Sporting Kansas City will aim for a second consecutive victory on Saturday when the club travels to the Stade Saputo to battle Eastern Conference rivals Montreal Impact.
After suffering a 2-0 defeat at the hands of the New England Revolution at Gillette Stadium on April 26, the defending MLS Cup champions bounced back with a strong showing the following week in a 2-0 win over the Columbus Crew.
Jacob Peterson opened the scoring for Sporting after just 10 minutes when Chance Myers' cross from the right flank connected with Paulo Nagamura, whose first-time shot was blocked by Giancarlo Gonzalez but eventually fell to Peterson following a deflection off Michael Parkhurst. Peterson then made no mistake with a side volley from 10 yards out for his 14th career MLS goal and first since the final game of the 2012 regular season.
Claudio Bieler then put the game out of reach for Columbus in stoppage time as he collected an inch-perfect chip from Graham Zusi in front of goal and tapped it home with ease to seal all three points.
"Start to finish, an excellent performance by us. I think it's the best performance of the year for us," Sporting manager Peter Vermes said. "One of the most difficult things in the game today was the weather. We haven't had a chance to play in this kind of weather. All you guys know that are around here, the weather has been pretty cold. And having to come out here with it going into the 80's, it was very difficult. These guys left everything on the field."
"It felt really good. Going into the game, we ultimately knew (Columbus was) on a really good run of form," Peterson said. "They've made some big improvements this year. The most important things for us, coming off a lost last week, was to test ourselves against a good team. Fortunately we came out on top today."
Montreal, meanwhile, will be hoping to secure a second consecutive victory in league play following a 1-0 result over the Philadelphia Union at home on April 26.
The Impact opened the scoring in the 14th minute when midfielder Patrice Bernier intercepted a pass along the sidelines near center field.
Dribbling towards goal, the Impact captain hammered a low shot that was knocked down by Union keeper Zac MacMath as he dove to his left, but Felipe fired home the rebound for his second of the season.
The win marked the Impact's first three-point effort of the season.
"The group has been working really hard and it really felt that we had a home field advantage in the game. We fed off their energy," said Impact head coach Frank Klopas. "I'm really happy for the guys because once again, they put the work in at training and had the right attitude coming into this game."
Montreal will also be hoping for a little revenge against Sporting, which thumped the Impact, 4-0, in the teams' first meeting this season.
[SportsNetwork.com]
