Credit: Atlanta United
A dozen games on the midweek schedule for MLS started with Montreal beating DC United 4-2 at home. Ariel Lassiter put Montreal up in the 6th with DC’s Christian Benteke equalizing in the 29th. Montreal’s Sunusi Ibrahim returned their lead in the 34th and Mathieu Choiniere scored in the 38th. Benteke scored again for DC in the 42nd. United played a man down from a red card to Matti Peltola five minutes into stoppage time. Ibrahim scored again for Montreal in the 73rd minute.
“I thought the guys tried to connect that extra pass tonight to try and maximize opportunities,” Montreal coach Laurent Courtois said. “There was this desire to create overlaps. So that was good. We knew D.C. was going to try to push us around a bit. They attempted a diagonal pass to Benteke three or four times. We also knew that it wasn’t up to us to force the decision, but to catch them at their own game. All in all, we managed well.”
Nashville won 2-0 at FC Cincinnati, going ahead from a Jack Maher goal in the 25th. Jacob Shaffelburg doubled the lead for Columbus in the 29th minute.
“It’s too early to be concerned about a loss after winning seven, so every time you lose, it’s disappointing, at least for our group,” FC Cincinnati coach Pat Noonan said. “And if you look back at the end and say, ‘Why didn’t we finish in a certain position?’ there’s a lot of games that you can look at and have that take. But we lost the game today. It’s never good when you lose at home where you have great support and great energy, and you want to reward that, but tonight, it wasn’t enough.”
Atlanta won 3-1 at Inter Miami, with Saba Lobjanidze scoring in the 44th and doubling the lead in the 59th. Lionel Messi pulled a goal back for Inter Miami the 62nd. Atlanta’s Jamal Thiare scored in the 73rd minute.
“I think it was a massive, massive performance,” Atlanta coach Gonzalo Pineda said. “But we’ve been playing good, not at that same caliber, but something close to this. We didn’t get many results and today we did very well in terms of being clean and finding those key moments. I think the players deserve every part of those three points.”
Philadelphia drew 0-0 at home with Toronto FC. The Union put one shot on goal to three for Toronto.
Portland won 2-0 at Austin, taking the lead from an Evander goal three minutes into first-half stoppage time. Jonathan Rodriguez converted a Timbers penalty in the 66th minute.
Chicago drew 1-1 at home with Orlando City after falling behind to a 4th minute Facundo Torres goal. Hugo Cuypers equalized for the Fire in the 70th minute. “It was a game that we should have won,” Orlando City coach Oscar Pareja said. “I thought we had our opportunities, I thought we had the actions to define the game. The effort of the players was there constantly, and Chicago had a few instances just to get out of those moments. But we felt that we fell short, we should have won it, and it is disappointing still.”
Houston beat Colorado 3-1 at home, going ahead from a 40th minute Amine Bassi goal. Dynamo goalkeeper Andrew Tarbell saved a Colorado penalty in the 49th. Djordje Mihailovic equalized for the Rapids from a set piece in the 49th. Latif Blessing returned the Dynamo lead in the 70th and Sebastian Kowalczyk scored in the 80th minute.
“We needed to win this game as a team,” Blessing said. “We have not won in a few matches, and we wanted to get the three points to send the fans home happy. I’m glad we could do that.”
Vancouver won 2-1 at Sporting Kansas City with Ryan Gauld scoring in the 39th and 82nd minute. Marinos Tzionis scored for Sporting two minutes into stoppage time.
After a halftime weather delay, the Red Bulls beat Charlotte 3-1 at home. Emil Forsberg scored for New York in the 74th and 76th with Andres Reyes adding a goal in the 83rd. Charlotte’s Benjamin Bender scored six minutes into stoppage time.
The LA Galaxy beat FC Dallas 3-1 at home, taking the lead from a 4th minute Dejan Joveljic goal. Patrickson Delgado equalized for Dallas in the 22nd. Joveljic converted a Galaxy penalty in the 66th. Dallas played a man down from the 82nd when Nkosi Tafari saw red. Ricard Puig scored for the Galaxy four minutes into stoppage time.
Seattle drew 1-1 at home with Real Salt Lake, taking the lead from a 68th minute Albert Rusnak goal. RSL’s Andres Gomez equalized nine minutes into stoppage time.
Week 16 ended with LAFC shutting out Minnesota 2-0 at home. Denis Bouanga converted a 38th minute penalty and Mateusz Bogusz scored in the 82nd. “I think that losing in San Jose was a good wake up call for us,” Bouanga said. “We are LAFC but every club when they play against us wants to win and they are starting to be really, really good teams with good players. So it was a really big wake up call so now we came back with a simple base and the forwards scoring, the defenders defending, and that’s why we have 6 wins. I’m really happy and I think everyone is happy with the results.”
Photo by Atlanta United
Quotes courtesy of MLS team press releases.
