Bradley Wright-Phillips scored twice to fire the New York Red Bulls to a 2-0 victory over Sporting Kansas City as he tied the MLS single-season goalscoring record with 27 goals in the campaign.
The home side went close to opening the scoring in the eighth minute when Graham Zusi released the run of Dominic Dwyer, but his left-footed shot was well saved by Luis Robles.
Kevin Ellis was presented with a chance for Kansas City when Jacob Peterson picked him out with a pinpoint pass at the back post, but he couldn't control his effort, which went over the bar.
The Red Bulls took the lead when Wright-Phillips capitalised on an error from Ellis, and he showed composure to slot the ball past Eric Kronberg with a neat finish.
Wright-Phillips had the chance to notch his second goal of the game when he latched on to Lloyd Sam's cross towards the back post, but he got his header all wrong as he miscued his effort.
Paulo Nagamura tried to fire his side level when he beat a man on the edge of the box and fired a low effort at goal, which had to be pushed past the post by Robles.
The home side nearly found a leveller when Dwyer blasted a left-footed drive across the face of goal, but Sal Zizzo just couldn't get a foot to the ball.
Wright-Phillips equalled the record and doubled his side's lead when he outmuscled Aurelien Collin for the ball and placed it into the bottom corner, leaving Kronberg with no chance.
The striker had the chance to break the record when he was put through behind the Sporting defence, but Kronberg came out to narrow the angle and did enough to prevent him from finding the net.
Simon Sinclair
