Just three days after suffering an uncharacteristic loss at home, Sporting Kansas City regrouped, hit the road and delivered a big win in another venue where visiting teams don’t normally find success.
Sporting KC rattled off three first-half goals on the way to a 4-1 rout over Los Angeles FC on Wednesday. Facing an LAFC side that was playing without both starting centerbacks — Eddie Segura, who is out for the season with a torn ACL, and Jesus Murillo, who was sidelined with a hamstring injury — Sporting KC pounced from the start, pressing LAFC and forcing mistakes it feasted on with its lightning-fast counterattack.
Alan Pulido, Luis Martins and Daniel Salloi scored goals in the first 36 minutes, and went into cruise control the rest of the match on the way to a victory that helped SKC jump back into first place in the Western Conference.
Wednesday’s loaded MLS slate also saw FC Dallas follow up its big win at Sporting KC with a last-minute draw in Seattle, with Franco Jara’s stoppage-time winner helping Luchi Gonzalez’s team earned a precious road point and keep the Sounders from holding onto first place in the West.
In the Eastern Conference, two teams saw their recent hot streaks come to a halt, with Nashville SC earning a draw at New England, ending the Revs’ four-match winning streak, while New York City FC saw its own three-match winning run halted in a goal-less draw at the Chicago Fire.
The most impressive win of the night in the East went to D.C. United, which rolled to a 4-2 victory over the Columbus Crew at Lower.com Field. Yordy Reyna and Ola Kamara scored two goals apiece to push D.C. United’s unbeaten run to four in a row.
The Philadelphia Union snapped their three-match winless slide with a convincing 3-0 win at home against Toronto FC. Andre Blake returned from Gold Cup duty to post the shutout.
Here is a look back at Wednesday’s busy MLS schedule:
Revolution 0, Nashville SC 0
Man of the Match: Jack Maher was key to Nashville holding the Revs without a goal, contributing four interceptions and five clearances on a night when he did well to stay in good positions.
Moment of the Match: The 65th minute penalty call against Jalil Anibaba was overturned, and rightly so, after a VAR review determined that Gustavo Bou dove and wasn’t fouled.
Match to Forget: Adam Buksa failed to register a single shot on the night, and clearly missed Carles Gil.
Crew 2, D.C. United 4
(Kevin Molino 65′, Lucas Zelarayan 71′) – (Ola Kamara 19′, 45+3′, Yordy Reyna 40′, 74)
Man of the Match: Yordy Reyna delivered a pair of goals to lead D.C. United to the big road win in Columbus.
Moment of the Match: Reyna’s second goal helped halt a Crew comeback after Columbus cut the D.C. United down from 3-0 to 3-2.
Match to Forget: Aboubakar Keita lost the ball leading to D.C. United’s opener, turned the ball over repeatedly, and was burned badly on D.C. United’s win-clinching fourth goal.
CF Montreal 2, Atlanta United 2
(Mason Toye 53′, Rudi Camacho 63′) – (Josef Martinez 65′, Marcelino Moreno 76′)
Man of the Match: Josef Martinez left the match with a red card, but before that he scored an excellent goal and drew a penalty that led to the equalizer.
Moment of the Match: The 79th-minute shoving match between Josef Martinez and Victor Wanyama led to both drawing red cards, which was likely worse for Atlanta, which was chasing a winner up a man.
Match to Forget: Rudi Camacho went from the thrill of giving CF Montreal the lead with a goal, but then committed a penalty foul and drew a red card just 10 minutes later, costing his team the match.
Union 3, Toronto FC 0
(Jakob Glesnes 13′, Daniel Gazdag 33′, Sergio Santos 36′)
Man of the Match: Sergio Santos drew the penalty leading to the Union’s second goal, then scored a goal of his own to make the score 3-0.
Moment of the Match: Andre Blake’s 53rd-minute penalty save on Yeferson Soteldo denied TFC the goal that could have sparked a comeback.
Match to Forget: Yeferson Soteldo missed a penalty kick and had a relatively quiet night overall.
Fire 0, NYCFC 0
Man of the Match: Anton Tinnerholm did it all for NYCFC, whether it was completing a game-high eight tackles to delivering a game-high three key passes.
Moment of the Match: Keaton Parks second yellow card essentially ended NYCFC’s chances for a win, leaving the visitors to hold on for a draw in the final 17 minutes.
Match to Forget: Keaton Parks went from having a clear look at goal for a potential winner, to sending that shot wide and then drawing a second yellow card two minutes later.
Red Bulls 0, FC Cincinnati 0
Man of the Match: Gustavo Valecilla was Cincinnati’s steadiest defender on the night, winning a game-high six aerials and also contributing two shots.
Moment of the Match: Kenneth Vermeer’s 67th-minute save on Fabio’s chance kept the shutout for the visitors.
Match to Forget: Fabio finished with a game-high five shots, but was only able to put one of those on target.
Orlando City 1, Inter Miami 1
(Antonio Carlos 45+1′) – (Kieran Gibbs 66′)
Man of the Match: Nani was once again an attacking dynamo, registering a game-high five shots, and five key passes, and assisted on Orlando City’s goal.
Moment of the Match: A would-be winner from Tesho Akindele was negated by a VAR review and offside call.
Match to Forget: Gonzalo Higuain played the hero over the weekend, but just didn’t have much left in the tank for the midweek game.
Austin FC 3, Dynamo 2
(Tomas Pochettino 7′, 45+1′, Cecilio Dominguez 56′) – (Tyler Pasher 27′, Fafa Picault 86′)
Man of the Match: Tomas Pochettino delivered a pair of goals, including the seventh-minute opener (though it could have been called an own-goal) to set the tone for a good night in Austin.
Moment of the Match: Cecilio Dominguez’s header off the excellent Diego Fagundez cross produced the eventual game-winner for the home team.
Match to Forget: Darwin Ceren’s 20th-minute red card put the Dynamo in a major hole, and they were lucky not to suffer a worse defeat.
Sounders 1, FC Dallas 1
(Freddy Montero 72′) – (Franco Jara 90+1′)
Man of the Match: After registering a game-high 10 clearances on the defensive end, Nkosi Burgess capped his excellent match with the assist on Franco Jara’s late equalizer.
Moment of the Match: Jara’s 91st-minute equalizer helped FC Dallas escape Seattle with a precious road point.
Match to Forget: Xavier Arreaga lost his mark on Jara on the equalizer, which had him looking devastated at the end of the match.
Galaxy 1, Real Salt Lake 0
(Efrain Alvarez 53′)
Man of the Match: Efrain Alvarez delivered the winning goal and completed 41 of 43 passes on the night.
Moment of the Match: The give-and-go worked between Sacha Kljestan and Efrain Alvarez was top notch, as was Alvarez’s finish.
Match to Forget: Nick Besler didn’t have the most active night, and then lost his mark on Alvarez on the game-winning goal.
LAFC 1, Sporting KC 4
(Danny Musovsky 82′) – (Alan Pulido 20′, Luis Martins 28′, Daniel Salloi 36′, Gadi Kinda 58′)
Man of the Match: Daniel Salloi set up Sporting KC’s second goal, then made it 3-0 with his own goal to spark the romp.
Moment of the Match: Salloi’s 36th minute volley finish was a beauty, and it essentially sealed the victory.
Match to Forget: Marco Farfan had a truly nightmare evening, as he shouldered some blame on all three Sporting KC goals in the first half before being subbed out at halftime.
Timbers 1, Earthquakes 1
(Felipe Mora 45+6′) – (Chofis Lopez 24′)
Man of the Match: Felipe Mora scored the equalizer and finished with a game-high five shots on the night.
Moment of the Match: Mora’s header finish just before halftime helped the Timbers regroup from the early goal they gave up.
Match to Forget: Steve Clark not only spilled the ball leading directly to San Jose’s goal, he also left the match in the 40th minute with an injury.