Nine games remain for Columbus Crew SC in the 2017 Major League Soccer campaign, and perhaps none more important than Saturday’s clash with Orlando City SC.
Both clubs are heavily involved in a heated playoff race but are tracking in completely different directions.
The Black & Gold put the rest of the Eastern Conference on notice last week, downing the Chicago Fire by a score of 3-1. Columbus got key contributions from Kekuta Manneh, Ola Kamara, and Justin Meram.
The defense, lead by rookie Lalas Abubakar, held steady after an early blunder against a stacked Fire squad that boasted the likes of Nemanja Nikolic, David Accam, and Bastian Schweinsteiger.