BRIDGEVIEW, Ill. (AP) - Sebastian Grazzini and Dominic Oduro scored in the second half to help the Chicago Fire beat Sporting Kansas City 2-1 on Saturday night.
Chicago, fourth in the Eastern Conference, improved to 4-2-3 overall and 3-1-2 in its last six game. Eastern Conference-leading Kansas City has lost three straight to drop to 7-3-0.
Oduro broke a tie in the 81st minute with his team-leading fourth goal of the season. Kansas City forward Kei Kamara misplayed a loose ball 5 yards from his goal, and Chicago's Patrick Nyarko fed Oduro in the middle for an easy shot past goalkeeper Jimmy Nielsen.
The Fire tied it on Grazzini's penalty kick into the upper right corner in the 61st minute. The kick was triggered by Kansas City defender Aurelien Collin taking down Oduro from behind in the penalty area. The goal ended Chicago's scoreless string of 151 minutes, plus stoppage time.
Less than a minute later, Grazzini was dropped to the grass by the hard left elbow of leaping Kansas City midfielder Roger Espinoza, who was ejected for the foul.
Kansas City opened the scoring on midfielder Bobby Convey's goal exactly 30 minutes into the match. He deflected Espinoza's pass past goalkeeper Sean Johnson.
Chicago lost defender Arne Fredrich to a pulled right hamstring only 2 minutes earlier. Dan Gargan replaced Fredrich just before Convey scored.