Houston Dynamo pulled further away from Chicago Fire in the Eastern Conference thanks to a 2-0 victory on Sunday evening.
Omar Cummings needed just 15 minutes to break the deadlock as he found space inside the box to tap home from Ricardo Clark's dangerous cross.
Houston continued to cause problems for the visitors with their fluent attacking play, but were denied a second goal before the break when Giles Barnes struck the crossbar from the edge of the penalty area.
The hosts were on top once again early in the second half, and were finally rewarded when Oscar Garcia linked with Brad Davis before firing home.
Chicago responded to the setback impressively late on, but were unable to turn pressure into goals as the Dynamo collected all three points.
