Kaku scored off a corner kick as the New York Red Bulls and Houston Dynamo played to a 1-1 draw in their first match of the Visit Tucson Sun Cup.
In the 12th minute, Kaku played in a corner kick that took a deflection off a Houston defender, hit the goalkeeper and found the back of the net.
Memo Rodriguez scored the equalizer for Houston in the 58th minute.
Midfielder Josh Sims saw his first game action of the preseason, after joining the team earlier this week.
New York is back in action on Wednesday.
Starting XI: Ryan Meara; Patrick Seagrist, Amro Tarek, Tim Parker, Kyle Duncan; Sean Davis, Cristian Casseres Jr, Kaku, Florian Valot, Daniel Royer; Mathias Jorgensen
Subs: Josh Sims, Sean Nealis, Marc Rzatkowski, Rece Buckmaster, Brian White, Alex Muyl, Omir Fernandez
