FRISCO — FC Dallas further separated itself atop the Western Conference standings after defeating the Chicago Fire 3-1 on Saturday, bringing the Brimstone Cup back home to Frisco. While FCD took down the Fire at Toyota Stadium, its other foes battled amongst themselves elsewhere around the league.
The attention now turns to Week 21 and the Battle for El Capitan for FC Dallas. The Houston Dynamo await FCD on Saturday night for year's first Texas Derby matchup. After Week 20, Houston remains in seventh place in the Western Conference. The Dynamo traveled north to Colorado to take on the 11th-placed Rapids at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, but the two sides played to a 0-0 draw.
Every other team in the top five coming into the week either fell or drew against its opponent this past week, leaving the West standings looking like this:
Los Angeles FC hosted the Portland Timbers on Sunday in a battle between second and fourth place. The two sides played to a 0-0 draw, with each team taking home a point each.
Sporting Kansas City traveled east to the Big Apple to take on the New York Red Bulls in a matchup of west vs. east. After going into halftime tied 1-1, Sporting took the lead just six minutes into the second half thanks to a Roger Espinoza strike. However, it would be the last time Sporting would score as Marc Rzatkowski bagged two goals for New York late in the half. It would be enough to hold off Sporting and the Red Bulls fended off its home field with a 3-2 win.
Things didn’t go much better for Real Salt Lake in its matchup against Minnesota United FC. Salt Lake traveled to Minnesota, and after a 0-0 score at halftime, Minnesota quickly scored three unanswered goals from three different goal-scorers. It wasn’t until the 77th minute when RSL scored its first goal, and it ended up bagging one more before the final whistle blew. Real Salt Lake fell on the road to Minnesota, 3-2.
The Golden Boot race is still a runaway after Atlanta United FC’s Josef Martinez was on the scoresheet yet again in Atlanta’s 1-1 draw with the Seattle Sounders. Martinez has 19 goals on the season and is seven goals ahead of the rest of the field.