Columbus Crew edged out the Seattle Sounders to claim a 3-2 victory in their MLS clash.
The game started in an end-to-end fashion as the visitors broke upfield when Obafemi Martins found the run of Andy Rose who fired at goal, only to see his effort saved by Steve Clark.
Columbus hit back with a chance of their own as Kei Kamara spread the ball to Federico Higuain, who carved out space for a strike but was denied by Stefan Frei.
The Crew did take the lead minutes later when Waylon Francis raided down the right and lifted a cross into the box for Kamara to power a header past Frei.
Seattle got back into the match as Marco Pappa picked out Clint Dempsey on the edge of the area, and the forward lined up a strike which found the net after cannoning off the underside of the crossbar.
In the second half, Columbus regained their advantage as the Sounders failed to clear their lines and Higuain weaved his way through their defence before dispatching a strike past Frei.
The Crew should have netted a third goal when Higuain found the run of Ethan Finlay, who sped past Chad Marshall into the box only to fire his strike over the crossbar.
However, Columbus did add a third one minute later as Justin Meram found space in the box to tee up Kamara to slot the ball past Frei from close range.
Seattle got a goal back in the 75th minute when Pappa sent an arcing ball over the top of the Colombus defence for Martins, whose headed effort was saved, but Dempsey was on hand to fire in the rebound.
The visitors pushed for an equaliser late in the match, but the hosts held out to claim a narrow win at the MAPFRE Stadium.
Simon Sinclair
