Scott Sealy scored two goals to lead the Kansas City Wizards into the Major League Soccer playoffs with a 2-0 victory over FC Dallas on Saturday.
Kansas City clinched a playoff spot with the win. Its first-round opponent won't be determined until the league's final regular-season game Sunday. The Chicago Fire, who have a chance to reach the playoffs, host the Los Angeles Galaxy.
FC Dallas already had clinched a wild card berth in the Western Conference Semifinals.
In other matches Saturday, Columbus Crew edged D.C. United 3-2, the New England Revolution drew 2-2 with Toronto FC, Real Salt Lake downed the Colorado Rapids 1-0 and Chivas USA played out a scoreless draw with the Houston Dynamo.
Sealy broke a scoreless tie in the 39th minute. After a Dallas turnover, native Texan Davy Arnaud passed across to Sealy on the left side., who fired a shot into the net to the left of goalkeeper Ray Burse.
The Wizards went ahead 2-0 in the second half during the 55th minute. Jack Jewsbury kicked the ball in front of the goalie box, and Sealy drilled in a low shot for his seventh goal this season.
Robbie Rogers scored two goals and Columbus finished a disappointing season on a high note, defeating D.C. United at Washington D.C.
The Crew, already eliminated from the playoffs, snapped United's 13-game unbeaten streak, handing United their first loss since July 22.
Rogers scored in the 21st minute, when he sneaked a left-foot shot past goalie Troy Perkins. He added a goal in the 91st minute to give the Crew a 3-1 lead.
D.C. midfielder Christian Gomez had two goals, scoring in the 89th and 92nd minutes.
At Toronto, striker Danny Dichio scored in the 90th minute to give Toronto FC a draw with New England.
Collin Samuel opened the scoring for Toronto.
Michael Parkhurst and Taylor Twellman scored for New England, which is headed for the playoffs and faces the New York Red Bulls in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Dichio, who was making his first appearance in eight games after being out with an ankle injury, finally connected for Toronto, hammering in a hard shot from just outside the box.
Robbie Findley scored in the 87th minute and Real Salt Lake defeated the Rapids, ending Colorado's hopes of making the postseason.
Real Salt Lake was last place in the Western Conference and already out of postseason contention. Colorado needed a win over Real Salt Lake and some help to get to the playoffs.
Chivas USA held off Houston at Carson, California and secured the Western Conference title.
Chivas finished one point ahead of nemesis Houston, which knocked Chivas out of the playoffs a year ago en route to winning the MLS Cup.
Chivas had to do it down a man for most of the game; midfielder Lawson Vaughn was shown a red card in the 40th minute after tackling Richard Mulrooney.
04 October 2007
American billionaire Stan Kroenke flew into London yesterday to hold talks with the Arsenal board.
The Colorado Rapids MLS owner, who upped his stake in the Gunners to 12 per cent in April, spent two hours visiting the Emirates Stadium and a building development opposite.
And the timing of the meeting, just a day after Alisher Usmanov went public on his intention to buy the club, raises the prospect of Kroenke allying himself with the current Arsenal board to keep out the Russian mining magnate.
Usmanov yesterday launched another share raid on Arsenal. moving closer to reaching his "blocking stake" in the club.
He believes he is close to a deal to buy another tranche of shares which will take him towards the magic 25 per cent.
A source close to Usmanov said: "He will carry on buying and believes that blocking stake will be passed shortly."
