MLS Week 24: Atlanta wins at Montreal, St Louis shuts out Toronto, Austin beats Minnesota 4-1

The week 24 MLS roundup starts with Atlanta United winning 1-0 on the road in Montreal. Books Lennon scored United’s goal in the 54th and Brad Guzan kept the clean sheet with one save.

“It was a great performance,” Atlanta coach Gonzalo Pineda said. “I’m very proud of the players. They did a great, great job, especially in the first half. We were trying to figure out our press. Montreal did a good job of finding some passing lanes. It was difficult for us to figure it out. Players were executing the game plan, but those passes were trouble for us. And the players knew how to adjust and put in the effort to chase, press, recover and be goal side. At times it was absorbing pressure. That was a very good response for me.”

FC Cincinnati came back from two goals down to draw 2-2 at Charlotte. Karol Swiderski scored for Charlotte in the 14th and 24th minutes. Luciano Acosta converted a 52nd minute penalty and Alvaro Barreal equalized in the 68th. Cincinnati’s Ian Murphy saw red in the 75th minute.

“What a response from the group to walk off the field with a point, you know, that outcome could have been very different just based on a couple of breaks that went our way with some chances that they missed in the second-half,” FC Cincinnati coach Pat Noonan said. “And you know how we got the momentum with the PK, obviously helped us to get back into the game.”

Columbus and NYCFC drew 1-1 at Lower.com Field. With the Crew playing a man down from the 68th minute following a red card to Cucho Hernandez, NYCFC’s Justin Haak scored in the 75th. Columbus’s Sean Zawadzki scored four minutes into stoppage time.

“I am super frustrated because I want to win football games,” NYCFC coach Nick Cushing said. “The positives are that we are creating chances, and it shows the work we are putting in. We are getting to a place where we are dominating the game in goal chances. We have had 20 goal chances in two games, scored two goals, and got two points. We should have nine points this week, so I am super frustrated.”

DC United and Inter Miami drew 2-2 at Audi Field with Inter Miami taking the lead from a 59th minute Benjamin Cremaschi goal. DC’s Taxi Fountas equalized in the 65th. Noah Allen returned the Inter Miami lead in the 68th but Nigel Robertha equalized for United in the 77th minute.

The Red Bulls beat New England 2-1 at home with Rankie Amaya put New York up in the 58th. Playing a man down from a 60th minute Latif Blessing red card, Brandon Bye equalized for the Revolution in the 76th. Wikelman Carmona scored New York’s winner in the 85th minute.

St Louis City won 1-0 at Toronto on a 50th minute Aziel Jackson goal. Roman Burki made three saves to keep the clean sheet for St Louis.

Chicago shutout Nashville 1-0 at home on a 34th minute Fabian Herbers goal. Fire goalkeeper Chris Brady kept the clean sheet with Nashville finishing without a shot on goal.

“Look, I think it was a really good performance from the team overall,” Chicago coach Frank Klopas said. “I think we had some really great individual performances, but from a collective standpoint, it was excellent. And we talked about the importance of the homestand now and obviously the second half of the season, how important these games at home are and finding ways to get results on the road. And I think this was huge because this is the first game from the three-game homestand.”

Houston came back at home to draw 2-2 with Sporting Kansas City. Alan Pulido scored for Sporting in the 25th with Ibrahim Allyu equalizing two minutes into stoppage time. Pulido put Sporting back up from a 62nd minute penalty with Ivan Franco equalizing for the Dynamo eight minutes into stoppage time.

“We are frustrated because we feel like the team will win tonight,” Pulido said. “We can win it. But this happens in soccer. We need to get the mentality. We are not happy. This is true because in the last minutes we tied. It’s okay. We need to keep it forward. We don’t need to lose our mind.”

Austin won 4-1 at Minnesota, taking the lead from a 35th minute Diego Fagundez goal. Sebastian Driussi converted a 45th minute penalty and made it 3-0 Austin in the 51st. Minnesota’s Devin Padelford pulled a goal back in the 85th, but Emiliano Rigoni finished off the Austin scoring five minutes into stoppage time.

“It’s disappointing,” United midfielder Wil Trapp said. “I thought we came out with a game plan, I thought was effective. I thought our defensive shape was good to start the game, we won a lot of balls in the midfield and transitioned well. There were moments where we had four or five, six chances we had that we were hoping to get something out of it, but we obviously didn’t. Then our defensive shape and individual moments really cost us.”

Colorado beat FC Dallas 2-1 at home after falling behind to an 18th minute Samuel Junqua goal. The Rapids’ Andreas Maxso equalized in the 31st and Brain Galvan converted a 62nd minute penalty.

“We didn’t start bad because we scored first,” Dallas coach Nico Estevez said. “After that we were worried about their attacks and did not bother to press them. That is something we adjusted at halftime and it helped us out. We were flat overall, we scored and you’d think we would have more energy but overall we were just flat. It’s something we have to address and improve.”

Real Salt Lake shutout Orlando City 4-0 at home, taking the lead from a Cristian Arango goal in the 23rd. Justen Glad doubled the lead in the 41st, Jefferson Savarino scored in the 78th, and Anderson Julio finished off the RSL goals in the 88th minute. Real Salt Lake goalkeeper Zac MacMath made four saves to keep the clean sheet.

The Galaxy beat Philadelphia 3-1 at home with Tyler Boyd opening the scoring in the 15th minute. Mikkel Uhre equalized for the Union in the 36th, but a first-half stoppage time own-goal returned the Galaxy’s lead. Ricard Puig scored LA’s third goal in the 76th minute.

LAFC came back to draw 1-1 with San Jose at home. Cristian Espinoza put San Jose up in the 30th and LAFC’s Denis Bouanga equalized from the penalty spot in the 37th. The Earthquakes played a man down from the 56th with Daniel seeing red.

Well I can share with you what I told the guys, you have to be able to win a game 1-0,” LAFC coach Steve Cherundolo said. “We are conceding some pretty soft goals at the moment, which need to stop. I think our defensive performance in the first half was poor, much like it was the other night. That needs to change. For us to win a game right now it’s going to take a 90-minute performance not just 45. That’s where our heads will be and where our thoughts will be the next couple days for St Louis when they’re here Wednesday night.”

Week 24 ended at BC Place, where Seattle beat Vancouver 3-2. Ranko Veselinovic scored for the Whitecaps in the 24th with Leo Chu equalizing for the Sounders in the 60th. Vancouver’s Ryan Gauld scored in the 72nd but Chu equalized again in the 76th. Playing a man up from an 89th minute Mathias Laborda red card, Seattle’s Yelmar Gomez scored a minute into stoppage time.