MLS: Houston Dyanmo beat Chivas USA 5-1 to stay in playoffs hunt

Houston • Giles Barnes and Boniek Garcia scored two goals apiece and Houston solidified its hold on the fourth place in the East with a 5-1 victory over Chivas USA.

Barnes recorded his second two-goal game of the season, and Garcia scored his first goals this year to give Houston (12-10-7) back-to-back wins for the first time since July 6 and 13. Will Bruin also scored for Houston.

Eric Avila scored for Chivas (6-16-8), which is winless in 13 straight road games (0-11-2).

The Dynamo recorded their season high in goals to solidify while moving two points behind third-place Montreal. Chivas USA was officially eliminated last weekend

Sporting K.C. 2, Toronto FC 1 • In Toronto, C.J. Sapong scored twice and Kansas City extended Toronto's winless streak to eight consecutive games.

Kansas City's win propelled it to a tie atop the Eastern Conference standings with the New York Red Bulls, who play FC Dallas on Sunday.

Crew 3, Fire 0 • In Columbus, Ohio, Dominic Oduro scored in the first half, Federico Higuain converted a penalty kick in the second half and Columbus cruised to victory over short-handed Chicago.

Oduro took a ball from Jairo Arrieta on the right side of the box in the 15th minute and fired into the far corner for his team-best 11th goal. The Fire went down a man in the 29th minute when Bakary Soumare was ejected for his challenge of Arrieta just outside the penalty area.

Revolution 2, United 1 • In Foxborough, Mass., Lee Nguyen got a second chance on a penalty kick and converted it in the 83rd minute to help the New England Revolution keep their MLS playoff hopes alive.

New England snapped a three-match winless streak when Nguyen converted his second penalty kick after being tripped in the penalty box by Lewis Neal. —

MLS standings

EASTERN CONFERENCE

W L T Pts GF GA

New York 14 9 6 48 46 36

Sporting K.C. 14 9 6 48 43 28

Montreal 13 9 6 45 46 42

New England 11 11 7 40 41 33

Houston 11 10 7 40 32 35

Chicago 11 12 6 39 36 43

Philadelphia 10 10 9 39 37 39

Columbus 11 14 5 38 36 39

Toronto FC 4 15 11 23 25 44

D.C. 3 20 6 15 19 48

WESTERN CONFERENCE

W L T Pts GF GA

Seattle 15 8 4 49 37 27

Real Salt Lake 14 9 6 48 52 37

Portland 11 5 13 46 45 31

Colorado 12 9 9 45 37 31

Los Angeles 13 10 5 44 45 35

Vancouver 11 10 8 41 42 38

FC Dallas 10 8 10 40 40 41

San Jose 10 11 8 38 29 40

Chivas USA 6 15 8 26 28 49

Friday's Games

Portland 1, Colorado 0

Saturday's Games

Vancouver 3, Montreal 0

Sporting Kansas City 2, Toronto FC 1

New England 2, D.C. United 1

Columbus 3, Chicago 0

Houston 5, Chivas USA 1

San Jose 2, Real Salt Lake 1

Seattle FC at Los Angeles, late

Sunday's game

FC Dallas at New York, 3 p.m.