Mike Grella and two red cards helped New York Red Bulls to an overdue 1-0 win against nine-man Real Salt Lake.
The Red Bulls had failed to win any of their past five league fixtures prior to Real Salt Lake's visit to New York and coach Jesse Marsch promised to make changes.
Marsch's changes worked wonders as Kemar Lawrence and Sean Davis - both reinstated to the starting XI - linked up to assist Grella for his fourth-minute opener on Wednesday.
While the Red Bulls returned to winning ways, New England Revolution's woes continued in the Eastern Conference.
The Revolution - with just one win in nine league matches - were undone by Kei Kamara's brace in a 2-1 defeat against Columbus Crew.
But that is as good as it got for the visitors, with Kamara restoring parity in the fourth minute, before ending the Crew's six-match winless streak in the 50th minute.
C.J. Sapong's 69th-minute goal was the difference against the Sounders, who were without Clint Dempsey, Obafemi Martins, Chad Barrett, Brad Evans and Osvaldo Alonso for the trip to Philadelphia as they crashed to consecutive defeats.
