Entering the final two matches of the 2016 regular season, Columbus Crew SC faces a pair of challengers sitting atop of the Eastern Conference. This Sunday's visit to the first-place New York Red Bulls in Harrison, N.J. (3 p.m.), opens the two-part swing with a regular-season conclusion at Yankee Stadium against New York City FC (4 p.m.).
Crew SC, coming off a 2-2 draw at the Chicago Fire on Thursday night, suffered elimination from Audi MLS Playoff contention. Despite that, the Black & Gold face a pair of matches that carry weight in seeding — with both of Crew SC's opponents holding 51 points with two matches to play. For Columbus, Sporting Director and Head Coach Gregg Berhalter enters the matches with an eye toward building positive momentum.
“I think we’re going to continue to play our game, we’re going to continue to put forth a professional effort and we’ll most likely look at some new faces, give some guys who haven’t had much playing time some game time," Berhalter said following Thursday's match at Chicago. "It’s been a tough year and the guys have stuck together and some guys deserve to get some minutes.”
The two sides meet for just the second time this season, with Ola Kamara scoring a stoppage-time equalizer to cancel out a Bradley Wright-Phillips goal in June 25's 1-1 draw at MAPFRE Stadium. In the last meeting at Red Bull Arena, the home side edged Columbus in a 2-1 win on Oct. 3 — but that was its first home win in the series since 2012. The teams split the two regular season meetings in Columbus, each winning by a 2-1 scoreline.
The teams also met in the Eastern Conference Championship a year ago, with Crew SC winning the first leg 2-0 at home before holding New York to just a goal in the second leg.
"(For us, it's about) finishing up the season strong," Crew SC midfielder Justin Meram said following Thursday's match. "We know we're out of the postseason right now. We're not going to give up. We have two games and we're going to respect the fans, it's a great club and we're going to go out and play the game."
Crew SC travels to Red Bull Arena in Harrison, New Jersey to meet the New York Red Bulls (3 p.m. ET / CW Columbus, Time Warner Cable SportsChannel, BCSN2, CD102.5 FM, La Mega 103.1 FM, English radio stream) on Sunday, October 16.
