Nikolic brace sends ‘Fire’ into East lead

Earthquakes edge Galaxy

BRIDGEVIEW, Illinois, July 2, (AP): Nemanja Nikolic scored two early goals, pushing his MLSleading total to 16, and the Chicago Fire beat the Vancouver Whitecaps 4-0 on Saturday to take the Eastern Conference lead.

The Fire has won four straight and are unbeaten in their last 10 as it surged past Toronto FC into the Conference lead.

Arturo Alvarez and Michael de Leeuw also scored for the Fire, which saw Bastian Schweinsteiger leave the game in the second half with what appeared to be a problem with his right hip.

Chicago has 37 points, two ahead of Toronto. Vancouver remained on 21 points.

Earthquakes 2, Galaxy 1 In Stanford, California, Shea Salinas came off the bench and scored a stoppage time winner to give San Jose a last-gasp victory over Los Angeles.

Salinas, substituted into the game just past the hour mark, put in a strike from the right side for his first goal of the year and a victory before 50,617 fans at Stanford Stadium. The Earthquakes (24 points) were playing their first game under Chris Leitch, the former player who made his MLS coaching debut after the team fired head coach Dom Kinnear and assistant coach John Spencer last Sunday. Leitch had been the team’s technical director.

Defenseman Jelle Van Damme scored his first goal in 46 career MLS starts with a hard volley off his left foot in the 11th minute for Los Angeles (23 points), capitalizing on Jose Villarreal’s cross off a free kick from the left side. Van Damme was given a red card after Salinas’ winning goal.

San Jose’s Chris Wondolowski equalized in the 75th minute when he out-paced the Galaxy defense to Earthquakes goalkeeper David

Sporting Kansas City forward Latif Blessing (9) and Portland Timbers forward Dairon Asprilla (27) race for the ball during the first half of an MLS soccer match in Kansas City, Kansas

on July 1. (AP)

Bingham’s long kick. It was Wondolowski’s seventh goal of the season.

FC Dallas 3, Toronto FC 1 In Frisco, Texas, Roland Lamah scored two goals to lead FC Dallas past Toronto FC, knocking the Canadian club from the atop the Eastern Conference.

Maximiliano Urruti added a goal and an assist for Dallas (28 points), as it continued its home dominance of Toronto, having never lost in nine meetings.

Toronto has 35 points and trail leaders Chicago by two points.

Sporting Kansas City 1, Timbers 1

In Kansas City, Missouri, Daniel Salloi scored his first career MLS goal in the second half and Sporting Kansas City shared the spoils with Portland and remained unbeaten at home.