The Latin American leading role returned to be present in the action Saturday of the twelfth day of the Professional Football League of the United States (MLS), which had the Argentinean Ignacio Piatti and Paraguayan youth Miguel Almirón as the most outstanding.
Piatti clinched a double that allowed Montreal’s Impact to beat the Portland Timbers 4-1 on a night out with the 18-minute dismissal of Colombian first-half Diego Chará, who beat Piatti.
The victory allowed the Impact to leave the red lantern of the Eastern Conference classification.
While Piatti was the top scorer in Impact’s history since joining MLS, his teammates Kyle Fisher and Ambroise Oyongo were the authors of the other two goals scored by the Canadian team.
Montreal advanced when Blerim Dzemaili was knocked down inside the area after 13 minutes and the referee gave a penalty. Piatti capitalized with a shot to the right of goalkeeper Jake Gleeson.
Piatti’s fifth goal so far this season has left him with 35 in his career, one more than Italian Marco Di Vaio, who had the team record.
Another Argentine, striker Diego Valeri was the author of the discount for the Timbers, but did not prevent his team to extend to four days without knowing the victory and also have conceded 10 goals.
Almirón, with his first hat trick in MLS, allowed Atlanta United to thrash Houston Dynamo 4-1, who are still unbeaten away (0-5).
The young promise of Paraguayan football reached six goals in the championship by scoring at 30, 42 and 80 minutes, respectively, the last, achieved with a penalty shot.
The Dynamo discounted the 90 by the ninth goal in the season that Mexican striker Erick “Cubo” Torres got.
All unbeaten in MLS after the San Jose Earthquakes defeated FC Dallas, the only team left unbeaten since the start of the MLS season.
Jahmir Hyka sealed the victory of the Earthquakes with his goal in the 81st minute after being assisted by the Costa Rican striker Marco Ureña.
In Vancouver, goals from Cristian Techera (40 minutes) and Tim Parker (67) gave the Whitecaps home side a 2-0 win against visiting Sporting Kansas City, who despite a defeat remains leader in The Western Conference.
Harry Shipp’s goal in the 42nd minute of the first half was enough for Seattle to beat Real Salt Lake 1-0, breaking a three-game losing streak for the current champions.
The Philadelphia Union triumph continued with a 2-1 win over the Colorado Rapids after free-kicking Haris Medunjanin in the 75th minute scored the winning goal and scored a partial 0-1 loss.
Caleb Calvert overtook the Rapids in 15 minutes, but C.J. Sapong tied for a penalty in the 67 and sentenced Medunjanin.
The Chicago Fire also continued on the winning road and this time by beating home 0-1 to D.C. United, in what was his first visitor triumph so far this season.
After the Fire squandered several chances in the first half, Ghana striker David Accam culminated a counterattack in the 52nd minute to secure the Fire victory, which left DC United for a third consecutive unmarked home match.
While Toronto FC, in a game played on Friday night, drew a 1-1 draw in their visit to Harrison (New Jersey) where they faced the Red Bulls of New York.
The tie broke Toronto FC, who remains a leader in the Eastern Conference, a streak of six straight victories, while the Red Bulls ended three straight games lost.
The goals of the match were scored by Englishman Bradley Wright-Phillips for the Red Bulls 1-0 and the tie through the French defender Benoit Cheyrou.
American international Jozy Altidore of Toronto FC missed a penalty that was stopped by Hispanic goalkeeper Luis Robles of the Red Bulls, when it was 82 minutes.
Toronto FC striker Tosaint Ricketts scored in the 87th minute, but was ruled out of action by teammate Raheem Edwards.
