Juninho scored his sixth goal in his past five games, and David Beckham connected on a late free kick to lead the Los Angeles Galaxy to a 2-0 victory over the Vancouver Whitecaps on Saturday night in Carson, Calif.
Juninho struck to the upper-right corner from 28 yards in the 41st minute after Robbie Keane redirected Hector Jimenez’s pass from the right wing to put Los Angeles (13-11-4) ahead. Beckham curled a shot from 25 yards into the upper-left corner in the 79th for his sixth score in his last eight appearances.
The Galaxy has 10 wins, including seven shutouts, in its past 15 MLS games, and moved into a tie for second with the Seattle Sounders in the Western Conference with 43 points.
Vancouver (10-11-7), which has a five-point cushion in the battle for the West’s final playoff berth, lost its fourth straight to match its longest skid since joining MLS last season.
At Real Salt Lake 1, D.C. United 0: Will Johnson scored in the 49th minute to help RLS get its first MLS victory in more than a month.
Salt Lake (14-10-4) has shut out two consecutive league opponents – and moved three points ahead of the Sounders and Galaxy in the West – after a scoreless draw against Philadelphia a week earlier.
United (12-10-5) is winless in four of its last five MLS contests.
After a scoreless opening half, Salt Lake took the lead on Johnson’s goal in the fourth minute of the second half. Ned Grabavoy backed a pass to Paulo Jr. on the left side of the penalty area, and Paulo Jr. sent a cross into the 6-yard box that was deflected by DC defender Brandon McDonald. Johnson got his head under the deflected ball and knocked it home.
At Crew 2, Impact 1: Emilio Renteria scored in the third minute of stoppage time to lift Columbus past Montreal. Renteria entered the match in the 77th minute and received a pinpoint pass by Federico Higuain from the left flank and scored from 12 yards out to give the Crew (12-8-6) its fourth straight win. Montreal (12-14-3) had its five-game win streak snapped.
At Sporting KC 2, Toronto FC 1: Oriol Rosell scored his first MLS goal in the 87th minute, lifting Sporting Kansas City to the win over Toronto FC. SKC (15-7-5) moved into a tie for the overall points lead with San Jose, while Toronto (5-16-6) is winless in its last seven.
Rosell, who joined Kansas City last month from Barcelona’s B team, scored his winner from the corner of the penalty area on assists from Nagamura and Chance Myers.
At Revolution 0, Union 0: Matt Reis had seven saves to help New England play to a scoreless draw with the Philadelphia, extending the Revolution’s winless streak to a franchise-record 10 games.
New England (6-14-7) has not won since beating New York on July 8, going 0-7-3 since to drop from sixth to ninth in the standings. The Revolution was shut out for the 10th time, tying the franchise record set last year.
Zac MacMath made three saves for the Union (7-13-4).
Before the game, New England announced leading scorer Saer Sene will miss the rest of the season because of a torn ACL, an injury sustained during Wednesday’s match against Chivas USA.
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