Seattle climbs to second place with three game win streak
SEATTLE – After a slew of injuries derailed the start of a promising season it appears the Seattle Sounders are playing their best soccer at the right time.
The Sounders overcame an early deficit and won 2-1 for their third straight victory on a beautiful Sunday afternoon at the newly named Century Link Field. Tyson Wahl scored his first MLS goal for the equalizer and Alvaro Fernandez scored the game winner near the end of the first half, his fourth goal of the season to tie with Brad Evans for the team lead.
This was the second Sounders game I’ve attended this season and the atmosphere was electric as always. Watching more than 36,000 fans in green and blue jump up and down waving their scarves and clapping in unison is mesmerizing and the sunny weather could not be any better.
Before the Emerald City Supporters on the south end could start their first chant of the game, the Sounders found themselves down a goal. Three minutes in, Sainey Nyassi, the brother of former Sounders midfielder Sanna Nyassi, scored off a corner kick from Benny Feilhaber, giving the New England Revolution the early lead.
The Sounders did not falter with so much time left to play. But it did look bad before it got better. Starting defender Jeff Parke was taken out in the 17th minute for Patrick Ianni, burning a substitution early in the game on defense.
At the 34 minute mark Mauro Rosales was fouled just outside of the box, giving the Sounders a free kick 20 yards out from the goal. Right when I saw that foul I jumped up in anticipation of a fantastic scoring opportunity. Wahl bent the shot around the Revolution wall and past the goalkeeper into the top left corner to tie the game as the fans erupted in celebration.
Just before halftime the Sounders struck again, taking advantage of Revolution defender Kevin Alston who was slow to get up after injuring his foot. Ianni sent in a long pass to Rosales who dribbled up the middle before passing it off to Roger Levesque at the top of the box. Leveque quickly sent a touch pass to Fernandez on his left and he shot it across the goal to the far post off the goalkeepers hand and into the goal to give Seattle the lead.
The Sounders held a majority of possession in the second half to hold on the victory, giving them eight wins on the season, second most in MLS play.
Seattle has played their best soccer of late, without the help of some of their best players. Steve Zakuani got off to a tremendous start with two goals and two assists in the first six games before breaking his leg to end his season. Seattle has also been without forward O’Brian White lost to a blog clot in his leg. White, who played for Toronto last year, played in the first seven games and scored two goals. Evans and Fredy Montero have also missed some time, forcing Head coach Sigi Schimid to constantly change his lineup.
Through 18 games it looks like the Sounders have regained some consistency and with the always solid goalkeeping of Kasey Keller, playing in his last season, the Sounders are poised to make some noise in the playoffs.
Here is a recap of the some of the memorable Sounders games this season: Sounders FC
June 23- The Seattle Sounders beat the New York Red Bulls 4-2 thanks to two goals from Roger Levesque in the second half. Levesque, who played for the Sounders in the USL, came on as a substitute in the 58th minute for Mike Fucito. On the first goal he scored with a header off a corner kick. In the 78th minute, Leveque put the pressure on goalkeeper Greg Sutton who took a pass back to him and had a bad first touch which Leveque intercepted and scored into the open net. He then capped off the thrilling goal with a celebration diving over the billboard like he was diving into water for the amusement of the Sounders crowd.
June 11- The Seattle Sounders played to an exhilarating 2-2 draw against the Vancouver Whitecaps, in their first MLS game between two Cascadia rivals. This game had back and forth drama starting in the last 10 minutes of the game when Mauro Rosales tied the game with his goal. Just three minutes later, Osvaldo Alonso stole a failed clearing pass from Vancouver and crushed it past a diving goalkeeper to give the Sounders a 2-1 lead as the fans went crazy with excitement. The energy in the stadium would quickly drop. On the ensuing kickoff, the Whitecaps played the ball into the corner where Jhon Kennedy Hurtado took the ball and passed to Alonso at the corner of the box. Alonso lost the ball to French forward Eric Hassli who deflected the ball up, took a one step into it and crushed whirling shot from the corner of the box right into the far post past a diving Keller for his second goal of the game. It was an amazing goal and devastating blow to the Sounders who looked to have the game won, but instead settled for a draw with their Vancouver rivals who hold the worst record in the MLS in their inaugural season.
May 14 – The Seattle Sounders played to a 1-1 draw with the Portland Timbers on a rainy night fitting for two Northwest rivals. Fernandez scored in the 52nd minute for the Sounders, but the Timbers responded in the 65th minute off a set piece shot from Jake Jewsbury that Mamadou Danso headed in for the equalizer. Seattle will look forward to the rematch July 10 in Portland and see if they can silence the boisterous Timbers Army crowd that tries, but cannot match the intensity Sounders fans have been known to bring to Major League Soccer.
The Sounders next match is on July 4 in Los Angles as they take on Landon Donovan and the Galaxy, the top team in the league. Seattle has not had much luck with the Galaxy, losing to them in the first round of the playoffs last season and getting blown out 4-0 last year during the season, a game I attended that was so bad, the Sounders gave fans their money back. Let’s hope their current six-game unbeaten streak has given the Sounders some renewed confidence to take into that big match.
No comments:
Post a Comment