Atlanta's Josef Martinez ties MLS record with 27th goal
ATLANTA (AP) — Josef Martinez scored his 27th goal to tie the MLS season record and help Atlanta United beat the Columbus Crew 3-1 on Sunday.
Julian Gressel set up Martinez's scoring opportunity with a steal in the Crew's half of the field. He passed it up to Martinez, who broke down a pair of defenders before finishing with his left foot from the top of the penalty area in the 31st minute.
With nine games left in the regular season, Martinez matched Roy Lassiter (1996), Chris Wondolowski (2012) and Bradley Wright-Phillips (2014) for the season record.
Hector Villalba scored in the 76th minute to give Atlanta (15-4-6) a 2-1 lead, driving in from midfield and cutting a left-footed shot back into the right corner. Martinez laid it off to Miguel Almiron, who finished from the top of the penalty arc to cap the scoring in the 82nd minute.
Gyasi Zardes tied it at 1 for the Crew (11-8-6) in the 50th minute.
D.C. UNITED 2, REVOLUTION 0
WASHINGTON (AP) — Luciano Acosta scored early and Zoltan Stieber added a late goal to help D.C. United win its third in a row, 2-0 over the 10-man New England Revolution on Sunday night.
Acosta opened the scoring for United (7-9-6) in the 13th minute, finishing Paul Arriola's cross with a left-footed shot that got through with a deflection off the goalkeeper.
New England (7-9-8) went down a man in the 73rd minute when Scott Caldwell was shown his second yellow card, both for unsporting behavior.
Stieber made it 2-0 in the 89th minute on a breakaway.
D.C. United is 5-1-2 since opening Audi Field on July 14.
