MONTREAL -- He hadn't gotten much of a chance this season under his new coach, but Carlos Rivas took full advantage of his opportunity for Orlando City SC on Wednesday.
Kaká scored twice and Rivas -- making his first appearance in a month and his first start in MLS in nearly two months -- contributed a goal and two assists to lead the Lions to a 4-1 win against the Montreal Impact at Stade Saputo.
Orlando City won their second game in a row and moved above the red line and into sixth place in the Eastern Conference with 34 points. The Lions are two points ahead of D.C. United, and within three points of fifth-place Montreal.
"It was very good because we can put them as our direct opponent now," Kaká said after the game. "We are just three points behind them, so we have another game with them. We play also D.C., I mean, in this moment these two teams we are fighting for the playoffs. Of course we don't have to think about that, we have to think about winning and every time we can win and our opponent can't, that's good and perfect for us."
With starting striker Cyle Larin returning from international duty with Canada, Rivas made his fifth start of the season, his first in nine games since a 2-0 loss to the New York Red Bulls on July 13.
"This was a really important game for us and really an important team," Rivas said in Spanish via interpreter. "Looking at [our next game against] LA, I think this just gives us another fresh breath of air for us to keep going."
Rivas set up first-half goals by Brek Shea, in the fourth minute, and Kaká, who put Orlando City ahead 2-1 36 minutes in.
The Colombian then drew the penalty that led to the third goal, in the 54th minute, on a play that led to Impact goalkeeper Evan Bush being sent off. Kaká scored his second of the night from the spot.
Rivas then capped off his, and Orlando City's, successful night with a goal of his own in the 77th minute. It was Rivas' second goal of the season in MLS, but Orlando City's captain knew his teammate was ready for the chance.
"It's amazing because he's ready to play," Kaká said. "He hasn't played for a while and now he just came in and had a game like this. So congratulations to Rivas, and this is why every time that I say that's how important it is to be a group, it's for this. Because every time that we need a player like him or everybody that comes in we have it, so it's important for us."
Lions coach Jason Kreis was not surprised that Rivas was able to make such an impact on the final result.
"Yeah, I did know that he had that in him," Kreis said. "I'm really pleased for him. He's worked extremely hard for the past several weeks to prepare himself for this game. We gave it to him as a target, we knew that Cyle wasn't going to be here for this match and we said to him a few weeks ago that he would be starting the game.
"So I think he's focused himself, he's worked hard and tonight he, and we, reaped the benefits from that work."
