Earthquakes beaten; road skid reaches 5
Alberth Elis and Vicente Sanchez each had a goal and an assist, and the host Houston Dynamo beat the San Jose Earthquakes 3-0 on Saturday night.
Houston (10-7-7) joined Seattle and Sporting Kansas City at the top of the Western Conference standings by improving to 9-0-3 at home.
San Jose (9-10-5) has lost five straight on the road and remains one point up on Vancouver for the final playoff spot.
Elis got his head on a corner kick by Boniek Garcia to open the scoring with his seventh goal in the 21st minute. It was the Dynamos’ league-leading 17th goal off a set piece.
Elis helped ice the game in the 86th minute with a nifty touch to get around a defender before Sanchez beat his defender and the goalkeeper to the centering pass for his first goal.
Sanchez gathered a loose ball just before it crossed the end line and centered it to Mauro Manotas for his eighth goal in stoppage time.
Tyler Deric had three saves for his fourth shutout.
In other MLS games, Clint Dempsey scored on a header in the 36th minute, and the host Seattle Sounders stretched their unbeaten streak to eight games with a 1-0 victory against Sporting Kansas City . ... Justin Meram scored in the 73rd minute to help the host Columbus Crew beat the Chicago Fire 3-1 to snap a three-game losing streak . ... Sean Davis assisted on the goahead goal and added an insurance goal in the 80th minute to lift the New York Red Bulls to a 3-1 win over visiting Orlando City . ... Teal Bunbury scored his fourth goal in five matches, helping the host New England Revolution beat the Vancouver Whitecaps 1-0 . ... Blerim Dzemaili scored two second-half goals, and the visiting Montreal Impact beat the Philadelphia Union 3-0 . ... Justin Morrow scored twice in the second half, helping host Toronto FC beat the Portland Timbers 4-1 . ... Tim Howard had six saves for the Colorado Rapids and host FC Dallas had a goal taken away by video review as the teams played to a 0-0 draw. The match was delayed nearly 90 minutes due to lightning.
In an NASL game, the San Francisco Deltas and Puerto Rico FC drew 0-0 in Bayamon, Puerto Rico. The Deltas entered the match 2-0 against PRFC — the current league bottom-dweller. The Deltas remain unbeaten in the NASL fall season and retain hold on second place in the combined standings.
In the Premier League, Chelsea had two players sent off and lost to Burnley 3-2 to open its title defense . ... Wayne Rooney marked his first game back at boyhood club Everton by scoring in a 1-0 win over Stoke . ... Liverpool allowed a goal in second-half injury time and settled for a 3-3 draw at Watford.