Football
Associated Press 8y

Red Bulls win MLS Supporters' Shield; Sporting Kansas City nabs playoff spot

Sacha Kljestan scored a goal and provided an assist to help the New York Red Bulls win the Supporters' Shield as Major League Soccer's regular-season champion with a 2-1 victory over the Chicago Fire on Sunday night.

The top-seeded Red Bulls, who have a first-round bye in the Eastern Conference playoffs, won their second Supporters' Shield in three seasons. They also snapped a 14-game winless streak at Toyota Park.

The Fire finished with consecutive losses and at the bottom of the Eastern Conference.

The Red Bulls struck quickly in the eighth minute. Kljestan lofted his corner kick to Sal Zizzo, who headed the ball to Bradley Wright-Phillips. Wright-Phillips was left unmarked and he easily tapped the ball in the back of the net for his 17th goal of the season.

Kljestan scored a penalty in the 35th minute.

For the Fire, Gilberto scored in the 78th minute. Patrick Nyarko and Patrick Doody assisted on the goal.

For a full list of the MLS Cup Playoffs schedule, click here.

Meanwhile at Sporting Park, Dominic Dwyer scored the go-ahead goal in the 65th minute as Sporting Kansas City secured a playoff berth with a 2-1 victory over the LA Galaxy.

Sixth-seeded Sporting Kansas City will face third-seeded Portland on Thursday night, while the Galaxy took the fifth seed and will play fourth-seeded Seattle on Wednesday night. Both are knockout-round matches.

Benny Feilhaber raced down the center of the field, and then passed the ball through three defenders to Dwyer. Dwyer shot just outside the six-yard box and beat diving goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts for his 12th goal of the season.

Sporting KC opened the scoring in the 38th minute. The ball was headed twice before Chance Myers fired a shot on goal. Ricketts blocked the shot with his left foot, but deflected the ball back to Kevin Ellis, who shot went just under the crossbar and into the back of the net.

For the Galaxy, Robbie Keane made it 1-1 when he scored in the first minute of first-half stoppage time.

Charlie Davies scored a goal and an assist as the New England Revolution clinched a playoff spot with a 3-1 victory over New York City FC.

Fifth-seeded New England snapped a four-game winless streak, and will travel to face fourth-seeded D.C. United in the knockout round on Wednesday. New York City ends its inaugural season with a three-game losing streak.

The Revs struck quickly with a goal in the second minute. Davies, with his back to the goal and a defender, passed the ball to Lee Nguyen just outside the six-yard box. Nguyen beat one defender, and then buried his shot in the back of the net. In the 38th minute, Davies beat defender Shay Facey to the ball and scored his 10th goal of the season.

The Revs' Kelyn Rowe scored a header goal off a corner kick by Chris Tierney in the 55th minute.

For NYCFC, David Villa scored a penalty in the first minute of second-half stoppage time.

Jack McInerney scored in the 25th minute and Ethan Finlay added a pair of second-half goals a minute apart as the Columbus Crew wrapped up second place in the MLS Eastern Conference with a 5-0 victory over D.C. United.

The Crew secured a first-round playoff bye and a spot in the East semifinals.

It was the most lopsided victory for Columbus since a 6-1 win over Tampa Bay during the 2001 season.

United could have claimed a first-round bye by beating a Columbus side playing without two players. Kei Kamara, the MLS leader in goals scored, and Federico Higuain both were suspended for the finale due to an accumulation of yellow cards.

Columbus led 1-0 at half-time and broke it open in the second half. Justin Meram scored in the 54th minute to make it 2-0, and Aaron Schoenfeld tallied in the 80th.

Didier Drogba scored twice inside a minute early in the second half as the Montreal Impact beat Toronto FC 2-1 on Sunday night in their regular-season finale to secure a home playoff date.

The Impact moved into third place and Toronto fell to sixth in the Eastern Conference, so Montreal will be at home when the teams meet again in a playoff game on Thursday.

Drogba tied it in the 54th minute and gave Montreal the lead in the 55th. The 37-year-old Drogba has 11 goals in 11 games since joining the team.

Jozy Altidore scored for Toronto in the 45th.

Sebastien Le Toux converted a penalty kick in the 41st minute and Andre Blake earned the shutout in the Philadelphia Union's 1-0 victory that knocked Orlando City out of MLS Cup playoff contention.

Orlando City had faint playoff hopes going into the season finale, needing a victory and a New England Revolution loss while making up an eight-goal differential. New England beat NYC FC 3-1.

With Le Toux improving to 13 for 13 on penalty kicks, the Union snapped a two-game losing streak, but missed the playoffs for the fourth straight season.

Cristian Higuita collected a pair of second-half yellow cards and was ejected in the 86th minute.

The teams were booked for 10 cards in the game, seven by Orlando City.

Blake, the first pick in the 2014 SuperDraft, needed five saves to collect the shutout.

Victor Ulloa slipped a shot underneath diving San Jose goalkeeper David Bingham in the 79th minute to give FC Dallas a 2-1 victory that eliminated the Earthquakes from the MLS Cup playoffs.

FC Dallas came into the match tied with the New York Red Bulls for the Supporter's Shield, which goes to the Major League Soccer team with the best record, but the Red Bulls, who had a better goal differential, claimed the title on the strength of their 2-1 win over the Chicago Fire.

Dallas boasted a 13-2-2 record at Toyota Stadium, but needed a second-half comeback to claim the final home victory.

Quincy Amarikwa scored in the 13th minute to give San Jose a 1-0 lead. Mauro Diaz scored the equalizer in the 38th minute.

San Jose played a man down after Matias Perez Garcia was sent off for violent conduct in the 67th minute.


Darlington Nagbe scored his fourth and fifth goals of the season to lead the Portland Timbers a 4-1 victory over the Colorado Rapids.

The win, combined with other results around the league on the final day of the regular season, means Portland finished in third place in the Western Conference with 53 points. The Timbers will host Sporting Kansas City in the first round of playoffs. Colorado finished the season in last place in the Western Conference with 37 points.

Portland opened the scoring in the fifth minute. After getting fouled 25 yards from goal, Nagbe dusted himself off and proceeded to bend a blistering free-kick over the wall and past Colorado goalkeeper Zac MacMath for his fourth goal of the season.

Colorado tied it eight minutes later, when Dominique Badji's shot deflected off of defender Liam Ridgewell, wrong-footing goalkeeper Adam Kwarasey and looping into the net. It was the second goal of the season for Badji.

The Timbers regained the lead in the 33rd minute. Lucas Melano's cross from the right found Nagbe near the penalty spot, where the Portland forward ducked down to head a looping ball over MacMath and into the upper left corner of the goal.

Portland added to the lead in the 63rd minute, thanks again, in part, to Nagbe. Some close, precise passes around the Colorado penalty area led to Nagbe finding Jorge Villafana on the left side of the box. The left fullback's rocket of a shot ricocheted off of Colorado defender Sean St. Ledger and into the net for Villafana's first goal of the season.

Fanendo Adi capped the scoring in the 88th minute, using his chest to knock in a blistering Dairon Asprilla cross from the right wing. It was Adi's team-leading 14th goal of the season.


Clint Dempsey scored two goals and assisted on another, all in the first 20 minutes of the game, as the Seattle Sounders beat Real Salt Lake 3-1 to wrap up an MLS playoff berth Sunday.

The Sounders ended the regular season on an eight-game unbeaten streak. They have made the playoffs in all seven years of their existence.

With Sunday's other results, the Sounders are the No. 4 seed in the Western Conference. They will play host to No. 5 seed and defending MLS Cup champion Los Angeles in a knockout game on Wednesday or Thursday.

Dempsey put the Sounders on the board in the fifth minute when he met a cross from Obafemi Martins at the top right corner of the 6-yard box and sent it into the net while falling to the turf. It was his ninth goal of the year.

Marco Pappa scored in the 10th minute off of a cross from Dempsey. In the 20th Dempsey made it 3-0 when he buried the rebound of a hard shot by Martins.

Luis Gill scored in the 77th minute for Salt Lake, which missed the playoffs after seven straight appearances.


Kekuta Manneh and Kendall Waston scored in the second half as the Vancouver Whitecaps beat the Houston Dynamo 3-0 to finish second in the Western Conference.

Vancouver earned a first-round bye in the playoffs with the second-place finish.

Manneh took a pass from Gershon Koffie at the top of the penalty area and fired a low strike from 25 yards that went inside the post past goalkeeper Joe Willis in the 59th minute. Waston headed in a corner kick in the 72nd minute, and Robert Earnshaw added another in stoppage time on header of his own.

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