Montreal Impact 5 Houston Dynamo 0
The hosts added to their earlier 2-0 victory over Houston when the two sides last met here in June with an even more convincing success as they gained back-to-back wins to vault themselves to the head of the Eastern Conference after today’s games. Marco Di Vaio who score a brace last week against DC United hit another double to take him to fifteen for the campaign and to the summit of the goal-scoring list. He first struck 10 minutes from the break and 2 minutes later Felipe Martins Campanholi double the Canadian’s sides advantage. Jeb Brovsky increased their lead further after 58 minutes and 20 minutes from time Di Vaio netted his second. Andrea Pisanu complete the Dynamo’s misery when he put the icing on the cake 1 minute into stoppage time. The defeat for the visitors still has them in the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, but that could change if results the following day go against them.
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DC United 1 Toronto FC 1
Both side ended their two game losing runs as the Eastern Conference basement battle ended in a draw. Dwayne De Rosario gave the home side the lead after 10 minutes, before Bobby Convey got the visitors level on the hour. With Toronto winning the last meeting in DC between these two outfits back in June the hosts travel to Canada at the end of September knowing they need a win to tie the season series up.
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FC Dallas 2 San Jose Earthquakes 2
Dallas fought back from two goals down to gain a point in a fiery contest that at least for twenty-four hours takes them into the final playoff spot in the Western Conference. Things started brightly for San Jose, who after last weeks win over Kansas City were looking for a victory to propel themselves into a playoff position, when Alan Gordon netted after just 8 minutes. Steven Beitashour then made the visitors garden even rosier when he double their advantage 8 minutes later. Blas Perez, who also scored in midweek as they earned their first win in eleven matches halved the deficit 3 minutes later before Michel converted a penalty after 72 minutes to earn them a share of the spoils. That was the end of the scoring but not the end of the talking points as the final 9 minutes saw three red cards. First to go was Earthquakes substitute Justin Morrow who was dismissed for taking out Dallas sub Ramon Nunez on a breakaway and 5 minutes later Victor Bernardez’s night got even worse, as it was him who was harshly adjudged to have impeded Perez for the home teams penalty was sent from the field along with Dallas substitute Kenny Cooper who had only being on a matter of minutes for an allocation which stared with what Cooper thought was a stamp by Bernardez which he reacted angrily to by throwing the Earthquake’s center-back to the ground.
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Vancouver Whitecaps 0 LA Galaxy 1
A Landon Donovan goal after only 3 minutes was enough for the visitors to earn their second win on the spin and extend their unbeaten run to three games as they moved up to second in the Western Conference. The success also bucked the trend that has seen the home side take the three points in each of the other two encounter between these two squads earlier in the campaign back in May and July. This loss for the hosts, which was their second in a row also saw them fall out of the final playoff position out West.
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Real Salt Lake 4 Columbus Crew 0
RSL gained their first win in three games to stretch their advantage at the head of the Western Conference to five points with this convincing success. Captain Kyle Beckerman back from serving a one game suspension netted twice, the first 1 minutes into first half stoppage time and the second 1 minute from the end of the 90 minutes, which was the teams 48th goal of the season which breaks their single season record which they set last year. In between Devon Sandoval found the onion bag 6 minutes into the second stanza and Luis Gil grabbed the other 7 minutes from time. It was all to much to bear for Federico Higuain who had netted four times in his last two outings, as 1 minute into second half stoppage time he picked up his second yellow card to gain first use of the showers, but more importantly earn himself a one game ban. The loss for the Crew ended their two game winning run and still leaves them seven points out of the final playoff place in the Eastern Conference with games running out fast.