Ethan Finlay and Kei Kamara scored and the Columbus Crew beat D.C. United 2-1 on Saturday night to clinch a playoff berth.
Tyson Wahl outdueled Sean Franklin for a ball deep in United territory and poked it to Finlay, who shielded a defender inside the 6-yard box before blasting a left-footer past Bill Hamid to give Columbus (13-9-8) a 1-0 lead in the 27th minute.
Kamara, who leads the MLS with 21 goals, raced behind the defence and put away a pass from Tony Tchani to make it 2-0 about 2 minutes into the second half.
A hand ball in the box by Chris Klute set up a penalty kick by Chris Rolfe that pulled D.C. United (13-11-6) within one in the 68th, but a later goal called off due to an offside call and two other opportunities were just off the mark.
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