Crew forward Cucho Hernandez confident personal preseason scoring goal still attainable
A little balanced scoring attack isn’t holding Cucho Hernandez back from his goals, and it’s not cutting down on the Crew’s ability to score them, either.
At the start of his second season with the Crew, the 24-year-old designated player and Colombian native told reporters that he had a secret goal total in mind. After knocking home nine goals in 16 games since being signed near the midpoint of the 2022 season, Hernandez was holding himself to a private standard that he hadn’t even shared with his teammates. But on the road to that publicly unknown number, Hernandez sits tied with Lucas Zelarayan in a different category.
The two stars lead the team with seven assists apiece, four more than Hernandez amassed in his 16 games last year. And while Hernandez’s scoring has picked up with a goal in each of the last two games, the Crew is enjoying a balanced offensive attack that includes the forward more than it is simply relying upon him.
Entering Saturday’s road game with Chicago, the Crew has gotten goals from seven different players in its last four MLS matches.
“When other people are scoring, that means I can assist them and we can build that balance of making sure that we’re all competing for each other and helping each other out on the field,” Hernandez said through an interpreter prior to Wednesday’s training session. “It feels good for myself, being able to give assists as much as I like scoring goals as well.”
Last time out, three players combined for the Crew’s goals in a 4-2 win against Charlotte. Hernandez assisted on the opener, scored by Christian Ramirez, only five minutes in to give the Crew the early lead. Then just before halftime, Hernandez got on the end of a ball Zelarayan lofted over the Charlotte back line with a perfectly timed run and knocked it past Kristijan Kahlina to make it 3-0.
Both goals showed the full ability coach Wilfried Nancy said he sees in the forward who had eight goals in his first eight games last season.
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“The idea was for him to understand the game at the right moment, so that’s why I’m not surprised that he has seven assists because he’s able to pass, he’s able to score,” Nancy said. “That’s what we’ve been working with him. Now he knows the way we play … he’s able to size up the situation a little better and that’s why he’s able to do both, to pass and score.”
Nancy also praised Hernandez’s passion for the game and ability to bring good energy to the field even as he is adjusting to the coach’s first season with the club. Hernandez said, too, that an early-season knee injury that would cost him six games has had an impact on his scoring.
Hernandez said he’s not felt pressure to up his goal scoring to make up for lost time.
“At the beginning of the season I was injured and now that I’m back on the field, I have the opportunity to still contribute with my passes, with my goals, and contributing everything that I can to the team,” he said.
Now, there’s that secret goal for his scoring total this year. As for the question of whether it’s still attainable, Cucho needed no translator to give his answer after the question was addressed to him in English.
“Of course,” he said with a smile.
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Cucho Hernandez settling into balanced Crew scoring attack
