50
Saturday’s match marks the 50th regular-season meeting between the Crew and the Fire dating back to 1998. The Crew has secured points in 25 of those meetings, posting a 12-24-13 record. Interim Head Coach Brian Bliss did not face the Fire when with the Wizards as a player in 1998 but did see Chicago in his previous interim role with Kansas City in 2006, falling to the Fire in the lone meeting.
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While all eyes in Crew Stadium were on witnessing a sold-out soccer crowd in Columbus on September 10, Central Ohio tuned in to the match in droves from its homes. Watching the 2014 FIFA World Cup Qualifier, Columbus was the highest-rated market in the country for this game (5.1 rating) with Miami-Ft. Lauderdale was second with a 3.3 share. Overall, the match was the second-most viewed USMNT qualifier in ESPN history (2,243,000 viewers), and combined with the UniMas Spanish-language broad- cast the match drew a combined audience of more than 7 million viewers – second only to the March 26, 2013 match between the USMNT and Mexico at Azteca.
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Federico Higuain now leads the team with three game-winning assists in 2013. His seventh and eighth assists of the season were crucial, providing the game-tying and game-winning assists in a must-win affair in Montreal. In 39 career games for the Crew, Higuain has recorded 14 goals and 15 assists, with five game-winning goals and five game-winning assists.
