MLS race heating up
Fire catch up with Revolution
Alone at the top a few weeks back, the Revolution now have company in second place.
Stephen King scored in the 36th minute, lifting the Chicago Fire to a 1-0 win over the New York Red Bulls last night in Bridgeview, Ill. The Fire (11-7-5) moved into a tie with New England for second in the Eastern Conference, five points behind Columbus.
Chicago, which swept its three-game season series against the Revolution, would win a tiebreaker against New England.
Jon Busch earned his 10th shutout the season while facing just two shots on goal.
King took advantage when teammates Chris Rolfe and Brian McBride ran up the left side of the field and were swarmed by the Red Bulls defenders, allowing King to take the ball out of the swarm and put the Fire on the scoreboard.
New York (8-7-8) had its six-game unbeaten streak snapped and remained tied for fourth with D.C. United, six points behind Chicago and New England.
Chivas USA 3, Toronto FC 1 - Daniel Paladini and Jonathan Bornstein scored to rally Chivas USA in Toronto. Ante Razov had a goal and two assists for Chivas USA (8-9-6), which was missing nine players - two to international play, five to injuries, and two to yellow cards accumulation.
Galaxy 2, Real Salt Lake 2 - Edson Buddle scored his 13th goal of the season in the second half, enabling host Los Angeles to earn a point.
Earthquakes 2, D.C. United 1 - Darren Huckerby scored and added an assist as San Jose edged visiting D.C. United.
World Cup qualifying
Unconvincing wins for Italy, England, Spain, and Portugal were overshadowed when France started its attempt to qualify for the 2010 World Cup with a humbling 3-1 defeat at Austria.
While Italy won, 2-1, at Cyprus and European Champion Spain beat Bosnia-Herzegovina, 1-0, France continued to show the same poor form that brought a surprise first-round exit from Euro 2008 by losing to a team 91 places below it in FIFA's world rankings.
Rene Aufhauser and Andreas Ivanschitz scored for the home side in Vienna to deal a heavy blow to a France team that faces a tough Serbia team in its next match Wednesday.
But Lithuania and not Austria was the surprise early leader of Group 7 following a 3-0 win at Romania, while Serbia beat visiting Faeroe Islands, 2-0.
Italy escaped with victory following an injury-time goal from Antonio Di Natale.
England needed two second-half goals from Joe Cole to earn a 2-0 win over Andorra and end the jeers from their supporters at Barcelona's Olympic Stadium. England coach Fabio Capello didn't start David Beckham in one of four changes to the team that struggled in last month's friendly against the Czech Republic.
Portugal did better with a 4-0 win at Malta, but it added three goals in the last 29 minutes after clinging to a first-half own goal for much of the match.
Sweden slipped behind Portugal in the race for one of the World Cup places available to the winners of Europe's nine qualifying groups after a disappointing 0-0 draw at Group 1 rival Albania.
Greece took early charge of Group 2 with a 3-0 win at Luxembourg.
In CONCACAF, Carlo Gallardo Najera's goal in stoppage time gave visiting Guatemala a 1-1 tie with Trinidad & Tobago in Group 1. In Mexico City, Mexico breezed to a 3-0 Group 2 victory over Jamaica. In Montreal, Ramon Nunez scored twice early in the second half to lead Honduras to a 2-1 victory over Canada in Group 2.
In South America, Paraguay tied Argentina, 1-1, to stay on top of qualifying with 14 points, two ahead of Argentina. 