MLS Week 17: NYCFC and New England draw, Orlando City wins on the road, St Louis beats Houston

Week 17 of the 2023 MLS season started in New York, where NYCFC and New England drew 0-0. NYCFC’s Braian Cufre saw red a minute into stoppage time. “I think to play in two tough venues this week and getting a point in each game was a positive,” New England coach Bruce Arena said. “They weren’t perfect, but today I think we saw I some good fight in our team. It was a difficult game and an opponent that needed to win at home. So, I think we did a solid job. It was obviously a pretty even game. We’ll take the point and go home.”

Seattle and Portland drew 0-0 at Lumen Field. The Sounders finished with one shot on goal to the Timbers’ two.

Cincinnati beat Chicago 1-0 at home. Luciano Acosta scored in the 83rd minute and Roman Celentano kept the clean sheet with the Fire finishing without a shot on goal.

“You felt like it was going to come down to one moment for either team, and we found it in a pretty impressive way with Santi’s (Santiago Arias) delivery to Lucho and an excellent touch and finish, Cincinnati coach Pat Noonan said. It was a gutsy performance, and it’s nice to see our guys come out on top.”

DC United beat Inter Miami 2-1 on the road in Inter’s first game after the club parted ways with coach Phil Neville. Playing a man up from a 7th minute Kamal Miller red card, DC Took the lead from a 76th minute Donovan Pines goal. Christian Benteke scored for United in the 90th with Ian Fray pulling a goal back for Miami two minutes into stoppage time.

“Truthfully I’m really happy with the players,” Inter Miami interim coach Javier Morales said. “There’s a lot to work on and it’s important to get out of this situation as quickly as possible. On Wednesday we have the opportunity to play a cup quarterfinal and the possibility to get to the first semifinal in the Club’s history,”

Orlando City shutout the Red Bulls 3-0 at Red Bull Arena. Ivan Angulo put Orlando up in the 18th with Facundo Torres converting a 51st minute penalty and scoring again in the 72nd.

Philadelphia shutout Montreal 3-0 at home. Julian Carranza scored in the 12th and 61st minutes and Mikkel Uhre made it 3-0 in the 36th. Union goalkeeper Andre Blake kept the clean sheet with two saves.

“Philadelphia is always a difficult place to play,Montreal coach Hernandez Losada said. “They’re a team with a lot of quality, especially their three offensive players. They’re very efficient. In general, I take away positives from tonight, because we were able to give minutes to players who haven’t had much playing time this season. This will give us a better idea of which players are ready to take on more minutes and which need improvement.”

Columbus beat Charlotte 4-2 at home, taking the lead from a 5th minute Christian Ramirez goal. Maxi Arfsten doubles the Crew lead in the 21st and Cucho Hernandez made it 3-0 in the 43rd. Charlotte’s Karol Swiderski scored in the 56th and Justin Meram pulled them within one in the 58th. Ramirez finished off the Columbus scoring in the 59th minute.

Real Salt Lake beat Austin 2-1 on the road with Rubio Rubin scoring in the 15th and 81st minutes.

Austin’s Julio Cascante scored two minutes into stoppage time.
Nashville won 2-1 at FC Dallas, going up from a 9th minute.own-goal. Jader Obrian equalized for Dallas in the 25th but Hany Mukhtar put Nashville up for good in the 77th minute.

Minnesota and Toronto drew 1-1 at Allianz Field. Lorenzo Insigne our Toronto up in the 58th and Kevin Arriga equalized for United in the 89th minute.

We played against the team here, regardless of what people think is the most heavily assembled team probably in Major League Soccer history,” United coach Adrian Heath said. “The two wingers they got have played for Juventus and Napoli and won the league. They played like 50 times for Italy. We have to respect that at times. I don’t understand sometimes why it’s all about us. Sometimes you have to take your hand off to the opposition and go, they’re good players.”

St Louis shutout Houston 3-0 at home. Eduard Lowen converted a 9th minute penalty, Tomas Ostrak scored in the 51st, and Nicholas Gioacchini converted a penalty in the 83rd. St Louis goalkeeper Roman Burki made four saves to keep the clean sheet.

Colorado split the points with San Jose 0-0 at home. The Rapids played a man down from a 51st minute Moise Bombito red card.

“At the end of the day, I thought we did push in a very smart, organized way in the end to try to win because at the end of the day you did see in transition how dangerous they were,” Earthquakes coach Luchi Gonzalez said. “They put us under pressure, and we adjusted much better with our defensive shape to get pressure on their center backs, deny the diagonals, and defend much better.”

Week 17 ended at BC Place, where Vancouver and Sporting Kansas City drew 1-1. Alan Pulido scored for Sporting in the 20th and Ryan Gauld converted a Whitecaps penalty in the 88th minute.