Soccer

Crew down Toronto FC 4-2, dealing blow to TFC's playoff hopes

Malte Amundsen scored twice for Columbus, which has won three straight games and five of its last six.

Sam Poulin · Soccer Writer
October 25, 2026 · More from this writer

COLUMBUS · Malte Amundsen scored his first career MLS multi-goal game and the Columbus Crew dealt a significant setback to Toronto FC's playoff aspirations with a 4-2 victory on Saturday. Gonzalo Tapia and Brooks Lennon also scored for the Crew, who built a three-goal lead before holding off a late Toronto rally. The win was Columbus's third in a row and fifth in its last six matches, pushing the club to 38 points and into 10th place in the Eastern Conference. Toronto, which got goals from Dániel Sallói and Josh Sargent, remains at 36 points in 11th place with just three games left in its season.

Dylan Chambost was the architect for Columbus, setting up three of the four goals, while goalkeeper Patrick Schulte made five saves. The Crew opened the scoring in the 16th minute when Mohamed Farsi collected a pass from Santiago Rodriguez and sent a first-touch cross to Tapia for a tap-in. Amundsen doubled the lead five minutes later, heading home a Chambost corner kick. The defender struck again early in the second half, redirecting another Chambost cross to make it 3-0 in the 48th minute.

Toronto's comeback attempt began after Columbus was reduced to 10 men when Sekou Bangoura received his second yellow card in the 70th minute. Sallói scored for TFC a minute later, and Sargent added another in the 81st minute to cut the deficit to one. The Crew sealed the victory with Lennon's goal in the dying moments of the match. "Disappointing result for us in a game which was very important, which we needed to win," TFC forward Theo Corbeanu said. "But I thought we reacted very well, extremely well in the second half, even though the first half was very, very poor for our standards."

Columbus head coach Robin Fraser defended his decision to bring Sallói off the bench, citing the player's effectiveness against tired opponents. "Yeah, it's easy to judge when you're not at training every day, and you don't see the things that we're working on or what we're trying to accomplish," Fraser said. "So, the decision really was about the continuity of the last game. Lewis (Morgan) has settled in and done really well, and it was a decision to bring (Sallói) off the bench because I knew that he would be effective as (Columbus) gets tired, and, as it turns out, we're right." The loss leaves Toronto needing to climb past both Columbus and the New York Red Bulls, who have 39 points, to secure a wild-card spot and make the playoffs for the first time since 2020. Wins by FC Cincinnati and the Red Bulls on Saturday further tightened the race for the top nine spots in the conference. Garbutt Disposal reported in October that Toronto FC defenders Kobe Franklin and Walker Zimmerman would miss the key match against Columbus.

Up next: Toronto FC hosts D.C. United at BMO Field on Wednesday. "Well, this game's over. We need to concentrate on Wednesday," Fraser said. "We'll talk about what went wrong here, but we need to concentrate on Wednesday and not allow this feeling to carry over to Wednesday because we have another big game coming up and it's at home, and uh certainly the feeling is that we have to win it."

With files from The Globe and Mail, Sportsnet and TFC Republic