MLS Week 25: New England wins at home, LAFC scores three late goals

Thursday’s soccer news starts with the MLS roundup and New England beating Atlanta 2-1 at home. Matt Polster put the Revs up in the 4th and Giacomo Vrioni doubled the lead in the 9th. United’s Machop Choi scored three minutes into stoppage time.

“Our mission tonight was to get three points,” New England coach Bruce Arena said. “We got it. We were hanging in there. We’re a little thin right now with injuries and other things, and we need to get through this game on Saturday to get reorganized. I think we’ve had a good year to date. I think we’ve had some unfortunate calls go against us this year and that’s hurt us in terms of points and where we could be on the table. It’s all a part of it in the MLS so hopefully we can recover.

FC Cincinnati won 2-1 at the New York Red Bulls after falling behind to a 28th minute Omir Fernandez penalty. Cincinnati’s Luciano Acosta equalized from the penalty spot in the 80th and Obinna Nwobodo scored three minutes into stoppage time.

Minnesota shutout Houston 3-0 on the road, taking the lead from a 15th minute Bongokuhle Hlongwane goal. Teemu Pukki doubled the lead in the 10th and Ismael Tajouri-Shradi finished off the scoring in the 87th minute. United goalkeeper Dayne St Clair made six saves to keep the clean sheet.

“We wanted to stay compact, so that meant us dropping back,” St Clair said. “But it was important for us to go out and get pressure on the ball and guys did a good job of blocking shots and dealing with crosses and when I had to make the saves I made them as well. It was more-so just about staying compact and staying in good shape and being hard for them to break down.”

Philadelphia won 2-0 at Nashville with Daniel Gazdag converting a 40th minute penalty. Nashville’s Daniel Lovitz saw red in the 81st. Gazdag converted an 84th minute penalty to double the Union lead. Nashville’s Shaq Moore and Philadelphia’s Julian Carranza saw red five minutes into stoppage time. Union goalkeeper Joe Bendik recorded the shutout with Nashville finishing with three shots on goal.

Sporting Kansas City and Real Salt Lake drew 2-2. Sporting KC took a 2-0 lead at home from a 30th minute Daniel Salloi goal and Johnny Russell scoring in the 36th. Real Salt Lake’s Daniel Musovski scored in the 46th and Anderson Julio equalized in the 72nd minute.

We’ve been in control of quite a few games now and we’ve given up goals and given up points,” Sporting Kansas City coach Peter Vermes said. “In the last two games, in my opinion, we gave up four points. We shouldn’t be giving those up. We shouldn’t haven given up a lot of different points at a lot of different stages. We have four things and one of them is winning mentality. You have to grind the game out at the end, and we didn’t do that.”

Colorado and Portland drew 0-0, playing a resumed game that started in the 46th minute at Colorado. The Rapids finished with one shot on goal to the Timbers’ two.

Chicago shutout Montreal 3-0 at Soldier Field. Brian Gutierrez put Chicago up in the 9th, Maren Haile-Selassie doubled the lead in the 11th, and Xherdan Shaqiri finished off the Fire goals in the 33rd. Montreal failed to convert a 36th minute penalty. Chicago goalkeeper Chris Brady made four saves to keep the clean sheet.

LAFC beat St Louis 3-0 at home, taking the lead from a 72nd minute Carlos Vela goal. Stupe Biuk made it 2-0 LA in the 82nd and Jose Cifuentes scored two minutes into stoppage time. LAFC goalkeeper John McCarthy kept the clean sheet with St Louis finishing with two shots on goal.

San Jose shutout Seattle 2-0 at home with Cristian Espinoza converting a 19th minute penalty. Miguel Trauco doubled the lead in the 65th and Earthquakes’ goalkeeper JT Marcinkowski made two saves to keep the clean sheet.

Week 25 ended in Vancouver where the Whitecaps beat Austin 2-1 at home. Vancouver took the lead from a 1st minute Pedro Vite goal and Austin equalized through Rodney Redes in the 47th. Sergio Cordova scored the Whitecaps’ winner in the 72nd minute.

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