The San Jose Earthquakes have extended their winning run to four matches by beating Western Conference leaders LA Galaxy 1-0 at the Avaya Stadium.
It was the hosts who looked the more threatening of the two sides from the first whistle, but they were denied an early goal when Donovan Ricketts managed to get a strong hand to Quincy Amarikwa's effort.
The lead belonged to San Jose in the 18th minute as Ricketts made another impressive stop to deny Amarikwa only for Shea Salinas to slot home the rebound.
An open game saw both sides attack throughout the first half, but San Jose continued to create the better opportunities and they came close to a second when Chris Wondolowski's deflected header struck the post.
The Galaxy's hopes of fighting back were dealt a blow two minutes after the break when Leonardo was shown a straight red card for pulling down Amarikwa as the forward looked to sprint clear of the visiting defence.
Despite being a man down, the Galaxy had a chance to get back on level terms when Giovani dos Santos beat his marker to the ball, but he foolishly shot straight at David Bingham with Robbie Keane in space in the box.
San Jose handled the spells of pressure well for most of the second half, and they almost finished off the night with another goal when Shaun Francis fired a powerful low effort just past the post.
Callum Mulvihill
