Second-half substitutes Carlos Vela and Jose Cifuentes scored when Los Angeles FC rebounded from two straight losses with a 2-0 victory against the host Columbus Crew on Saturday.
Vela in the 62nd minute and Cifuentes 11 minutes later helped LAFC (8-3-2, 26 points) avoid their first three-game losing streak since September 2019.
Maxime Crepeau made three saves for his fourth shutout as the Crew (3-5-4, 13 points) was blanked for the sixth time.
Columbus is 1-5-3 in the past nine games with back-to-back 2-0 losses.
Vela, who did not start after playing in the 2-1 home loss to Austin FC on Wednesday, entered to start the second 45 minutes and scored his sixth goal of the season for the 1-0 lead after the Crew had a goal disallowed for being offside four minutes earlier.
He took advantage of a deflection off Columbus midfielder Darlington Nagbe and outraced Josh Williams for possession in full stride at the top of the box.
The Crew gifted the next goal as goalkeeper Eloy Room’s goal kick was intercepted by Cifuentes, who came on the 61st minute, and he dribbled around several Crew and clinically finished his third goal.
The start of the match was delayed 2 hours and 47 minutes because of inclement weather. Only 2:34 was played before play was stopped again for another 70 minutes.
Immediately upon the restart, the Crew pounced on their first scoring opportunity through a combination with Lucas Zelarayan passing to Steven Moreira, who sent a through ball to James Igbekeme but his shot from a difficult angle was saved by Crepeau.
Igbekeme was involved in another try in the 22nd. He split the defense to find an open Yaw Yeboah for a goal only to have the play called offside.
The Crew had another score taken off the board in the 58th minute following a video review that ruled Yeboah was offside before his shot from 15 yards.
–Field Level Media
