Harrison Afful gave Crew SC an early lead, Justin Meram pushed it out of reach in the second half and the Crew staved off playoff elimination for another day with a 3-0 win against Chicago on Saturday night.
In the final regular-season game of the year at Mapfre Stadium, a Crew loss or tie coupled with a few results around Major League Soccer could have spelled the earliest postseason elimination in team history. Instead, the last-place Fire (6-16-9) lived up to its billing as the next-to-last-place Crew (8-12-11) dominated for long stretches and earned a third win in four games.