Crew, fresh off ending slide, face struggling Fire

Columbus hopes to build off a long-sought victory and take advantage of a struggling opponent for a second straight match when the Crew play at the Chicago Fire on Saturday.

The Crew (4-2-6, 18 points) extended CF Montreal's winless streak to five matches with a 3-1 victory on Wednesday to snap their own skid at two losses and five ties.

The match was the first of five straight on the road, where the Crew are 1-1-3.

"It was a massive result for us confidence-wise and otherwise, because we have a hard stretch of games coming up," Crew midfielder Max Arfsten said. "We have away Chicago and then away Orlando, so our mentality is just no matter what happens we have to react in the right way."

The Fire (2-7-4, 10 points) are in even more of a crisis than Montreal. A 1-0 home loss to Charlotte FC on Wednesday put them at 0-4-2 in the past six matches since April 6 and left coach Frank Klopas wondering how to turn it around.

"The only thing I can tell you is, we have to keep trying," he said. "But right now, the team is really, you know, the confidence level is really low. And you can just see that nothing's really working for us.

"We just haven't found the right formula and it's a lot on my shoulders. It's on my shoulders to find that. And when it's not going right, it does sit at home more and more emotionally because of how I feel about the club."

The Crew have to feel good about their chances, especially since they put three on the board against Montreal while leading scorer Cucho Hernandez stayed in Columbus to rest a sore back. Coach Wilfried Nancy said Hernandez might be available Saturday.

Diego Rossi was one of the players to pick up the slack. The team's highest-paid player scored his first MLS goal of the season although he has three in six Concacaf Champions Cup matches.

"I think I help the team in other ways," Rossi said. "The most important thing is the team, in this case, that we will get the win. It doesn't matter who scores the goal or who assists."

Hugo Cuypers and Brian Gutierrez share the Chicago goal-scoring lead with three apiece.