Columbus Crew keep TFC at bay

COLUMBUS, OHIO— Federico Higuain scored the winning goal in the 58th minute and also had an assist in his home debut to help the Columbus Crew hold off Toronto FC 2-1 on Wednesday night.

Higuain, who had an assist in his first game with the Crew (9-8-6) on Sunday at Houston, set up Eddie Gaven in the 4th minute and made it 2-0 in the second half.

Luis Silva scored in the 71st min- ute to pull Toronto (5-15-5) within one.

Higuain arrived from Argentina a week ago and helped the Crew score two goals in consecutive games for only the second time this season.

Gaven’s goal was the Crew’s quick- est of the season, five minutes faster than his score against Chicago on May 26. Wednesday’s match had been rescheduled from Aug. 11 so the Crew players could attend the funeral of teammate Kirk Urso, who died Aug. 5. Meanwhile, in Washington, Lionard Pajoy and Long Tan each scored his first goal with their new club, helping D.C. United to a 4-2 victory over the Chicago Fire. Dwayne De Rosario and Brandon McDonald also scored to help United (12-8-4) become the first team to score more than two goals against the Fire this year. D.C. extended its home unbeaten streak to 12 games (9-0-3) — the second-longest in franchise history. United was 10-0-3 over a 13-game home stretch in 2007. Gonzalo Segares and Daniel Paladini scored for fourth-place Chicago (12-8-5), which had its lead over United narrow to one point in the Eastern Conference standings.

After Paladini’s goal in the 45th minute goal tied the score at 1-all, Pajoy put United back ahead in first-half stoppage time. It was Pajoy’s first goal in two starts with United after being acquired from Philadelphia last week.

Tan, acquired in June in a trade with Vancouver, sealed United’s win in the 89th minute when he slotted in De Rosario’s cross.