Their playoff hopes remain tenuous, but Columbus Crew SC celebrated a comprehensive 3-0 win over the Chicago Fire on Saturday in their final 2016 regular-season game at MAPFRE Stadium.
Harrison Afful put Crew SC in front with an 8th-minute golazo, taking a short Mohammed Saeid corner and blasting a swerving shot from 23 yards out over Chicago goalkeeper Sean Johnson.
Justin Meram doubled the Columbus lead five minutes into the second half, taking a pass from Dilly Duka into the box, cutting inside Khaly Thiam before slotting a low shot inside the near post for his fifth goal of the season.
Duka made it 3-0 nine minutes later on a counterattack, receiving a pass from Saeid and bouncing shot past Johnson from 12 yards out.
- CLB: Crew SC coach Berhalter: "We're not out of it yet"
- CHI: Paunovic: Loss to Crew SC epitomizes Fire season
Box Score
- 8’ – CLB – Harrison Afful (Mohammed Saeid)
- 50’ – CLB – Justin Meram (Dilly Duka)
- 59’ – CLB – Dilly Duka (Saeid, Meram)
- Full boxscore
- Stats
- Watch highlights
Three Things
- MOVING ON UP: For the first time since April, Crew SC rank eighth in the Eastern Conference. They are level on points with Orlando City SC, but have a better goal differential. Still, Columbus is six points below the red line with three games to play.
- MO BETTER: Mohammed Saeid had three assists on the season coming into the game and he picked up two more against Chicago, the first multi-point game of his MLS career. The Swedish midfielder has three assists in the Crew SC's last three games.
- ROUGH WEEK: The Chicago Fire knew they had a difficult stretch with three games in seven days, all away from home, including a midweek trip to Seattle. The end result? Three losses by a combined 8-1 and official elimination from the Audi 2016 MLS Cup Playoffs.
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