MLS Recap: LAFC Completes Comeback, Toronto FC Continues Poor Form
MONTREAL (AP)—Carlos Vela scored on a penalty kick in the 83rd minute and expansion Los Angeles FC overcame Ignacio Piatti's hat trick to beat the 10-man Montreal Impact 5-3 on Saturday.
Los Angeles (4-2-0) scored four straight second-half goals for its second consecutive victory. Montreal (2-5-0) has lost three straight.
Laurent Ciman scored in his return to Montreal after being traded to Los Angeles in the offseason. Benny Feilhaber and Latif Blessing added goals for L.A., and Impact defender Jukka Raitala scored an own goal.
Montreal went down a player in the 31st minute when Victor Cabrera was shown a straight red card for a tackle on Marco Urena in the penalty box. Urena stepped up to the spot, but Evan Bush got his fingers on the low, powerful shot. Montreal was leading 2-1.
Vela made up for Urena's miss late to make it 4-3, firing a shot down the middle after Daniel Lovitz took down Diego Rossi in the box.
Blessing added a goal in the 89th minute after Bush spilled the ball and it rolled between his legs.
Houston 5, Toronto 1
HOUSTON (AP)—Romell Quioto had a goal and two assists, Joe Willis made six saves and the Houston Dynamo beat Toronto FC 5-1 on Saturday to snap a four-game winless streak.
Mauro Manotas, a 22-year-old in his fourth season with the Dynamo (2-2-2), scored in the third minute, Jose Leonardo Ribeiro da Silva made added a goal in the seventh. Quioto poked it away from Toronto's Julian Dunn-Johnson to Manotas, who took a couple steps and tapped it in from just inside the box to open the scoring and Leonardo trapped a clearance and rolled it just inside the post from the top of the area.
Quioto beat Dunn on the left side and, after his cross was deflected by a defender, Eric Alexander finished from point-blank range to make it 3-0 early in the second half.
Mitchell Taintor headed home a corner kick from Ager Aketxe for his first MLS goal to put Toronto (1-4-0) on the board in the 52nd minute, but Quioto fed Alberth Elis for a goal in the 60th and then capped the scoring in the 77th.
Chicago 2, New York 1
HARRISON, N.J. (AP)—Aleksandar Katai and Nemanja Nikolic scored and Richard Sanchez had a career-high nine saves to help the Chicago Fire beat the New York Red Bulls 2-1 on Saturday.
Katai gave Chicago (2-3-1) a 1-0 lead in the 31st minute. Brandon Vincent's corner kick was headed away by New York's Aaron Long, but Katai drilled a rising left-footed volley from the top corner of the box into the net.
Sanchez - a 24-year old with just two career starts coming into the season and who allowed eight total goal in the first three matches of the season - had several acrobatic stops. He kicked away a shot Daniel Royer and then made a diving save of Alejandro Romero Gamarra's put-back attempt to preserve the lead in the 35th.
Nikolic converted from the spot in the 69th minute after goalkeeper Luis Robles took down Katai inside the area.
Bradley Wright-Phillips scored in the 81st - his second goal in as many games and fifth this season - for New York (3-3-0).
The Red Bulls had their 11-game unbeaten streak snapped.
Orlando 3, San Jose 2
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP)—Chris Mueller had a goal and an assist and Orlando City held on to beat the San Jose Earthquakes 3-2 on Saturday night for its fourth win in a row.
Mueller chest-trapped a long arcing pass by Yoshimar Yotun from beyond midfield, beat a defender and, from the top-right corner of the 6-yard box, side-netted a rising shot to open the scoring in the second minute.
Sacha Kljestan added a goal in the 35th and Dominic Dwyer scored in the 69th minute to give Orlando City (4-2-1) a 3-0 lead. Mueller ran onto a long pass down the middle from Yotun and, as goalkeeper Andrew Tarbell charged, tapped it to Kljestan for the sliding empty-net finish from point-blank range. Justin Meram's through ball led Dwyer into the box where he sidestepped Tarbell near the spot and chipped it in to make it 3-0.
Florian Jungwirth scored in the 78th and 90th for San Jose (1-3-2). The Earthquakes are winless, including three losses, in their last five games.
Columbus 2, New England 2
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP)—Cristian Penilla scored the tying goal in the first minute of first-half stoppage time and the New England Revolution held on for a 2-2 draw with the Columbus Crew on Saturday night.
Penilla one-timed Juan Agudelo's arching pass to cap the scoring for New England (3-2-2) on the final play of the first half.
Gyasi Zardes made it 2-1 for the Crew (3-3-2) in the 43rd minute with a right-footed shot from the middle of the 18-yard box for his fifth goal of the season.
Columbus also took the opening lead in the ninth minute when Milton Valenzuela sent Federico Higuain's deep cross back toward the face of the goal and New England's Andrew Farrell inadvertently headed it into the back of his own net.
Teal Bunbury leveled it at 1-all in the 14th minute with a right-footed shot that deflected slightly off defender Jonathan Mensah and bounced in off the far post.
The Crew snapped a three-game losing streak.
Dallas 2, Philadelphia 0
FRISCO, Texas (AP)—Mauro Diaz and Maximiliano Urruti scored and FC Dallas remained one of the two unbeaten teams in MLS with a 2-0 victory over the Philadelphia Union on Saturday night.
Diaz opened the scoring with a penalty kick in the 64th minute. Dallas' Matt Hedges drew the penalty, trying to connect with Diaz's corner and getting pulled down from behind by defender Auston Trusty at the top of the 6-yard box.
FC Dallas (3-0-3) made it 2-0 in the 74th minute when Roland Lamah played a through ball up the left side to Urruti, who slipped around goalkeeper Andre Blake with his first touch and slotted home the finish from a narrow angle.
The Union extended their winless streak to five and dropped to 1-3-2.
Salt Lake 3, Colorado 0
SANDY, Utah (AP)—Joao Plata scored on a penalty kick in the 82nd minute, Damir Kreilach and Albert Rusnak added goals and Real Salt Lake beat the Colorado Rapids 3-0 on Saturday night.
Colorado held Real Salt Lake scoreless for over 60 minutes while down a man until referee Joseph Dickerson charged Colorado's Tommy Smith with a handball in the area after a video review. Plata converted with a low hard shot to the left to open the scoring for RSL (3-3-1).
Kreilach settled Rusnak's pass and bent a shot around defender Axel Sjoberg to double the lead in the 89th. Rusnak capped the scoring on a free kick in the 92nd.
Rapids (2-2-2) goalkeeper Tim Howard was sent off in the 20th minute for denial of an obvious goal-scoring opportunity with a handball outside the area. Howard was well beyond the 18-yard box when he challenged RSL's Jefferson Savarino on a breakaway and blocked Savarino's shot with his left arm extended.
Atlanta 2, LA Galaxy 0
CARSON, Calif. (AP)—Josef Martinez scored a first-half goal, Miguel Almiron converted a penalty late in second-half stoppage time, and Atlanta United kept Zlatan Ibrahimovic off the scoreboard in a 2-0 victory over the LA Galaxy on Saturday night.
Brad Guzan got the shutout for Atlanta, which is 5-0-1 since getting blown out by Houston in its season opener.
Until the closing minutes, Ibrahimovic got few chances to make a difference in his fourth appearance for the Galaxy, who are 2-2-0 with a pair of 2-0 losses at home since his arrival. Ibrahimovic played the entire game for the first time in MLS.
A sellout crowd of 25,846 at StubHub eagerly anticipated late-game Zlatan magic while the Galaxy surged in the final minutes. Ibrahimovic scored three goals in his first three games for LA, including two game-winners.
Instead, Atlanta's defense barely held on against a late-game onslaught led by Ibrahimovic, playmaker Romain Alessandrini and Giovani Dos Santos, who came on as a 66th-minute substitute for his first game action with his new Swedish teammate.
A few minutes after referee Baldomero Toledo declined to award a penalty when Ibrahimovic was pushed in the box, Toledo gave a penalty when Romario Williams went down in the fourth minute of stoppage time. Almiron scored his fourth goal of the season, infuriating the Galaxy and their bench.
Jonathan Dos Santos was a late scratch from the Galaxy's starting lineup after apparently getting hurt during warmups, and his team suffered defensively in his absence. Atlanta's formidable speed was too much for the Galaxy early on, with coach Tata Martino's team dominating possession and Almiron repeatedly shredding the Galaxy defense.
Martinez missed a penalty in the first half, putting his shot off the post. Two minutes later, he jumped on the rebound of Julian Gressel's shot off the post and slotted home the sixth goal of another outstanding season for the Venezuelan forward.
Giovani Dos Santos entered in the second half for his first appearance since March 11, and the Galaxy generated multiple strong chances from that point. The Mexican star had missed nearly six weeks with a hamstring injury.
Galaxy goalkeeper David Bingham made saves on Martinez and Ezequiel Barco midway through the second half. Alessandrini was his usual playmaking force for the Galaxy, but the French winger struggled to find Ibrahimovic with his long crosses.
Moments after Ibrahimovic wasn't awarded a late penalty, Ola Kamara headed a free kick over the bar.
