Kei Kamara (23) goes for the header en route to Columbus Crew SC’s 3-2 win at home over Sporting Kansas City. Chris Ingram/Press Row Sports
Columbus looked like they might be in for a repeat of Wednesday’s scoreline against New York City FC, but some late-game heroics won the day for the Black & Gold.
Recently acquired forward Jack McInerney came off the bench to score his first goal in a Crew SC jersey, an 88th-minute game-winner to give Columbus a thrilling 3-2 win over visiting Sporting Kansas City.
It didn’t always look like a four-point week for the Black & Gold, who fell behind for the second time of the night when Graham Zusi, returning for his first start in three weeks, collected a long pass played after a Columbus corner kick and was allowed enough space to release a shot from just within the corner of the box that was curled to the far post out of the reach of Steve Clark to give Sporting a 2-1 lead.
Gregg Berhalter‘s squad, though, refused to settle for even a draw.
The second leveler of the night came in the 80th minute when a set piece delivery from Federico Higuain bounced off the head of Tyson Wahl, and the feet of Tony Tchani did not fail his team, nor the sell-out crowd of 20,018 in MAPFRE Stadium.
Columbus continued to stretch the shape of SKC as the second half wore on, aided partially with the introduction of Cedrick, and finally grabbed hold off their first lead of the night when Michael Parkhurst sent a long ball from just outside the half-line to Pipa, whose side volley was initially saved, but directed into the center of the six-yard box for an easy tap-in by McInerney.
Miscues from the back line stung both Columbus and SKC for each of their first goals.
Waylon Francis lost Saad Abdul-Salaam, who galloped toward the end line and played a ball across the face of goal before Marcel de Jong skied a shot into the top of the net to open the scoring in the 14th minute.
Kei Kamara was unable to pad his Major League Soccer lead in goals, but supplied an assist against his former club on Ethan Finlay‘s equalizer in the 35th minute. The scoring sequence for Columbus began when Harrison Afful made a feed to Crew SC’s Argentinian playmaker, who uncorked a shot that rang off the crossbar. The rebound was brought down by Kamara, who took the deflection, circled and fed a ball parallel to his usual assist partner, who put it past Sporting goalkeeper Tony Melia to tie the match at 1-1.
The Columbus head coach emphasized the importance of the influence his reserves had on the win over one of the Western Conference’s best clubs, who were without MVP candidate Benny Feilhaber, who received a direct red card in SKC’s 5-0 mid-week blowout loss to San Jose.
“Part of the message to the guys in the locker room was we’re in this together, and we need contributions from everyone,” Berhalter said. “It’s not easy to get into the 18, it’s not easy to get into the starting XI, but their job is to keep going.”
“They’ve been doing a fantastic job and had a really positive attitude, keep working hard. And then when guys have get the opportunity, step up, and that’s really nice to see. I think our three reserves today (McInerney, Hector Jimenez, Cedrick) did a fantastic job.”
Saturday’s victory pushes Columbus up to 38 points on 26 matches, still one point behind New York Red Bulls for second in the Eastern Conference.
It’s off to Yankee Stadium for Crew SC next Saturday, where they’ll face New York City FC again (4 p.m. ET, MLS Live/TWCSC-OH).
