The Houston Dynamo have beaten 10-man DC United 3-0 at the Robertson Stadium in the Eastern Conference.
DC United started well but their hopes of a result were dealt a cruel blow in the 19th minute when goalkeeper Bill Hamid was shown a red card for bringing down Macoumba Kandji inside the penalty area.
Brad Davis stepped up to convert the resulting penalty past substitute Joe Willis to give the Dynamo the lead.
After going a man down, the visitors couldn't get back into the match and found themselves further behind before the interval.
Will Bruin collected a pass from Luiz Camargo before easily slotting his effort past Willis to double the home side's lead.
Houston continued their dominance in the second period with DC United barely able to put together an attack.
In the 62nd minute Andre Hainault delivered a cross that Boniek Garcia headed into the bottom corner for his team's third of the game.
DC United could only attempt to limit the amount of goals scored by their opponents but they failed to do so when Perry Kitchen fouled Calen Carr inside the area and Brian Ching calmly scored the second penalty of the night for Houston.