Philadelphia Union edge out Sporting Kansas City

Oct 19, 2014 at 12am UK

FT(HT: 1-0)

Dwyer (54' pen.)

Goals from Brian Brown and Pedro Riberio guide the Philadelphia Union to a 2-1 victory over Sporting Kansas City in their MLS clash at PPL Park.

Published: October 19 2014 | 02:56

Last updated: October 19 2014 | 17:49

Sporting Kansas City missed the chance to close the gap on the New England Revolution in second place in the MLS Eastern Conference after losing 2-1 at the Philadelphia Union.

The visitors threatened early in the game when Paulo Nagamura laid the ball into the path of Dominic Dwyer inside the box, but the striker pulled his shot wide of the post.

Philadelphia came close to opening the scoring when Andrew Wenger raided down the left and fired a shot towards the near post which went just wide, with Eric Kronberg beaten.

Kansas City hit right back with a decent opportunity as Benny Feilhaber lifted the ball into the path of Dwyer. Union keeper Zac MacMath came for the ball and missed it, but Dwyer could not take advantage as he fired wide from a tight angle.

Cristian Maidana should have put his side ahead when Wenger put him through on goal, but the forward's low shot was well saved by Kronberg, who came out to narrow the angle.

The Union took the lead on the stroke of half time through a counter-attack which culminated in Maidana finding Brian Brown in the middle, and he dispatched his shot past Krongberg into the bottom corner.

In the second half, Sporting were handed the chance to get back into the game when Soony Saad was brought down in the area by MacMath and a penalty was awarded.

Dwyer took the spot kick and placed his shot into the bottom corner, sending the keeper the wrong way.

However, Philadelphia retook the lead in the 71st minute when Maidana collected the ball down the right and picked out substitute Pedro Ribeiro, who poked the ball past Kronberg from the centre of the area.

Sporting should have earned a share of the spoils in the dying minutes when Jacob Peterson broke free down the right and found Nagamura with a neat cutback, but the midfielder somehow missed the target from six yards as his side fell to defeat.

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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