Landon Donovan was on target to help LA Galaxy go seven points clear in their pursuit of back-to-back MLS Supporters' Shields. The USA star scored his 12th goal of the season in the 1-0 home win over reigning MLS Cup champions Colorado Rapids in Week 26 action to give the Galaxy a nice break on second-placed Seattle Sounders who dropped points at home on.
Donovan equaled Thierry Henry at the top of the MLS Golden Boot chart when he finished a neat move that involved David Beckham, Chad Barrett and Sean Franklin to fire into the bottom corner from the edge of the penalty area in the 36th minute.
With six regular season matches remaining, the Galaxy are in a great position to finish with the best record in MLS for a second season running.
Combeback kid Charlie Davies was on fire for DC United, scoring a hat-trick in their 3-0 away win over ten man Chivas USA on Sunday.
The Sochaux loanee opened the scoring in the 11th minute with a sliding finish at the back post for his first goal since June 25 after Chris Pontius was played through by Dwayne De Rosario before making it 2-0 four minutes later when he received another pass from Pontius following a Chivas defensive error to hammer home.
The treble was complete, and the match wrapped up, in the 66th minute when DC took off on a fast-break with Pontius advancing into the final third and slotting into the path of Davies who finished with ease.
Elsewhere in MLS, Real Salt Lake managed to defeat the Sounders 2-1 at CenturyLink Field for the Seattle clubs first loss in seven games. Both sides had a player sent off in the first half as Alvaro Saborio scored the winner for RSL in the 56th minute.
Teal Bunbury scored twice to guide Sporting Kansas City to a 3-0 win at home over Houston Dynamo, Toronto FC grabbed just their fifth win of the season with a 4-2 result at Columbus Crew who have leaked 10 goals in their last two matches, New England Revolution defeated FC Dallas 2-0 at home as San Jose Earthquakes had the same scoreline over Chicago Fire.
New York Red Bulls' chances of making the play-offs took a dip when they were held to a 1-1 draw by bottom-of-the-table Vancouver Whitecaps and Philadelphia Union and Portland Timbers drew 0-0.
2011 MLS season - Week 26 scores
LA Galaxy: 1 (Landon Donovan 36') Colorado Rapids: 0 The Home Depot Center, Carson, CA - 20,068
Sporting Kansas City: 3 (Teal Bunbury 9'/73', CJ Sapong 79') Houston Dynamo: (red card: Carlos Costly 64') LIVESTRONG Sporting Park, Kansas City, KS - 14,791
Seattle Sounders: 1 (Fredy Montero 47', red card: Jhon Kennedy Hurtado 39') Real Salt Lake: 2 (Kasey Keller (og) 12', Alvaro Saborio 56', red card: Tony Beltran 35') CenturyLink Field, Seattle, WA - 35,904
Columbus Crew: 2 (Tommy Heinemann 67', Andres Mendoza 87') Toronto FC: 4 (Nick Soolsma 21', Ryan Johnson 42', Julian de Guzman 83', Danny Koevermans 90+2') Crew Stadium, Columbus, OH - 13,058
New England Revolution: 2 (Shalrie Joseph 14', Rajko Lekic 85') FC Dallas: 0 Gillette Stadium, Foxborough, MA - 15,498
Philadelphia Union: 0 Portland Timbers: 0 PPL Park, Chester, PA - 18,504
New York Red Bulls: 1 (Juan Agudelo 68', red card: Jan Gunnar Solli 46') Vancouver Whitecaps: 1 (Davide Chiumiento 23') Red Bull Arena, Harrison, NJ - 19,684
Chivas USA: 0 (red card: David Lopes 68') DC United: 3 (Charlie Davies 11'/15'/66') The Home Depot Center, Carson, CA - 12,224
San Jose Earthquakes: 2 (Chris Wondolowski 10', Ramiro Corrales 69') Chicago Fire: 0 Buck Shaw Stadium, Santa Clara, CA - 10,525
