right into the path of the chasing Emilio, and the Brazilian drove home a quick shot through the legs of Crew 'keeper Will Hesmer for his league-leading 14th goal of the season.
At Robertson Stadium, back-to-back 1-0 losses to Real Salt Lake and the Colorado Rapids had dropped Houston Dynamo into second place in the Western Conference, behind FC Dallas, which had a six-game unbeaten streak in league play.
Yet the Orange maintained their home dominance over their in-state rivals. The game's lone goal came in the 42nd minute when Dwayne De Rosario sprung Brian Mullan with a ball down the right side, and he sent a low cross into the center of the goal area where Brian Ching ran on and sent a diving header past Ray Burse.
FC Dallas has still never won in Houston in five matches in all competitions. With the win, Dynamo ensured "El Capitan", the Civil War-era cannon awarded to the winner of the season series, would remain in the Bayou City.
At BMO Field, Chivas USA were coming off a three-week break, still playing their five away game in their last six. Toronto FC were riding a six-game winless streak and hadn't scored a goal in more than 6-1/2 hours, reaching near-record proportions.
TFC came close on a couple of occasions to ending their goal drought, but it was Chivas who took the lead in the 56th minute. An inch-perfect ball from behind the center line by Jesse Marsch found Maykel Galindo in stride behind the Toronto defense, and from the left side of the area he ripped home a rising blast inside the near post for his eighth goal.
Two minutes from the end, another tremendous long pass sealed TFC's fate. This time it was the newly acquired Ramon Nunez who unlocked the Reds with his long ball, finding Paulo Nagamura on the left flank. Nagamura controlled and rolled a perfect pass to Sacha Kljestan, who strolled in to side-foot home from close range.
Toronto has now gone 552 minutes without a goal, and are on the verge of breaking the MLS record for scoring futility set by Real Salt Lake (557 minutes) in 2005. For Chivas USA, it was their second road win in their last three games away from home, after just one in their first eight this year, and their third overall this season after recording just four in their first two years.
