Brooks Lennon’s goal in the 54th minute lifted visiting Atlanta United to a 1-0 win over CF Montreal on Saturday.

Thiago Almada’s free kick from a few feet beyond the top of the penalty box hit the post and darted into the goalmouth, where Lennon deposited it into the open net for his second goal in as many games.

Atlanta (9-5-8, 35 points) won its second straight match and improved to 4-1-5 in its last 10 matches to continue its Eastern Conference playoff push.

Montreal (8-11-2, 26 points) has been blanked in its past three matches and hasn’t scored since Bryce Duke’s winner in a 1-0 victory over Nashville SC on June 21.

CF Montreal is 3-3-2 in their past eight matches as they try to recover from their 1-6-0 start to the season.

Atlanta goalie Brad Guzan made just one save to post his second straight shutout, his fifth of the season and the 76th of his career.

Guzan also made one save in Sunday’s 2-0 win over the Philadelphia Union, as Atlanta’s consecutive shutouts have come after the Five Stripes conceded 10 goals in their previous five matches (1-1-3).

Atlanta’s offense struggled at times without forward Georgios Giakoumakis, who has scored a team-high 10 goals but suffered a hamstring injury in the first half against Philadelphia and didn’t play against Montreal.

Jonathan Sirois made two saves for CF Montreal, his fifth straight game with at least two.

Montreal maintained possession for 56.5 percent of the game, putting just one of its 15 shots on target and completing 81.6 percent of its 456 passes.

Atlanta put just three of its seven shots on frame and completed 79.7 percent of its 359 passes.

–Field Level Media

Taxi Fountas scored his sixth goal of the season and also contributed a crucial assist as D.C. United twice rallied from a deficit to earn a 2-2 draw against visiting Inter Miami on Saturday night.

Nigel Robertha also scored only moments after entering the game for D.C. (8-9-6, 30 points), which earned a point despite conceding multiple goals for the fourth time in their last six games.

Robertha’s late goal prevented Tata Martino from picking up a win in his managerial debut for Miami, which is winless in its last 10 but has drawn three in a row since Marino’s hiring was announced.

Fountas has now scored in back-to-back games, each time helping D.C. overcome a key absence. This time it was team assists leader Mateusz Klich, who was out while serving a yellow card accumulation suspension.

Benjamin Cremaschi and Noah Allen each scored their first career professional goals for visiting Miami (5-13-3, 18 points), which is expected to add World Cup-winning star Lionel Messi to its squad later this month.

Drake Callender made seven saves for the visitors despite letting in two goals. D.C. led 16-11 in total shots and 9-6 in efforts on target in a game where all the goals came after halftime.

After Cremaschi opened the scoring off a feed from Robert Taylor, Fountas answered by finishing off an excellent team goal.

Donovan Pines played a long ball down the left to find Yamil Asad, and Asad played a clever backheel pass to Cristian Dajome following the play.

Dajome slotted a pass to his right, and Fountas curled a right-footed shot around the dive of Callender and inside the far-right post.

Allen put Miami in front again only three minutes later when his free kick from the right fizzed through traffic and found the far-left corner.

D.C. went level for the second time in the 77th minute. This time Fountas played catalyst with a ball down the right to Ruan, who immediately drove in a cross from the corner.

Robertha met it at the back post with a one-time finish into an open goal, with Callender stranded at the other post.

–Field Level Media

Sean Zawadzki scored in the fourth minute of second-half stoppage time as the short-handed Columbus Crew rallied for a 1-1 draw against visiting New York City FC on Saturday night.

With the result, each team extended its unbeaten streak to eight matches.

Zawadzki scored through traffic from the top of the box for the Crew (10-6-6, 36 points), who are riding a 5-0-3 streak.

Justin Haak gave New York City (5-7-11, 26 points) a 1-0 lead in the 75th minute, taking advantage of an ejection of star forward Cucho Hernandez. Hernandez received his second yellow card in the 68th minute, and Haak struck for his first career goal seven minutes later.

NYCFC are on a 1-0-7 stretch and are 1-5-8 in their past 14 matches.

Patrick Schulte made eight saves for the Crew. Luis Barraza made three saves for New York.

The match turned when Hernandez was called for a bad foul for his second caution after he received a card for dissent at halftime.

Columbus was frustrated with the officiating all match, and coach Wilfried Nancy was ejected in the 90th minute.

The Crew were issued six yellows in addition to the red card, while NYC had four cautions.

In an attempt to smother Columbus’ scoring chances, NYCFC often put 10 men behind the ball.

It worked in the first half. The Crew had the ball 60 percent of the time, but the visitors led in shots (5-4) and shots on target (3-2) and possibly would have had a lead at the break if not for Schulte.

Schulte made three big saves in the first half to keep Columbus in contention, and he added another just five minutes after the break.

The Crew are on a six-match home winning streak. NYCFC fell to 1-5-7 on the road this season.

–Field Level Media

FC Cincinnati climbed back to take a 2-2 draw at Charlotte FC despite playing the final 15 minutes down a man Saturday night.

The match was a physical battle with eight yellow cards, one yellow to red card accumulation and 27 total fouls.

Despite entering halftime down 2-0, Cincinnati (13-2-6, 45 points) came out to start the second half much more aggressively and was rewarded only seven minutes in. Charlotte (6-8-8, 26 points) defender Jaylin Lindsey conceded a penalty by kicking Alvaro Barreal, and Luchiano Acosta put the kick into the upper corner out of the reach of a diving Kristijan Kahlina (two saves).

Then in the 68th minute, Acosta slipped a pass through to Barreal, who made one defender miss and then squeezed a shot inside the far post with the outside of his left foot.

In the 75th minute, Cincinnati defender Ian Murphy cut down Kamil Jozwiak to pick up his second yellow card of the match to put his team down to 10 men. Charlotte FC were unable to capitalize despite the man advantage.

It marked the third game out of the last four they dropped points from a winning position. However, the draw did extend their franchise-record unbeaten streak to five.

Charlotte’s Karol Swiderski scored the first of his two goals in the 14th minute. Charlotte pushed up the field and a through ball took a deflection off a Cincinnati defender which allowed Kerwin Vargas to run past the defense. Vargas looped a cross toward Swiderski, who leaped and got a boot onto the cross to tip the ball over goalkeeper Roman Celentano’s right shoulder. Celentano finished the night with one official save.

Swiderski secured his brace 10 minutes later. He headed a cross wide to Vargas, who gathered it in and dropped it back to Jaylin Lindsey. Lindsey hit a first-time cross that found Swiderski in the box. He stuck his leg out and redirected inside the post to make it 2-0 in the 24th minute.

Swiderski had multiple chances in the second half to complete his hat trick and give Charlotte the win, but he could not find the net.

He had a partial breakaway that Celentano shut down, Jozwiak put a cross in that Swiderski could just not get to, and then he ripped a curler past Celentano that hit the post and bounced out. Then in the 85th minute, his free kick bounced through traffic but Celentano got down and gathered it in.

–Field Level Media

The Los Angeles Galaxy look to extend their unbeaten streak to eight matches when they visit the Vancouver Whitecaps on Saturday.

The Galaxy (5-9-7, 22 points) are coming off consecutive wins, following a 2-1 victory over rival and defending MLS champion LAFC on July 4 with a 3-1 triumph over defending Eastern Conference champion Philadelphia last Saturday.

The Galaxy, who are 3-0-4 in their past seven MLS matches, haven’t lost a league match since May 27, though they were dealt a 3-2 setback by Real Salt Lake in the U.S. Open Cup on June 7.

“There’s a rhythm to our game now that I felt like didn’t exist in some of the stretches before and I felt like that was partly because we were just battling for a win.” Los Angeles coach Greg Vanney, whose team opened the season 0-4-3, said. “There’s a lot of confidence, there’s a lot of joy. I mean, dare I say it’s a 180 a little bit from where we were?”

Los Angeles played one of its best matches of the season against the Union.

After Tyler Boyd gave the Galaxy a 1-0 lead in the 15th minute, Mikkel Uhre tied the match in the 36th minute. But the Galaxy regained the advantage with an own goal in the in the first minute of first-half stoppage time and Riqui Puig secured the win in the 76th minute.

Boyd has scored a team-high four goals this season for the Galaxy, while Puig has three, and the latter’s six assists are tied for the team lead with Douglas Costa.

The Whitecaps (7-7-7, 28 points) are coming off a 2-1 win over visiting Austin FC on Wednesday to end a two-match slide.

Sergio Cordova’s first goal of the season in the 72nd minute proved to be the difference. Cordova entered the match as a substitute just two minutes earlier.

The decisive goal was Cordova’s first tally since signing a Designated Player deal with Vancouver in the offseason then went scoreless in his first 14 regular-season matches with the Whitecaps.

“I felt no stress or pressure, I felt the responsibility to help the team,” Cordova said. “I hope it’s the start of a good run for us and myself on a personal note.”

Pedro Vite’s goal 29 seconds into the match gave Vancouver a 1-0 lead before Rodney Redes tied the match for Austin in the 47th minute.

Brian White has a team-high seven goals for the Whitecaps, while his three assists rank third. Ryan Gauld, who assisted on Cordova’s match-winner, is second on the team with five goals to go along with a team-leading six assists.

–Field Level Media