Fire fall to Crew in regular-season finale

Gonzalo Tapia netted a pair of goals and Brais Méndez scored the winner in stoppage time to help the Columbus Crew pull out a 4-3 Decision Day victory over the Chicago Fire on Saturday.

Columbus (14-15-5) trailed three times before rallying to avoid the Eastern Conference wild-card match. The Crew jumped from ninth place to seventh after FC Cincinnati lost 2-0 to Nashville SC. Columbus will play No. 2 seed Inter Miami in the best-of-three first round.

Despite the loss, Chicago (16-11-7) finished fourth in the East and earned the home-field advantage in a first-round matchup with Charlotte FC.

Robert Lewandowski gave Chicago a 1-0 lead in the 8th minute on a penalty kick. The 38-year-old's eighth goal through his first 19 MLS appearances came after a foul on Columbus midfielder Sekou Bangoura.

The Crew tied it in the 16th minute when Tapia used assists from Taha Habroune and Santiago Rodríguez to score his fifth goal through his first 11 league matches. Habroune's assist was his career-high fifth, and Rodríguez notched his eighth in 12 appearances this season.

Lewandowski scored on another penalty kick in the 22nd minute to put the Fire back in front after another foul on Bangoura.

Anass Zaroury tied it 2-2 a minute later with an unassisted goal — his third in his first eight matches, all starts.

Chicago took a 3-2 lead into halftime when Maren Haile-Selassie scored unassisted in the fourth minute of stoppage time. Haile-Selassie posted career highs of 13 goals and 10 assists this season.

Tapia scored again in the 62nd minute to tie it 3-all. Habroune collected another assist and defender Malte Amundsen picked one up, giving him three in each of the last four seasons.

Méndez finished his first regular season with six goals and four assists in 14 appearances with 10 starts.

Patrick Schulte stopped three shots for the Crew, who close out the regular season on a 6-0-1 unbeaten streak.

Chris Brady totaled two saves for Fire, who entered play 2-0-1 in their previous three matches.

The two clubs played to a scoreless draw in Ohio to begin March.

Up next

Columbus: Hits the road to begin the series with Inter Miami.

Chicago: Hosts No.. 5 seed Charlotte in first-round opener.