The San Jose Earthquakes have caused a shock by recording an emphatic 5-0 triumph over Western Conference contenders Sporting Kansas City.

Sporting, who started the night just three points behind Western Conference leaders Los Angeles Galaxy with four games in hand, were always second-best to an impressive San Jose attack.

It took the visitors just three minutes to break the deadlock as Shea Salinas drifted into space to pick out Cordell Cato, who finished calmly to put his side on course for a memorable win.

San Jose were soon gifted the chance to double their lead when the lively Quincy Amarikwa invited a foul from Chance Myers, which allowed Chris Wondolowski to fire home from the penalty spot.

Amarikwa continued to cause problems for the Sporting defence and he was the creator once again as the Earthquakes effectively ended the home side's hopes before the half-hour mark when Anibal Godoy opened his account for the club with a fine finish after creating room in the box.

The second half followed a similar pattern, and a fourth arrived 13 minutes after the interval when Cato finished emphatically after another inch-perfect pass from Salinas.

Sporting could not be stopped when attacking at pace and Wondolowski helped himself to his second of the night by heading home from Fatai Alashe's inviting cross.

San Jose managed to avoid further embarrassment later on, but they were dealt another blow when Benny Feilhaber was shown a straight red card for pulling down Amarikwa after giving the ball away on the edge of the box as a disappointing night ended with the hosts finishing the game with 10 men.