A brace from Kei Kamara helped secure a 3-2 home win for Sporting Kansas City over Columbus Crew in their MLS Eastern Conference clash.
The hosts could have been ahead in the 10th minute but Soony Saad saw his effort saved by Crew keeper Andy Gruenbaum, while seconds later Claudio Bieler flashed a shot wide of the post.
Kansas City did take the lead when Saad lifted a ball across field to Kamara, who took the ball in stride into the penalty area and buried it past Gruenebaum.
Just before the break, Gruenebaum made a great save to deny Kamara a second as he got down low to his left to stop the striker's low drive.
After half time, Columbus found an equaliser as Jairo Arrieta scored a superb solo goal as he ran the length of the pitch and fired a low shot past Jimmy Nielsen.
However, the hosts restored their lead a minute later when Bieler drilled a volley from the edge of the area into the bottom corner of the net from Chance Myers's cross.
The visitors got back into the game through an error from Matt Besler as his short backpass didn't reach Nielsen and Dominic Oduro capitalised and latched onto the ball and placed it into the net.
Kamara again gave his side the lead and secured all three points for his side when he smashed the ball home into the net after he collected Bieler's headed pass in the penalty area.
Simon Sinclair
