The MLS week 18 roundup has Atlanta United winning at home, CF Montreal beating Minnesota 4-0, and a 4-0 home win for Houston over LAFC.
MLS Week 18: Atlanta beats DC at home, Montreal and LAFC win 4-0
Week 18 in MLS started at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, where Atlanta beat DC United 3-1. Georgios Giakoumakis put Atlanta up in the 13th with DC’s Taxi Fountas equalizing in the 27th minute. Atlanta retook the lead from an Andrew Gutman goal in the 49th and Tyler Wolff doubled it in the 73rd minute.
Montreal beat Minnesota 4-0 at home, taking the lead from a Mason Toye goal in the 7th minute. Zachary Brault-Guillard made it 2-0 in the 13th, Toye scored again in the 57th, and Rudy Camacho finished off the Montreal goals in the 76th minute. Montreal goalkeeper Jonathan Sirois made four saves to keep the clean sheet.
“Soccer is a strange sport. There are ebbs and flows,” Toye said. “For one reason or another, we are incredible at home in a way that we haven’t been able to reproduce on the road. I hope this break will allow us to recharge our batteries and change that.”
Charlotte and Seattle drew 3-3 at Bank of America Stadium, with the Sounders taking an 11th minute lead from a Cristian Roldan goal. Charlotte’s Jaylin Lindsey equalized in the 17th. Raul Ruidiaz returned Seattle’s lead in the 35th with Charlotte’s Ashley Westwood equalizing in the 53rd. Ruidiaz scored again in the 70th with Patrick Agyemang equalizing for Charlotte in the 89th minute.
New England beat Inter Miami 3-1 at home, with the Revs going up from a 27th minute Carles Gil penalty. Matt Polster scored for New England in the 34th and Bobby Wood made it 3-0 in the 51st. Inter Miami’s Josef Martinez converted a penalty in the 84th minute.
“At the midway point, to have 30 points in 17 games with the injuries that we’ve had and everything else is okay,” New England coach Bruce Arena said. “So, the first half of the season was good. Certainly wasn’t great, but it was good. We have to get better, and next week I think we’ll have (Brandon) Bye and (Noel) Buck back. We’ll have Gustavo a little bit sharper, so that’s a positive, and we just have to get better.”
Toronto and Nashville drew 1-1 at BMO Field. Lorenzo Insigne scored for Toronto in the 38th and Nashville’s Randall Leal equalized in the 69th minute.
Orlando beat Colorado 2-0 at home, with City playing a man up from a 39th minute red card to Colorado’s Brian Galvan. Facundo Torres scored for Orlando in the 57th with Lalas Abubaker equalizing for the Rapids in the 75th. Orlando’s Ramiro Enrique scored in the 83rd minute.
Columbus won 2-1 at Chicago, taking the lead from a 59th minute Cucho Hernandez goal. Xherdan Shaqiri equalized for the Fire in the 88th but Lucas Zelarayan scored the Crew’s winner three minutes into stoppage time.
“The effort was really good from the guys,” Chicago coach Frank Klopas said. “We made changes, I felt, that brought energy into the pitch and we got back into the game and, you know, obviously we had chances and maybe we could have scored another one. But you know, it’s a tough one when you come back like that and to give up one in the end like that. It’s really unbelievable.”
Houston shutout LAFC 4-0 at home. Nelson Quinones scored in the 11th, Amine Bassi converted a 50th minute penalty, Corey Baird made it 3-0 in the 69th, and Franco Escobar finished off the Houston scoring in the 89th minute. Dynamo goalkeeper Steve Clark made two saves to keep the clean sheet.
Sporting Kansas City beat Austin 4-1 at home. Alan Pulido put Sporting up in the 19th, Robert Castellanos doubled the lead in the 47th, and Pulido scored gain in the 57th minute. Austin’s Sebastian Druissi pulled a goal back in the 61st but Khiry Shelton finished off the Kansas City goals in the 89th minute.
I thought that today we managed the game pretty well,” Sporting KC coach Peter Vermes said. “Like always, I wish we would have gotten a shutout because I think we were in a good place, but we lost the ball in a bad place, which then put us in a place where we shouldn’t have been. They got a corner kick and now we had to defend that. We didn’t. But outside of that, I thought everything else was pretty good by the group. To score four goals is never easy against any team.”
Real Salt Lake drew 0-0 at home with NYCFC with RSL putting four shots on goal to New York’s one.
San Jose beat Philadelphia 2-1 at PayPal Park. Jeremy Ebobisse scored for the Earthquakes in the 8th minute with Philadelphia’s Damion Lowe equalizing in the 17th. Miguel Trauco scored for San Jose in the 57th minute.
“Recently I think we’ve just talked about it, reflected on it, and taken it very personal and focused on it as a team,” San Jose coach Luchi Gonzalez said. “How can we make it our strength? How can we make it San Jose’s time in stoppage time where we’re focused and excited? We’ve worked hard to put ourselves in that position and we’re excited to get the job done.”
Vancouver and FC Cincinnati drew 0-0 at BC Place. Luciano Acosta’s goal gave Cincinnati the lead in the 83rd and Vancouver’s Ryan Gauld equalized from the penalty spot in the 89th.
“Yeah, we cap off a difficult stretch, a busy stretch with a hard-fought point on the road,” Cincinnati coach Pat Noonan said. “I think under the circumstances, you can be disappointed, certainly to not get three points. But in the end, I try to look at this entire stretch that the group was just put through and to win seven of them and draw one, it can really only be positive things to say about what these guys were able to accomplish.”
On Sunday, St Louis and the LA Galaxy drew 1-1 at CityPark. St Louis’s Nicholas Gioacchini opened the scoring in the 68th with the Galaxy’s Daniel Aguirre equalizing in the 85th minute.
Week 18 ended in Portland where the Timbers beat FC Dallas 1-0. Franck Boli scored in the 35 the minute and goalkeeper David Bingham made two saves in the shutout.
