Kei Kamara scored on a free kick in the 83rd minute to lift Sporting Kansas City to a 1-0 victory over Toronto FC on Saturday.
Kamara's kick went off Toronto goalkeeper Milos Kocic's finger tips and into the bottom right corner of the net as Kansas City (14-7-4) won its third straight MLS contest.
Toronto (5-14-5) remained last in the Eastern Conference.
Toronto came out strong in the second half as Eric Hassli immediately went to work fighting off defenders and battling for possession in the box only to be shown a yellow card for his tenacious efforts.
He nearly scored in the 54th with a flick off Ryan Johnson's cross, but the ball rolled a foot wide of the right post. Johnson headed a pass from Torsten Frings slightly over the crossbar in the 70th minute.
The game got off to a chippy start with two yellows in the first 15 minutes. Frings earned a yellow card in the eighth by tackling a driving Graham Zusi from behind. The resulting free kick was blocked.
Four minutes later Kansas City defender Aurelien Collin was shown a yellow for a bad foul, but Frings couldn't connect on the free kick from outside the box.
In the 19th Sporting defender Seth Sinovic fired an ambitiously long-range shot from outside the box that found a clear path, though Kocic proved up to the task.
Kocic made a dazzling save in the 30th off a blazing right-footed shot from Kamara and then four minutes later stifled a charging Teal Bunbury that had the crowd roaring.
Toronto had several corner kick chances toward the end of the first half and came close with Terry Dunfield's header that Nielsen tipped just inches over the crossbar.
