beat Clark to the loose ball and tipped it free to a waiting Vincent Nogueira, who lofted the ball into a gaping net for a 2-0 lead and a stranglehold on three points in the 52nd minute.

The win gives the Union (4-8-3) three wins in its last four contests.

"This is four good, strong showings in a row," Curtin said. "I think something special is starting to happen. Again, it's still only four games that we've put together, but we need to keep it going."

The Union had the best scoring chances for much of the first half and finally broke through late in the opening 45.

Maurice Edu intercepted a Crew pass intended for forward Justin Meram, who lost his footing. That allowed Edu to step in and start a quick break the other way. Edu sent Maidana up the right side. Maidana then found Le Toux in the box. LeToux sent a nifty, one-touch pass behind Clark to a waiting C.J. Sapong for a tap-in go-ahead goal in the 41st minute.

Sapong had been inserted into the game four minutes earlier when Union forward Fernando Aristeguieta (bruised ankle) went down with an injury for the second time in the half.

Columbus' best opportunity came in the 27th minute. With Aristeguieta down on the turf at the other end after being tackled in the box, Crew forward Aaron Schoenfeld sent a header goalward off a cross. But Union goalkeeper Brian Sylvestre was able to make a beautiful diving save to keep the game scoreless, and give his team a little momentum.

Less than 15 minutes later, the Union had the lead. And never looked back.

"It was a turning point," Curtin said of Sylvestre's save. "We dodged a couple bullets, like you're going to with any good team. It's a game of winning the battle in each box, offensively and defensively, and I think we did that tonight."

The Union, which used the same starting lineup twice for the first time all season, will look to stay hot against New York City FC on Saturday back at PPL Park.

"In a lot of ways, [it's] a good thing to have a quick turnaround against New York City, because we're in a good way right now," Curtin said.