DC United hammer Sporting Kansas City in Eastern Conference clash

Aug 24, 2014 at 1.30am UK

FT(HT: 0-3)

Espindola (24'), Rolfe (28'), Kitchen (31')

Goals from Fabian Espindola, Chris Rolfe and Perry Kitchen guide DC United to a comfortable 3-0 win over their MLS Eastern Conference rivals Sporting Kansas City.

Published: August 24 2014 | 04:03

Last updated: August 24 2014 | 12:42

DC United maintained their lead at the top of the MLS Eastern Conference with a convincing 3-0 win over second place Sporting Kansas City on Sunday.

The home side had a good chance early on as Benny Feilhaber raided forward and fired a low shot at goal which Bill Hamid was forced to tip wide of the post.

United took the lead in the 24th minute when Fabian Espindola cut in from the left flank and powered a shot through a crowd of players and into the bottom corner of the net.

DC doubled their advantage minutes later as Chris Rolfe timed his run beyond the Sporting defence to perfection to latch onto Luis Silva's through ball, and he made no mistake slotting the ball past Jon Kempin.

The visitors made it three goals in seven minutes when Perry Kitchen broke behind the Kansas City backline and managed to hold his composure to fire a powerful effort through Kempin which put his side in command of the game.

In the second half, Nick DeLeon came very close to making it four for United when he and Rolfe combined on the edge of the box, but his curled effort hit the post and bounced clear.

Graham Zusi almost got one back for the home side as he lined up a powerful drive from the edge of the box, but his shot cannoned off the crossbar and went over.

Sporting went close again as Igor Juliao ran down the right and delivered a pinpoint cross for Dominic Dwyer to head at goal, but Hamid produced a good save to deny the striker, allowing DC to hold out for the comfortable victory.

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Eastern Conference

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	PTS
1	Inter Miami Inter Miami	34	22	8	4	79	49	30	74
2	Columbus Crew	34	19	9	6	72	40	32	66
3	FC Cincinnati Cincinnati	34	18	5	11	58	48	10	59
4	Orlando City	34	15	7	12	59	50	9	52
5	Charlotte FC Charlotte FC	34	14	9	11	46	37	9	51
6	New York City FC NY City	34	14	8	12	54	49	5	50
7	New York Red Bulls NY Red Bulls	34	11	14	9	55	50	5	47
8	CF Montreal Montreal	34	11	10	13	48	64	-16	43
9	Atlanta United Atlanta	34	10	10	14	46	49	-3	40
10	DC United	34	10	10	14	52	70	-18	40
11	Philadelphia Union Philadelphia	34	9	10	15	62	55	7	37
12	Toronto	34	11	4	19	40	61	-21	37
13	Nashville SC Nashville	34	9	9	16	38	54	-16	36
14	New England Revolution New England	34	9	4	21	37	74	-37	31
15	Chicago Fire	34	7	9	18	40	62	-22	30

Western Conference

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	PTS
1	Los Angeles FC Los Angeles	34	19	7	8	63	43	20	64
2	Los Angeles Galaxy LA Galaxy	34	19	7	8	69	50	19	64
3	Real Salt Lake Salt Lake	34	16	11	7	65	48	17	59
4	Seattle Sounders Seattle	34	16	9	9	51	35	16	57
5	Houston Dynamo Houston	34	15	9	10	47	39	8	54
6	Minnesota United Minnesota Utd	34	15	7	12	58	49	9	52
7	Colorado Rapids Colorado	34	15	5	14	61	60	1	50
8	Portland Timbers Portland	34	12	11	11	65	56	9	47
9	Vancouver Whitecaps Vancouver	34	13	8	13	52	49	3	47
10	Austin FC Austin	34	11	9	14	39	48	-9	42
11	Dallas	34	11	8	15	54	56	-2	41
12	St Louis City	34	8	13	13	50	63	-13	37
13	Sporting Kansas City Kansas	34	8	7	19	51	66	-15	31
14	San Jose Earthquakes Earthquakes	34	6	3	25	41	78	-37	21