Kai Wagner and Milan Iloski each scored and added an assist, while Tai Baribo notched his team-leading 16th goal, as the Philadelphia Union rolled to a 4-0 home victory over the Chicago Fire on Saturday night in Chester, Pa.

Danley Jean Jacques also scored for Philadelphia (16-6-6, 54 points), which was the aggressor from the start and bombarded Chicago with 23 overall shots, including a 7-2 advantage in on-target chances. With the result, the Union rebounded from last weekend’s 1-0 loss at New York Red Bulls, extended their home unbeaten run to 9-0-4 and moved back ahead of FC Cincinnati for first place in the Eastern Conference.

Meanwhile, it proved a highly disappointing evening for Chicago (11-10-6, 39 points), which is fighting for a playoff berth and entered on a 3-0-2 stretch.

Philadelphia had two quality chances within the first two minutes of the match, both from Baribo. The first had him alone in front of Chicago goalkeeper Chris Brady (three saves), only for the Union star to bounce it off center. In the fourth minute, Baribo again missed an open look, scuffing it wide left.

While Philadelphia continued to pressure Brady, Chicago’s first notable chance came in the 13th minute. Jack Elliott’s deflected ball was pushed over the bar by Andrew Rick (two saves), starting in place of injured veteran Union keeper Andre Black.

Philadelphia, which held nearly 60 percent of the first-half possession, was eventually rewarded shortly past the half-hour mark. Wagner delivered a perfect grounder into the box for a pursuing Baribo to finally convert the match’s first goal.

As the second half progressed, Chicago showed life, especially near the hour mark when Sergio Oregel hit the post. However, shortly after, in the 64th minute, Wagner took a touch from Iloski via a free kick and found the bottom right corner of the net that gave Philadelphia some breathing room.

The Union added some insurance in the 73rd minute when Jean Jacques converted amid traffic in the box. Iloski’s successful driving right-footer came seven minutes later.

–Field Level Media

New York City FC got on the board first in the 55th minute, when their leading scorer, forward Alonso Martinez, booted in a light shot from the center of the box past FC Cincinnati goalkeeper Roman Celentano, giving New York City a 1-0 lead that would hold up as the final score Saturday night.

The game was a rematch of last year’s Eastern Conference First Round MLS Cup Playoffs series, which New York City won 2-1 with a Game 3 win in penalty kicks. That Game 3 win came in Cincinnati, and New York City (13-5-8, 44 points) backed that up by completing the regular-season sweep of Cincinnati (16-8-4, 52 points) Saturday night in the Queen City.

It also drops Cincinnati down to second place in the Eastern Conference.

The result Saturday night was the same as it was between the two teams back on May 4 in Queens, New York, with New York City FC beating FC Cincinnati 1-0.

It was a helter-skelter first half, with both teams relentlessly pushing the ball and creating scoring opportunities.

The first half featured nine combined fouls and one yellow card for New York City FC. Four additional offsides were called.

There were also multiple injuries in the first half that stopped the game for minutes at a time.

Despite possessing the ball for just 43.3 percent of the first half, Cincinnati had three shot attempts with two of them on goal. It completed 88.3 percent of its passes and earned two corner kicks but could not find the net against stingy New York City goalkeeper Matt Freese, who made five saves.

Cincinnati goalkeeper Roman Celentano made three saves but conceded the game-winning goal in the 55th minute.

FC Cincinnati hosts the Philadelphia Union next Saturday night. New York City hosts D.C. United.

–Field Level Media

Baltasar Rodriguez scored in the 64th minute as Inter Miami, playing without injured superstar Lionel Messi, escaped with a 1-1 draw against D.C. United on Saturday in Washington, DC.

Inter Miami (13-5-7, 46 points) was gunning for their third victory in a span of eight days, including a 2-1 win over Tigres UANL in the Leagues Cup quarterfinals Wednesday.

Jackson Hopkins scored in the 13th minute for D.C. United (4-15-9, 21 points), who extended their run of MLS matches without a victory to 11. The last D.C. win came on May 31.

The draw was the second straight for D.C. United, and it came in the home debut of new coach Rene Weiler.

D.C. was without its top scorer, Christian Benteke, who was serving a one-game suspension because of an accumulation of yellow cards.

In the midst of a busy schedule, Miami employed a makeshift starting lineup, with eight changes to its starting group from its Leagues Cup win. The Herons next face Orlando City on Wednesday in a Leagues Cup semifinal.

Inter Miami did not start any of their Barcelona Four, which include Messi, Jordi Alba, Sergio Busquets and Luis Suarez, who have combined for 27 goals and 36 assists in MLS matches this year.

Busquets and Suarez entered in the 55th and 63rd minute respectively and helped Miami control the flow the rest of the way. The Herons owned possession for 65.5 percent of the match and had 11 crosses to one for D.C.

It was the second straight year that fans in D.C. were denied a chance to see Messi, who entered the day leading the MLS in goals with 19 in as many appearances. Messi also was sidelined with a hamstring injury when Miami won in Washington in March of last year.

Miami is 2-2-2 this season in MLS games Messi has missed.

Hopkins put D.C. on top early when he one-touched a looping pass from Matti Pelota to his right, freeing himself for a right-footed blast from the middle of the penalty box, which was just inside the left post.

The goal was the second in the career of the 21-year-old. His first tally came a week ago in D.C.’s 1-1 tie at CF Montreal.

Miami got the equalizer with a spectacular shot in the 64th minute. From outside the penalty box, Rodriguez fired a fading, right-footed strike into the top right corner.

It was the first goal for Rodriguez since he was signed on loan in March from Argentine top-flight side Racing.

Luis Barraza had two saves for D.C. Rocco Rios Novo had one save for Miami.

–Field Level Media

First-half goals by Leo Campana and Ignatius Ganago led the visiting New England Revolution to a rare victory, 2-1 over the Columbus Crew on Saturday.

Campana scored in the 25th and Ganago in the 39th for the Revolution (8-12-7, 31 points) for just their third win in the past 17 matches (3-8-6). They entered with a win and a tie in their previous eight.

Daniel Gazdag scored in the 71st for the Crew (12-6-9, 45 points) as they continued to struggle and spoiled the MLS debut of designated player Wessam Abou Ali.

The Danish-born Palestinian international entered in the 56th minute and was initially credited with the Columbus goal but Gazdag got his foot on the ball last from a service by Malte Amundsen.

Gazdag scored his second goal in 19 matches for the Crew since being acquired in a trade with the Philadelphia Union.

The Crew are 2-3-1 in their past six matches and 5-5-6 since May 10.

New England likely would not have taken the two-goal advantage if not for the play of Matt Turner. In his third match for the Revolution since returning from three years in Europe, the U.S. men’s national team goalkeeper did not get credit for a save in the 14th minute but he made himself big and forced a hurried shot from the 6-yard box by Ibrahim Aliyu to go left of goal.

Then in the 18th minute, he made a close-in right-handed stop of Gazdag.

New England had done nothing offensively until the goal when Carles Gil slipped the ball to Luca Langoni. He found Campana in front for his fourth goal in six matches and fifth in six career matches vs. the Crew.

The Revolution’s second chance resulted in another goal. Mamadou Fofana lofted a 30-yard ball into space that allowed Ganago to outrace two defenders then, after a first touch, poke the ball past goalkeeper Patrick Schulte.

Columbus was fortunate to go to the break down only two because Schulte stopped a breakaway by Langoni and a near-post strike from Ilay Feingold in the final minutes.

–Field Level Media

CF Montreal matched their season high for goals in Saturday’s 3-2 home win over Austin FC on Saturday.

Hennadii Synchuk, Dante Sealy and Prince Owusu each scored for CF Montreal, who won for just the second time in 14 home matches (2-7-5) this season.

Montreal (5-15-8, 23 points) is one of the lower-scoring teams in MLS, while Austin FC is one of the league’s top defensive clubs. However, CF Montreal became just the third club this season to collect at least three goals against the Verde.

The loss snapped Austin’s five-match (2-0-3) unbeaten streak in MLS regular-season play, and cost the Verde an opportunity to improve their playoff standing. Austin FC (9-9-8, 35 points) are still over the playoff line, but only in a play-in position in the Western Conference.

Myrto Uzuni and Owen Wolff each scored their fourth goals of the season for Austin. All four of Wolff’s goals have come in his last five matches.

Synchuk’s first MLS goal opened the scoring in the ninth minute. The 19-year-old received the ball in the middle of the field, and some light defending from Austin FC allowed Synchuk plenty of space in front of the box to bury a left-footed shot.

The Verde did little on attack in the first half until Uzuni converted a close-range header for the equalizer in the 40th minute.

Three minutes into first-half stoppage time, Sealy restored CF Montreal’s lead. A beautiful passing play sent the ball down the field to Dawid Bugaj on the near wing, and Bugaj sent a perfect cross to Sealy in front.

It was Sealy’s fifth regular-season goal, and his third in his last four matches. The only Montreal player on a bigger roll is Owusu, whose 67th-minute penalty kick was his eighth goal in his last 11 matches.

The penalty kick was awarded due to a poor challenge from Mikkel Desler, who committed a handball foul in the box on a Synchuk corner. Owusu made Austin pay with a stutter-step move on goalkeeper Brad Stuver to convert the kick.

Owusu’s insurance goal was critical, as Wolff’s 77th-minute tally on Uzuni’s assist narrowed Austin’s deficit.

Stuver and Montreal’s Thomas Gillier each made four saves.

–Field Level Media

Streaking Charlotte FC will seek a rare victory against the New York Red Bulls when the sides meet Sunday in North Carolina.

The Crown (14-11-2, 44 points) have won six regular-season matches in a row to climb up the Eastern Conference standings to seventh entering the weekend, five points above 10th-place RBNY in the scrap for nine East playoff spots.

And Charlotte manager Dean Smith believes his side’s seven-match winless run against the Red Bulls dating back to 2022 has been more about timing than quality. In particular, a 4-2 loss at the Red Bulls in late May came during a particularly difficult time for Charlotte.

“The game this season at their place was really a tight game,” Smith said. “Unfortunately, we gave two penalties away. We gave them some cheap goals. It was that period where our individual defending wasn’t great. But we’re in a much better place now, so I expect a different performance for sure.”

Reigning MLS goalkeeper of the year Kristijan Kahlina has kept three consecutive clean sheets in MLS play for Charlotte, part of eight total. Idan Toklomati has scored three goals in his last four regular-season games.

Meanwhile, the Red Bulls (11-10-6, 39 points) have been less consistent of late, but are coming off a 1-0 home win over East title contender Philadelphia last weekend.

Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting has quietly put himself into the MLS Golden Boot conversation with 15 goals in his first MLS season. Emil Forsberg has nine goals and nine assists.

But with winger Lewis Morgan missing most of the season to injury, the Red Bulls haven’t produced goals as a group consistently enough to earn consistent results, scoring one goal or fewer in 16 of 27 matches.

Their moves at the recently passed secondary transfer window deadline have been supplemental in nature, although manager Sandro Schwarz has high hopes for midfielder Rafael Mosquera, who completed a permanent transfer from Plaza Amador to sign with the first-team.

He had previously featured for the reserve Red Bulls II, on loan from the Panamanian club.

“He has performed very well in his opportunities against Chicago and also Leagues Cup,” Schwarz said in a statement. “He is a fast and skillful offensive player that will help in our style of play, and we are pleased to have him with us.”

–Field Level Media