February 28, 2026; Kansas City, Kansas, USA; Columbus Crew midfielder Diego Rossi (10) comes up the field with the ball during the first half against Sporting Kansas City at Children’s Mercy Park. Mandatory Credit: William Purnell-Imagn Image With two goals each in the first two games, Wessam Abou Ali and Diego Rossi are doing their part for the Columbus Crew.
However, their production has yet to translate into wins as Columbus continues to have problems with opposition counterattacks. The team hopes to get the result when they welcome the Chicago Fire for their home opener Saturday night.
Rossi’s goal in the 82nd minute gave the Crew (0-1-1, 1 goal) a 2-2 tie against Sporting Kansas City on Feb. 28. Abu Ali put Columbus ahead in the 33rd minute, but was kicking himself for not doing more to help his team earn the three points.
He had a penalty kick chance in the 87th minute of the first half, but was unable to stop John Pulskamp from the spot. But first-year coach Henrik Lidstrom said he was confident Abu Ali would take the next penalty kick.
“To me, it’s his responsibility to accept the challenge,” Rydstrom said. “I know he’s going to kick and score a penalty in the next game, that’s his mentality.”
As the team aims to get into the win column, Chicago (1-1-0, 3 points) took care of that by defeating Montreal 3-0 at Soldier Field on Feb. 28. Jonathan Bamba opened the scoring in the 27th minute before extra time markers from Hugo Cuypers and Robin Lod secured the result.
It was a nice rebound for Chicago after losing 2-1 in the season opener last week in Houston. The Fire are looking to make more progress under second-year coach Gregg Berhalter, who oversaw a team that scored 68 goals last season, second-most in MLS.
“I felt like the foundation was built in year one,” Berhalter said. “There is a lot of continuity from last year’s team….We know there is a lot of room for improvement.”
Some of that is on the defensive side of the pitch. Chicago gave up 60 goals last year, but was able to play 44 minutes as a 10-man unit, including 10 goals in overtime, after Johnny Dean received a red card last week.
–Field level media
