MLS Capsules

WHITECAPS 2, SPORTING KC 0

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Darren Mattocks scored for the fourth time in the last five games to help the Vancouver Whitecaps beat Sporting Kansas City 2-0 on Sunday night.

Vancouver (7-4-11) also took advantage of an own goal by Sporting defender Igor Juliao to hand Kansas City (11-6-6) its first loss in Major League Soccer play since May 31.

The Whitecaps took the lead in the 17th minute when Juliao and Kansas City goalkeeper Andy Gruenebaum got their signals crossed after Vancouver’s Pedro Morales lofted a long ball towards goal. Juliao tried to head a pass back toward Gruenebaum, but it dribbled over the line.

Vancouver doubled the advantage in the 30th minute when Morales and Mattocks pounced on a Kansas City turnover in midfield and broke back the other way. Morales drew a defender towards him before squaring the ball to Mattocks, who made no mistake in slotting a low shot past a helpless Gruenebaum for his sixth of the season.

FIRE 1, RED BULLS 0

BRIDGEVIEW, Ill. (AP) — Sean Johnson made four saves for his fourth shutout of the season and Mike Magee scored in Chicago’s victory over New York.

Magee scored in the 38th minute to help Chicago improve to 4-5-13. New York was called for a bad tackle in the box and goalkeeper Luis Robles made the initial save on Magee’s penalty kick, but MaGee scored off the rebound.

The Red Bulls (6-7-10) had a chance to tie it in the 60th minute, but Johnson calmly saved a right-footed half-volley from Eric Alexander from just inside the box.

SOUNDERS 2, DYNAMO 0

SEATTLE (AP) — Marco Pappa scored in the 69th minute and Gonzalo Pineda converted a penalty kick 6 minutes later as Seattle snapped a two-game losing streak.

It was the 200th MLS coaching victory for Seattle’s Sigi Schmid. He is 200-136-103 in 15 seasons, including an 87-50-46 record in six years with Seattle.

The win lifted the Sounders (13-6-2) back atop the Western Conference and overall standings with 41 points. Houston (6-12-4) has one victory in its last 10 games.

Sounders goalkeeper Stefan Frei registered his seventh shutout.

Arsenal beats Man. City 3-0

LONDON (AP) — Arsenal prepared for the Premier League season by collecting the Community Shield with a comfortable 3-0 victory over Manchester City on Sunday, picking up where the team left off at the FA Cup final by adding another piece of silverware at Wembley.

Santi Cazorla and Aaron Ramsey, who both scored in the FA Cup triumph that ended Arsenal’s nine-year trophy drought in May, also netted against City with well-taken first-half strikes.

A makeshift City was a shadow of the team that won the Premier League for the second time in three years in May. And Olivier Giroud added to City’s discomfort by scoring with a dipping strike on the hour in the traditional curtain-raiser to the English season between the Premier League and FA Cup champions.

“This gives us a positive platform to prepare,” Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said. “Last year we were very consistent against the teams outside the top six and not consistent against the top six teams.”

Arsenal, which finished fourth after leading for much of last season, opens against Crystal Palace on Saturday as it looks to win the Premier League for the first time since 2004.

Winning the Shield might set the tone for the opening weeks of the season, but is likely to be forgotten quickly. For David Moyes, it counted for nothing that his brief and unsuccessful Manchester United reign began by lifting the trophy here a year ago.

Given how City’s makeshift team performed in the first half, with just four of the players who started the title-clinching Premier League finale in May, it might be an uncomfortable start to the title defense at Newcastle on Sunday.

Perhaps most surprisingly, England goalkeeper Joe Hart was on the bench as new signing Willy Caballero was preferred in goal. But Hart, who was dropped during last season and successfully fought to regain his City place, saw the recruit from Malaga concede three times.

At the first match at Wembley since England’s pre-World Cup friendly against Peru in May, the shortage of Englishmen at top clubs was exposed again. With Hart dropped, City’s starting lineup lacked a single Englishman.

Arsenal had a core of three, including new signing Calum Chambers who was assured in central defense.

Arsenal’s trio of German World Cup winners ”“ Mesut Ozil, Per Mertesacker and Lukas Podolski ”“ are still on their post-Brazil break.