MLS: Daniel Royer Scores Brace to Keep Red Bulls on Top of the East; Sounders Stay Hot
VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Daniel Royer scored his second goal of the game in the 90th minute to give the New York Red Bulls a 2-2 tie with the Vancouver Whitecaps on Saturday.
With New York (15-6-3) playing a man down, Tyler Adams set up the tying goal with a free kick into the box. Royer beat a couple of defenders and chipped the ball past goalkeeper Stefan Marinovic. Royer opened the scoring in the fifth minute.
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The Red Bulls played a man short after Michael Murillo was given his second yellow card in the 84th minute.
Defender Kendall Waston scored twice on headers for Vancouver (9-9-7). The Whitecaps are battling Real Salt Lake and the Seattle Sounders for a spot in the Major League Soccer playoffs.
Waston scored in the 42nd and 60th minutes to put Vancouver ahead.
Seattle Sounders 5, LA Galaxy 0
SEATTLE — Harry Shipp isn't quite ready to say the Seattle Sounders have turned a corner. On Saturday, he did his part to help them get closer to turning it.
Shipp had a goal and an assist and the Sounders rolled past the depleted Los Angeles Galaxy 5-0 for their club-record sixth straight victory.
Chad Marshall, Cristian Roldan and Raul Ruidiaz also scored, and the Sounders were the beneficiary of an own goal.
Seattle (10-9-5) is 7-0-2 in its last nine games, tying the second-longest undefeated string in club history. After languishing near the bottom of the standings all season, it is now well in reach of a postseason berth with 10 games left.
''We've had a run of very good games, but we're not going to view it like that,'' Shipp said. ''We're not going to get complacent. The confidence is there. We're trying to fight for as high a playoff seed as possible. For us, we've done a pretty good job the past two months of doing that.''
Los Angeles (10-9-7) was without leading scorer Zlatan Ibrahimovic and designated players Giovani dos Santos, Jonathan dos Santos, and Romain Alessandrini on Saturday.
Ibrahimovic indicated earlier in the week that he did not want to play on Seattle's turf and risk re-injuring his knee, so did not make the trip. Giovani dos Santos (leg), Jonathan dos Santos (groin), and Alessandrini (knee) all were out with injuries. Starting defender Michael Ciani (hamstring) also was sidelined.
But Galaxy coach Sigi Schmid, back where he guided the Sounders from their inception in 2009 until getting let go in July 2016, wasn't using their absences as an excuse.
''We play with the players who are here and we're not going to talk about the other guys,'' Schmid said. ''There's not much you can say - it was an embarrassing game for us. We gifted them three goals. I thought the first three goals were gifts from us and even the last one was another gift.
''You just can't do that against a good team and expect to get a result.''
Marshall scored late in the third minute for his third of the year and Seattle's quickest goal of the season, as he headed in a curling target ball from Nicolas Lodeiro.
Shipp's third of the year made it 2-0 in the 18th minute. Galaxy defender gave the ball away to Seattle's Gustav Svensson deep in Los Angeles' half. Svensson found Shipp breaking toward the top of the penalty area, sent the ball ahead, and Shipp buried it from 17 yards straight in front.
''We haven't had a ton of super-easy goals, so it was good to have some time and space to know where I wanted to place it,'' Shipp said.
An own goal off the foot of Servando Carrasco pushed the lead to 3-0 in the 50th minute. Roldan scored in the 59th for his third of the year, and Ruidiaz finished the rout in the 67th with his second.
Goalkeeper Stefan Frei earned his fifth shutout.
Like Schmid, Sounders coach Schmetzer wasn't focused on the absent Galaxy standouts.
''I thought that was a well-deserved two goals,'' he said of the first-half tallies. ''Our team has started strong in the first 20 or 25 minutes of games recently. But then we let our foot off the gas and let them back in. So we made a couple corrections at halftime. The team did what they were supposed to do and did what they had to do to put the game out of reach.''
The last time the Sounders scored five goals was in a 5-0 win at home against Dallas on July 13, 2016.
Seattle previously had five-game winning streaks in 2010, 2013, and 2014. Its previous nine-game unbeaten streak was a 6-0-3 run in 2011.
Philadelphia Union 2, NYCFC 0
CHESTER, Pa. — Cory Burke and Ilson Pereira scored and Borek Dockal had two assists to help the Philadelphia Union beat New York City FC 2-0 on Saturday night.
Burke, a 26-year-old rookie, has six goals in six starts - all wins. Andre Blake made three saves for his first shutout since June 23.
Burke side-netted a right-footer to give the Union (10-11-3) a 1-0 lead in the 57th minute. Dockal's through led Burke to the left side of the area where he trapped it before flipping it past a diving Sean Johnson into the goal.
Ilsinho came on in the 68th—his first appearance since straining his right quadriceps on July 11—and capped the scoring in the 76th minute. He took it on the right flank, split two defenders and the cut back to evade another before rolling it between and a defender and Johnson into the net.
NYCFC (14-6-5) was held scoreless for the first time since May 5.
Montreal Impact 2, Chicago Fire 1
MONTREAL — Daniel Lovitz scored in the 90th minute to give the Montreal Impact a 2-1 victory over the Chicago Fire on Saturday night.
Lovita volleyed a bouncing shot into the left side of the net off Saphir Taider's volley.
Ignacio Piatti also scored to help Montreal (10-13-3) end a four-game winless streak and extend Chicago's losing streak to eight.
Nemanja Nikolic scored for Chicago (6-15-5).
Piatti opened the scoring on a penalty kick in the sixth minute for his 12th goal of the season. The Impact were awarded the penalty after Bastian Schweinsteiger bumped Taider.
Nikolic tied it in the 70th off own rebound. He has 11 goals this season.
Sporting Kansas City 3, Portland Timbers 0
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Diego Rubio scored two goals and Tim Melia had his 10th shutout of the season to help Sporting Kansas City beat the Portland Timbers 3-0 on Saturday night.
Sporting (12-6-6) won its third straight to move into a tie atop the Western Conference standings with FC Dallas—which played Minnesota United later Saturday night.
Rubio rifled a shot from the top of the box just inside the near post to open the scoring in the 28th minute and then made it 2-0 when he put away a cross by Daniel Salloi in the 37th.
Johnny Russell capped the scoring in the 89th minute. He tapped it to Roger Espinoza near the penalty arc, who led Russell toward the spot for the left-footed finish.
Portland (10-6-7) has lost three in a row. The Timbers had just one shot in the first half and were outshot 25-7 overall.
Houston Dynamo 2, Real Salt Lake 1
HOUSTON — Albert Rusnak scored two goals in stoppage time to help Real Salt Lake beat the Houston Dynamo 2-1 on Saturday night.
Real Salt Lake (11-10-5) won on the road for just the second time this season.
Rusnak converted from penalty spot in the 10th minute of injury time to give Real Salt Lake its first lead.
Oscar Boniek Garcia gave Houston a 1-0 lead in the 36th minute when he scored his first MLS goal since Aug. 21, 2015. A free kick by the Dynamo bounced high off the wall and Garcia first-timed a volley that deflected off Real Salt Lake's Nick Besler into the goal.
Rusnak faked a shot at the top of the penalty arc, took a couple steps to his left and ripped a left-footer off the far post and into the net to make it 1-1 in the third minute of stoppage time.
Joe Willis made saves for the Dynamo to tie his career high.
Real Salt Lake's Andrew Putna had two saves in his first MLS start. The 23-year old signed with the team July 13 and made his first appearance Wednesday night when he replaced injured starter Nick Rimando.
The Dynamo (7-11-6) are winless seven games, including five consecutive losses.
San Jose Earthquakes 1, Toronto FC 1
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Chris Wondolowski scored in the tying goal in the 77th minute in the San Jose Earthquakes' 1-1 draw with Toronto FC on Saturday night.
Wondolowski ran onto a long pass from Nick Lima and ripped a shot from the right side that bounced off goalkeeper Alex Bono. Wondolowski chased down the rebound and chipped it in from the top of the 6-yard box.
He has 141 career MLS goals, four behind Landon Donovan for the record.
Lucas Janson, a 24-year-old forward making his first MLS appearance after signing with Toronto on Aug. 8, opened the scoring for the Reds (6-12-6) in the 59th minute. Sebastian Giovinco led Gregory van der Wiel down the right side of the penalty box where he first-timed a cross to Janson for the finish into an empty net.
San Jose (3-13-8) is winless in its last 10 home games, the longest such streak in franchise history.
FC Dallas 2, Minnesota United 0
FRISCO, Texas — Maynor Figueroa and Michael Barrios scored in FC Dallas' 2-0 victory over Minnesota United on Saturday night.
The kickoff was delayed more than 2 1/2 hours because of lightning in the area.
FC Dallas (13-5-6) remained three points ahead of Sporting Kansas City for the Western Conference lead.
Figueroa tapped in a rebound a point-blank range to open the scoring in the 44th minute. He was originally called offside but a video review determined that the ball had been touched by Minnesota's Michael Boxall and the goal was good.
Barrios side-netted a shot from the top-left corner of the area to make it 2-0 in the 57th.
Jimmy Maurer, making his first appearance since May 19, had his fourth shutout of the season.
Minnesota United (9-14-2), which is winless in its last four games, was outshot 16-7, including 8-1 on target.
