Ailing Crew look to heat up against Fire

The slumping and injury-plagued Columbus Crew play at the Chicago Fire on Saturday minus several top players.

The Crew (13-7-11, 50 points) will be without striker Wessam Abou Ali for an expected six weeks, ruling him out for the rest of the regular season, due to a hairline fracture in his right ankle that happened shortly after he scored in a 1-1 tie with Toronto FC last Saturday.

His loss is the latest setback for the Crew, who through the first 10 games were second in points league-wide but are now eighth in the Eastern Conference, five points ahead of the Fire (13-11-6, 45 points). Chicago holds the final playoff spot with four matches remaining, one more than the Crew.

The Crew, 1-2-3 in the past six matches, will be without four injured starters, not including 2024 MLS All-Star defender Rudy Camacho, who has missed the entire season with a thigh injury.

The Crew will also be missing leading scorer Diego Rossi (hamstring), defender Mo Farsi (sports hernia) and midfielder Sean Zawadzki (knee). Rossi has 16 goals.

"This is a weird season. Not because of the results but because of all the injuries that we have," Crew coach Wilfried Nancy said. "This is new for me. I see that it's not easy. I will not lie but at the same time this is something that I take the challenge."

Abou Ali, signed from Egyptian Premier League champion Al Ahly Sporting Club on July 26, was just gaining form with his third goal in three matches.

The Fire's 3-0 win at Minnesota United last Saturday was their third in five matches to keep the team two points ahead of the New York Red Bulls.

"We know we're in a dogfight," Fire coach Gregg Berhalter told MLSsoccer.com. "So, we're going to keep going."

The Fire's Aug. 20 trade with CF Montreal for Joel Waterman paid dividends when the Canadian international defender scored his first goal with his new club.

It was his first goal since 2023 and fifth in 132 career matches.