Fire, Crew play to a draw
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Steven Lenhart scored a game-tying goal in the 87th minute to cap Columbus' comeback from a two-goal deficit and give the Crew a 2-2 draw with the Chicago Fire on Saturday night.
Chris Rolfe and Calen Carr scored first-half goals for Chicago (6-5-3), which is winless in its last five games.
Emmanuel Ekpo scored in the 36th minute to cut the lead in half for the Crew (8-4-3).
Chicago captain Cuauhtemoc Blanco dropped a high pass into the penalty area that Justin Mapp blasted off the goal post with his right foot from 12 yards. The ball caromed into the path of Rolfe, whose forceful header from 15 yards out put Chicago on top in the eighth minute.
Carr doubled the Fire's lead in the 25th minute, sliding just to the right of the penalty spot to meet a left-footed crossing pass from Gonzalo Segares. The goal was Carr's second of the season.
Columbus pulled within a goal when Guillermo Barros Schelotto stole the ball from Fire defender Bakary Soumare just to the left of the penalty area and passed to Ekpo in front of the goal. Ekpo wrestled past defender Segares for his second goal in two games.
The Crew tied the match when Schelotto's centering pass bounced off the feet of second-half substitute Lenhart inside the 6-yard box, and then appeared to deflect off the outstretched arm of Crew midfielder Stefani Miglioranzi on its way past Jon Busch in the 87th minute.
Mapp just missed extending Chicago's lead twice in the first half, forcing a quick save from William Hesmer in the 31st minute, and sending a long-range shot past Hesmer but just to the right of the goal in the 35th minute.
Columbus nearly leveled the score twice in the half's dying moments. Schelotto turned on a bouncing ball 24 yards from goal and blasted a right-footed shot that Busch barely tipped over the crossbar in the 43rd minute. Two minutes later, Rogers headed Schelotto's corner kick beyond Busch's reach but off the crossbar.
The Crew was led by assistant coach Robert Warzycha, who filled in for head coach Sigi Schmid. Schmid was attending his daughter's wedding in Southern California.