KANSAS CITY, Mo., April 12 (UPI) -- A golden goal by Chris Brown Saturday night gave the Kansas City Wizards a 3-2 overtime win over D.C. United.
It was the first overtime win in team history in the season opener for both teams.
Brown's goal capped a second-half comeback for the home team, and satisfied a record crowd of 22,403 at Arrowhead Stadium.
Goalkeeper Nick Rimando came off his line, but missed a cross by substitute Josh Wolff. Brown hammered the ball off the crossbar and into the net.
The Wizards also started well, grabbing the lead after three minutes as Preki beat a defender and fooled Rimando with a low shot from 25 yards.
After a dominant half-hour by Kansas City, the undermanned United tied it in the 36th minute.
A free kick was swung over everything, but Ben Olsen whipped it back in from the right side. A header by Central defender Ryan Nelsen at the near goalpost forced 'keeper Tony Meola to make an awkward save, and the ball bounced off his legs before Mike Petke scored.
Just before halftime, D.C. grabbed its first lead.
Marco Etcheverry collected the ball on the left side, and danced through three defenders before finding an unmarked Santino Quaranta at the far post. The young striker made no mistake, powering a header inside the base of the post.
The Wizards equalized as Francisco Gomez slipped a perfect ball inside defender Bryan Namoff for Chris Klein. From the right side of the penalty area, Klein slotted a shot between Rimando and the near post.
Both sides had chances over the final 30 minutes.
Olsen darted into the area before putting his angled shot into the side netting. Etcheverry nearly scored off a corner kick, but Meola made a last-ditch save.
Rimando also came up big, deflecting headers by Brown and Jose Burciaga in extra time.
