joseph paintsil

Matheus Nascimento and Joseph Paintsil each scored on Saturday night to help the Galaxy beat Minnesota United 2-1 in the regular-season finale for both teams.

Minnesota (16-8-10) is fourth in the Western Conference and will play fifth-seeded Seattle in the best-of-three first round of the MLS Cup playoffs.

Nascimento gave the Galaxy (7-18-9) the lead for good when he scored on a first-touch shot from the center of the area in the 12th minute.

Paintsil, on the counterattack, outraced the defense down the left sideline and then bounced a low shot off the far post and then slammed home his own rebound to make it 2-0 in the 52nd.

Joaquín Pereyra scored in the fifth minute of stoppage time for Minnesota.

A couple of minutes later, the Galaxy’s Edwin Cerrillo was shown a yellow card in the 67th and another, resulting in a red, in the seventh minute of stoppage time.

Joseph Paintsil had a hat trick by halftime and the Galaxy cruised to a 4-1 victory over Sporting Kansas City on Saturday night.

Paintsil scored goals in the fourth, 25th, and 43rd minutes for his first hat trick and the fastest in club history. Paintsil has nine goals this season. Defender Mauricio Cuevas notched two assists for a career-best five this season.

Diego Fagúndez used assists from Paintsil — his fifth — and Gabriel Pec to score his fifth goal and cap the scoring for the Galaxy (5-17-9) in the 60th minute. Pec assisted on Paintsil’s final goal and has eight this season. Fagúndez picked up his third assist on Paintsil’s first netter.

Dejan Joveljić scored in the 28th minute for Sporting KC (7-19-6). It was his 18th goal of the season after scoring 15 times for the Galaxy last season in their championship run.

Novak Micovic saved five shots for the Galaxy.

John Pulskamp had five saves for Sporting KC.

Shapi Suleymanov will miss the next match for Sporting KC after he subbed in in the 70th minute and was tagged with a red card in the 83rd.

Sporting KC travels to play Minnesota United on Saturday. The Galaxy travel to play FC Dallas on Saturday.