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Columbus Crew head coach Henrik Rydstrom vented his frustration after their draw with Sporting Kansas City, insisting they should have won the match.
The Crew drew 2-2 with Kansas last time out, with Wessam Abou Ali missing a late penalty after scoring the opener at Sporting Park.
Rydstrom is yet to win since replacing Wilfried Nancy at the helm during the off-season, with Columbus falling to a 3-2 defeat to the Portland Timbers in their season opener.
Columbus host the Chicago Fire in their first home match of their 2026 MLS campaign, and Rydstrom will be desperate to avoid the same mistakes they made against Kansas.
“I just told the players that we are all very frustrated,” Rydstrom said following the 2-2 draw.
“You can try to divide the feelings and that kind of frustration into different parts. We created enough to score more goals.
“We missed the penalty at the end of the game. We conceded silly goals – counter-attacks again, where we really had an opportunity to close them down or to protect our goal, but we didn’t do what we were supposed to do.
“That creates a frustration. Like I said to the players, I would have been even more frustrated if it was not up to us and if the opponent outplayed us or created a bunch of chances or we didn’t create.
“It could have been a worse feeling, if I put it like that. We are disappointed, of course. If we look at the game, we should have won it.”
Home is where the heart is
Testing the Black & Gold’s geographical knowledge by seeing if they can draw the state of Ohio by heart ahead of our home opener on Saturday pic.twitter.com/uvDkWRk0zl
— The Crew (@ColumbusCrew) March 5, 2026
Chicago bounced back from their opening defeat to the Houston Dynamo with a 3-0 win over CF Montreal, despite going down to 10 men.
The Fire are just one of seven teams in the Eastern Conference to win at least one of their first two games this season.
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Columbus Crew – Wessam Abou Ali
Abou Ali has scored in five straight regular-season matches dating back to the end of last season, becoming the fifth Crew player to do so.
The club record of six straight regular-season games with a goal was set by Stern John in 1998-99, and matched by Lucas Zelarayan in 2021-22.
Chicago Fire – Hugo Cuypers
Cuypers scored in each of Chicago’s first two matches this season, the first player to score in his first two games of a season for the Fire since Luka Stojanovic in 2021.
The last Fire player to score in his first three appearances of a regular season was Diego Chaves in 2011 (excluding midseason acquisitions).
MATCH PREDICTION – COLUMBUS CREW WIN
Columbus are unbeaten in 17 straight home matches against Chicago in all competitions (W12 D5), including winning six of the last seven. The Fire’s last win in Columbus was a 2-1 win in June 2013.
However, the Crew’s one point through two matches represents their worst start to a season since 2017 (also one point).
Dating back to the end of last season, Columbus have managed just three wins in their last 14 matches (D5 L6, including playoffs).
Chicago came back from a season-opening loss at Houston with a 3-0 home win over Montreal, just the sixth time since 2010 that the Fire won one of their first two matches of a season.
Chicago have not won two of their first three games of a season since 2009 (W2 D1 L0).
OPTA WIN PROBABILITY
Columbus Crew – 52.5%
Draw – 24.3%
Chicago Fire – 23.2%
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