Zardes scores sixth goal, Crew keeps the Union winless on road
COLUMBUS, OHIO » Gyasi Zardes scored his sixth goal of the season and the Columbus Crew kept the Philadelphia Union winless on the road with a 1-0 victory Wednesday night.
Columbus (5-3-3) extended its unbeaten streak to four matches. Philadelphia (2-5-2), which has lost four of its last five, hasn’t won on the road in 16 matches.
Zardes’ 40th career goal came in the 53rd minute on an easy tap-in. Cristian Martinez ran to a loose ball along the end line and his cross got past goalkeeper Andre Blake to find an open Zardes at the far post.
Harrison Afful had the best scoring chance for either team in the first half when the Columbus midfielder curled a shot off the far post in the 41st. Columbus goalkeeper Zack Steffen denied C.J. Sapong’s closerange shot in stoppage time.
Philadelphia’s six goals this season — none on the road — are the fewest in the league. SOUNDERS 2, TORONTO FC 1 » Handwalla Bwana scored early in the second half and Seattle beat Toronto FC in a rematch of the previous two second-half MLS Cup finals.
Seattle won the championship in a shootout in 2016, and Toronto won 2-0 in December.
Will Bruin also scored for Seattle (2-4-2), and Stefan Frei made five saves. Jonathan Osorio scored for Toronto (2-5-1).
Tosaint Ricketts had a chance to tie it in stoppage time off Jordan Hamilton’s header, but Frei was able to re-direct the shot wide.
Bwana scored his first career MLS goal, taking a through ball from Bruin and beating Bono between the legs in the 54th minute.
Seattle opened the scoring in the 25th minute when Bruin picked up a through ball from Magnus Wolff Eikrem, outran Gregory van der Wiel and beat Bono for his third of the season. Osorio tied it for Toronto in the 40th minute on a header off Sebastian Giovinco’s feed. SPORTING KANSAS CITY 2, ATLANTA UNITED 0 » Daniel Salloi and Gerso Fernandes scored second-half goals and Tim Melia came up with several huge saves, helping Sporting Kansas City snap Atlanta’s eightgame unbeaten streak in a showdown between the two conference leaders.
United played the last 56 minutes a man down after goalkeeper Brad Guzan was given a red card for taking out Kansas City’s Khiry Sjelton just outside the penalty area as be broke in alone. Rookie Paul Christensen, an emergency signee filling in for injured backup Alec Kann, made a big save shortly after entering but couldn’t hold off a Sporting team with an extra player.
In the 67th minute, Salloi beat a diving Christensen just inside the right post. In the closing minutes, Fernandes took a long pass and went in all alone on Christensen. FIRE 1, IMPACT 0 » Chicago defender Kevin Ellis scored in the 89th minute and the Fire beat Montreal.
Chicago (3-4-2) has won three of the last five games in the series despite outscoring the Impact by just two goals, 7-5. Montreal (37-0) has lost five of its last six games.
Chicago goalkeeper Richard Sanchez had his second clean sheet of the season.