COMMERCE CITY, Colo. — Jonathan Bamba scored two goals, Robert Lewandowski and Puso Dithejane each added a goal and the Chicago Fire beat the Colorado Rapids 4-2 on Saturday night.
The Fire (16-10-7, 55 points) are in fourth place in the Eastern Conference with one regular-season match remaining. They sit one point behind third-place Inter Miami, which has two games left, and two points ahead of fifth-place Charlotte, which has one match to play. The No. 4 seed has home-field advantage in a best-of-three first-round playoff series.
The Fire play host to the Columbus Crew on the final day of the regular season Saturday at SeatGeek Stadium in Bridgeview.
Lewandowski, on a counterattack, ran onto a ball played ahead by Philip Zinckernagel near the top of the penalty, cut to evade goalkeeper Nico Hansen, who charged off his line, and scored from point-blank range to give the Fire a 3-2 lead in the 74th minute.
Bamba scored a goal in the 41st minute to make it 1-1 at halftime and gave the Fire a 2-1 lead in the 56th, his first multigoal game in MLS. Dithejane put away a feed from Lewandowski to cap the scoring in the 88th.
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Morgan Whittaker opened the scoring in the 22nd minute and Paxten Aaronson added a goal in the 58th for the Rapids. Whittaker scored a goal for the third consecutive game.
The Rapids (12-14-7) had their five-game unbeaten streak snapped. They have 43 points, eight in the Western Conference and one point ahead of 10th-place Real Salt Lake.