COLUMBUS, Ohio — Diego Rossi scored two goals on Saturday night, Jacen Russell-Rowe added a goal and the Columbus Crew beat the Chicago Fire 4-2 in the season opener for both teams, spoiling the debut of coach Gregg Berhalter.
Rossi became the fourth-fastest active player in MLS to record 100 goal contributions (65 goals, 35 assists), doing so in 149 career regular-season games.
Rossi headed home a cross played by Steven Moreira in first-half stoppage time to give Columbus a 3-2 lead. Malte Amundsen stole the ball from the Fire’s Philip Zinckernagel, poking it to Rossi at the top of the box, where he scored to give the Crew a two-goal lead in the 50th minute.
Brian Gutiérrez scored two goals — the 21-year-old homegrown’s first multigoal game in MLS — for the Fire and Jonathan Bamba had two assists in his MLS debut.
Bamba, a 28-year-old winger acquired in the offseason from La Liga side Celta de Vigo by Berhalter, dropped a pass from the left side of the area to Gutiérrez, who scored on a low shot from just outside the area that slipped inside the back post to open the scoring in the 13th minute.
Sergio Oregel, with the Crew applying pressure, passed the ball to goalkeeper Chris Brady, but Russell-Rowe intercepted it near the penalty spot and bounced a shot off the post and into the net to make it 1-1 in the 20th before Gutiérrez struck again.
On the counterattack, Gutiérrez played a long pass from near midfield to the left flank, where Bamba cut inside along the top of the area and slipped a pass to Gutiérrez for the finish from the center of the box in the 22nd minute.
Fire defender Carlos Terán deflected a ball into the net for an own goal that made it 2-2 in the 38th.
The fire hired Berhalter as coach and director of football in October, three months after he was fired as coach of the U.S. men’s national team.
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