Sporting Kansas City (10-13-7, 37 points) suffered a 7-2 defeat on the road to the LA Galaxy (14-13-3, 45 points) at Dignity Health Sports Park on Sunday night. Leading scorer Felipe Gutierrez tallied Sporting’s two goals, while Galaxy striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic netted a hat trick for the hosts.
Sporting almost took the lead in just the third minute as Gutierrez latched onto a loose ball 25 yards from goal and his speculative strike took a heavy deflection off a Galaxy defender – wrong-footing goalkeeper David Bingham – but the ball ricocheted off the post and out. Four minutes later, Johnny Russell’s free kick delivery found Erik Hurtado at the near post who headed narrowly over the bar.