SKC preserve early lead, pull off upset of LAFC

Andre Luiz scored the first goal of his MLS career and Stefan Cleveland made six saves to help Sporting Kansas City earn a 3-1 upset of visiting Los Angeles FC on Saturday night.

Taylor Calheira and Jacob Bartlett also scored for Kansas City (5-16-3, 18 points), which snapped a three-game losing streak and won its first game since July 22.

Denis Bouanga scored the lone goal for Los Angeles (11-8-7, 40 points), which saw its four-game unbeaten stretch (1-0-3) come to an end. Hugo Lloris had five saves, but Los Angeles allowed three goals for the first time since a 3-2 loss to Nashville on May 17.

Trailing 2-0 at halftime, Los Angeles cut its deficit in half two minutes into the second half. Jacob Shaffelburg assisted Bouanga on his team-leading 13th goal of the year to slice Kansas City's lead to 2-1.

The visitors threatened to even the score in the 59th minute, but Cleveland made his fourth save on an Armindo Sieb attempt.

On the other end, Kansas City had several chances to bolster its lead. SKC attempted five shots - two on goal - in a four-minute span, but came up empty each time.

The insurance goal finally came in the 71st minute. Bartlett netted his second goal of the year, as a blocked Luiz shot trickled Bartlett's way just inside the box, where he lasered it past Lloris.

Kansas City found the back of the net on its second shot attempt of the game. Justin Reynolds found Luiz, who fired in a left-footed shot past a diving Lloris to give Kansas City a 1-0 edge at the 18-minute mark of the first half.

After Cleveland made his first save off the foot of Jude Terry, SKC doubled their advantage in the 31st minute. Stephen Afrifa's headed attempt went off the post, but Calheira was there to head home the rebound for his third goal in two games.

Sporting KC finished the first half with four shots on goal to Los Angeles' two.