Defensive breakdowns doom Fire in 4-2 loss to Rossi, Crew

Diego Rossi scored twice in a span of six minutes in the middle of the match as the host Columbus Crew defeated the Chicago Fire 4-2 on Saturday in the season opener for both teams.

Most of the talk about Columbus in the offseason centered on who would score goals for the Crew, but that was dispatched quickly over the first 50 minutes of the match.

It didn't start well for the home side, but three unanswered goals from the 38th minute on propelled Columbus (1-0-0, 3 points) to the decisive victory.

Chicago was on the attack from the start, with the majority of its offense going through midfielder Jonathan Bamba and ending on the foot of Brian Gutierrez.

In the 13th minute, Bamba took a long clearing pass from Andrew Gutman and worked through the Columbus defense before finding Gutierrez. He steadied the ball to his right foot before unleashing a shot that beat Crew goalkeeper Patrick Schulte (four saves) low to his left and produced the Fire's first goal of the season.

But as good as Chicago (0-1-0, 0 points) was on the offensive end, it struggled on defense. A giveaway deep in its own end allowed the Crew's Jacen Russell-Rowe to lift a shot over Fire keeper Chris Brady (one save) that evened the match at 1-1 in the 19th minute.

The Fire swung back just three minutes later with Bamba doing most of the work and then passing to Gutierrez in the goal mouth. Gutierrez calmly used his left foot to bounce a shot through Schulte for the lead tally.

The lead was again short-lived. In the 37th minute, two Chicago defenders got their foot on a deflected shot by Columbus' Steven Moreira but neither could corral the ball before it went into the net for an own goal that tied the match at 2-2.

Moreira then took advantage of a weak back line of defense from the Fire in the first minute of first-half stoppage time. He passed across the box to Diego Rossi, who made short work of the assist and gave Columbus a 3-2 lead.

Another breakdown in the box by the Fire in the 50th minute created by Columbus' Malte Amundsen led to a second goal by Rossi, who was waiting behind the play to take advantage and expanded the Crew lead to 4-2.

--Field Level Media