Impact sneak by Crew

MONTREAL, Quebec  ●   Patrice Bernier scored on a penalty kick in the 89th minute and the Montreal Impact ended a three-game losing streak with a 2-1 victory over the Columbus Crew on Sunday.

Bernier hesitated before putting his shot past Columbus goalkeeper Andy Gruenebaum.

“That’s what I usually do all the time,” said Bernier, who scored his fifth goal. “It works, so I’m not going to stop.”

Zarek Valentin got Montreal (6-11-3) even with the tying goal in the 78th minute. Valentin scored on a shot from the right side to tie it.

“We’re very happy because we finally won,” said Impact striker Marco Di Vaio, who got his first win since making his Major League Soccer debut in a 3-0 loss to Toronto on June 27.

Milan Mirosevic broke the scoreless draw 64 minutes in for Columbus (6-6-4). The Crew striker cut across to head in Nemanja Vukovich’s left-footed corner kick off Montreal goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts’ hand and into the right side of the net.

Di Vaio began Valentin’s scoring play, setting up Sanna Nyassi who fed a pass to his right to Valentin. His shot beat Columbus goalkeeper Andy Gruenebaum into the right side of the net.

“That’s frustrating,” Crew defender Josh Williams said. “We got the goal, we started to settle down a little bit and knock the ball but we got a little impatient. They’re a good team at home so a few mistakes here and there and it cost us at the end.”

Gruenebaum made a diving save on Jeb Brovsky’s long kick in the 76th minute.

“Oh man, from my view I thought it was going in,” Brovsky said. “He’s a very good `keeper and give him credit, that was a great save.”

It was the teams’ second meeting. Gruenebaum recorded a shutout and Mirosevic and Olman Vargas scored in the Crew’s 2-0 home win over Montreal on March 24.

The Impact played most of that game one man short after Brovsky was shown a red card and sent off 19 minutes in for elbowing Mirosevic in the back of the head.

Lamar Neagle headed the ball just wide of the left post off Di Vaio’s deft set up early in the second half. The veteran Italian striker created the scoring opportunity 49 minutes in when he floated a pass to Neagle over defender Josh Williams.

Di Vaio created another chance moments later when he sent in Sanna Nyassi, whose shot was blocked by Gruenebaum.

“Yeah, he’s a good player,” Williams said. “He’s not too fast but he’s crafty and he plays good angles. He’s a pretty physical guy. You gain a lot of experience playing against a guy with that much national team experience. He’s scored a lot of big goals for Italy and everything. He’s a creative player it’s always good to match up and defend against guys like that.”

Crew captain Chad Marshall returned after missing eight games because of a concussion. Columbus won four and lost three without Marshall, who had not played since he was hit on the head by a ball in practice on May 4.

The Impact were without captain Davy Arnaud and midfielder Felipe Martins. Both players served one-game suspensions after each received his fifth yellow card of the season in Wednesday night’s 3-1 loss to Sporting Kansas City.

Nyassi will be suspended for Montreal’s next game, Saturday in Philadelphia. Nyassi was shown his fifth yellow card of the season for a hard tackle late in the first half.

Columbus midfielder Tony Tchani was shown a yellow card by referee Matthew Foerster in the 39th minute for kicking the ball into the stands.

 Philadelphia Union 3, Toronto FC 0

Freddy Adu, Gabriel Gomez and Antoine Hoppenot scored and the Philadelphia Union beat Toronto FC 3-0 on Sunday.

The Union dominated the play from start to finish, putting pressure on Toronto’s defense while winning consecutive MLS games for the first time since mid-April.

Gomez beat goalkeeper Milos Kocic to the far right corner of the net in the 34th minute, on an assist from Jack McInerney. Philadelphia (5-9-2) struck again two minutes later when Adu went flying down the left side and took a shot that also caught the far right of the net.

Hoppenot scored in the 78th minute, and Union defender Sheanon Williams preserved the shutout with a goal-line header in the 82nd minute.

Toronto FC (2-11-4) picked up one of its two MLS victories this season against Philadelphia, a 1-0 decision on May 26.

Chicago Fire 0, LA Galaxy 2

Robbie Keane scored two goals on his 32nd birthday and Los Angeles beat Chicago.

Keane’s second multigoal game of the season helped the Galaxy (7-10-2) snap a two-match losing streak, and extended the Fire’s (8-6-4) winless streak to two games (0-1-1).

Keane scored on a penalty kick in the 24th minute after Chicago defender Jalil Anibaba blocked a pass with his right hand at the edge of the penalty area.

He beat goalkeeper Sean Johnson again in the 78th minute, making the most of midfielder Landon Donovan’s pinpoint pass. Donovan’s feed allowed Keane to break open on the left side.

New England Revolution  2, New York Red Bulls 0

Lee Nguyen scored his third goal of the season and Jerry Bengtson tallied in the 84th minute and New England beat New York.

Nguyen finished off a pass from the left side from Chris Tierney, sending in a 25-yard drive to the lower left corner of the New York net and past Red Bulls goalie Ryan Meara in the 24th minute.

Then Bengston, a Honduran recently added to the roster, scored in the 84th minute, finishing off a rebound of Saer Sene’s shot.

The victory extended New England’s unbeaten run to five matches (2-0-3), while improving the Revolution’s record to 6-7-4. New York fell to 9-5-4.