COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Pedro Santos had a goal and an assist in the second half and the Columbus Crew beat the Philadelphia Union 2-0 on Sunday night to hand the Eastern Conference's top seed to New York City FC.
Youness Mokhtar's first career goal, set up by Luis Diaz and Santos, put Columbus up in the 69th minute. Four minutes later, Santos' 11th goal doomed Philadelphia, which fell six points behind NYCFC and into a tie for second with Atlanta United, which holds the tiebreaker with one game to play.
Eloy Room made three saves for his first shutout.
The game was delayed by almost an hour as lightning arrived with the start of halftime.
On the attack, the Union (16-10-7) failed to get a strong shot and off the block the Crew (10-15-8) quickly countered. Speedy Luis Diaz dribbled the ball across midfield on the right before sending it middle to Santos, who put it to Mokhtar in the box left. Mokhtar counted back into the middle and beat three defenders with a low drive past Andre Blake.
Off a corner four minutes later, a Philadelphia defender's header put the ball straight up in the air and Blake punched it out of the box. Santos pounced on the loose ball sending a four-bouncer through a crowd of players past the diving Blake.
