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.
01 October 2007
Fulham manager Lawrie Sanchez has defended striker Clint Dempsey against claims he deliberately used his elbow to inflict the facial injury that will almost certainly keep Chelsea skipper John Terry out of this week's Champions League clash against Valencia.
Terry underwent an operation on a depressed fracture of a cheekbone sustained in a first half aerial collision with Dempsey during Saturday's 0-0 draw at Stamford Bridge.
The centre half could also miss Sunday's league game at Bolton and England's two Euro 2008 qualifiers later this month.
Avram Grant, Chelsea's new manager, said some of his players insisted afterwards that Dempsey had used an arm against Terry.
But the American, suspended for two games while playing for New England Revolution in the MLS last year when his flailing elbow broke the jaw of Kansas City's Jimmy Conrad, was not penalised by referee Martin Atkinson and Sanchez maintained: "I'm sure it wasn't malicious. Clint isn't that type of character. Clint is a strong player and so is John Terry. These things happen in football when two big men come together."
Terry carried on until half time, but his absence in the second half and the needless dismissal of Didier Drogba left Chelsea fighting on the back foot.
The Blues have now not scored in four league games and lie eighth in the table, but Sanchez said: "Chelsea aren't a vulnerable team. If you've got top class players and you play at the level they're at you shouldn't be vulnerable and I'm sure they're not going to be. We've got Chelsea at our place on New Year's Day and I'm sure they will bring a different team and it will be a different type of game."
