Super Bowl Update

By Money Mike


After clinching a fourth consecutive playoff berth up in Vancouver and with four games remaining in the regular season, it was important that the Seattle Sounders ended their regular season on a high note, starting with a stretch of three straight at home. And what better way to kick off that stretch with a victory over your arch rivals in front of a record crowd. Last night, the Sounders defeated the Portland Timbers 3-0 in front of a record crowd of 66,452. After a somewhat disappointing month of September, the Men in Rave Green bounced back and completely dominated this match on both sides of the ball from start to finish to kick off the final month of the regular season. The Sounders also move up to third place and are three points behind Real Salt Lake for second position in the Western Conference with a game in hand. These two will square off on October 17th at CenturyLink and if the Sounders can win this match, they will move up to second in the Western Conference. This could be a potential quarterfinal matchup in the MLS Cup playoffs, but we don't know for sure. The Sounders still have three games to go before we find out who their opponent will be.

In the 17th minute, Portland fails to capitalize on some miscommunication. Jack Jewsbury's corner found Rodney Wallace unmarked in the middle of the area but he missed wide of Michael Gspurning's left hand side. The problem there was either Jeff Parke or Brad Evans were supposed to cover him, but they were both marking David Horst.

In the 25th minute, the Timbers struck first. The problem was, they scored in their own net. Ozzie Alonso took control of the ball from midfield. Adam Johansson made a darting run from his right back position. Alonso threaded the ball through and Christian Tiffert made a nice dummy and Johansson had plenty of space to cross after Rodney Wallace tried to break up the play with a sliding tackle and the Swedish international played the ball across looking for Fredy Montero and Mamadou Danso kicked the ball into his own net and the Sounders took a 1-0 lead after an own goal by Futty.

Three minutes later, the Sounders doubled their lead. Brad Evans delivered a very good ball to the middle and right there was Eddie Johnson, unmarked and he made the most of it as he slid the ball home on a half volley for his 14th goal of the season and the Sounders jumped out to 2-nil lead with two quick goals. As for Eddie, he has really improved his form throughout the year since returning to MLS after a dreadful spell in Europe. And earlier today Eddie Johnson was called up to the U.S. national team for their crucial World Cup qualifying matches on the road against Antigua and Barbuda on Friday and at home next Tuesday against Guatemala. I'll talk a little more about that later.

A minute later, the Sounders nearly made it 3-0. Mauro Rosales fed the ball to Eddie Johnson, who then poked the ball to Fredy Montero after he saw there was no room to turn and shoot. Montero took a couple of small touches and went for the floater and Donovan Ricketts got a hand to the ball to deflect it off the post. Did these guys not prepare themselves for this match (the Timbers)? Do they not remember that they've played against this guy before? He's scored three times against this team, they should know that they can not give Fredy Montero that kind of space, because he'll burn you in a blink of an eye.

Nearing the end of the first half, Portland looked to pull one back. Diego Chara poked the ball back to Franck Songo'o, who saw that he had room to shoot and decided to have a crack at goal and was just inches wide.

In the 61st minute, the Sounders would extend the lead to 3-0. A long throw in by Brad Evans found the head of Eddie Johnson who flicked the ball to Fredy Montero who's flick was denied by Donovan Ricketts. The Timbers struggled to clear the ball out of danger and Fredy Montero put home the rebound for his 13th of the season. Both EJ and Montero have now combined for 27 goals this season. And that would turn out to be the final score of the match as the Men in Rave Green sent 98% of the fans home happy with as they struck three times and came away with three points.


Observations:

People have been buzzing about this tifo for quite a while now. As you can see on this picture, it doesn't have the full tifo. I do have a shot of this tifo on my mobile phone, but it's not a great picture. One because my phone is crap and two I was in the nosebleed section. This was shared on the FOX Soccer fan page on facebook (that was the first pic I saw since coming home from the match) and we had a bunch of morons from England saying the same B.S. as always (hopefully you know what I mean).

I was really impressed with performance from start to finish from the lads. Down in Portland, they had a lead in that game and were outplayed since. They were outplayed against San Jose and were outplayed against Vancouver. And although the numbers favored the Timbers, you have to say the Sounders were the better side in this game. This is what we want with the playoffs looming.

As for me, my perfect record in attending Sounders matches rolls on. Since they moved to MLS, I've been to six Sounder matches and they've won all six of them. I've been to a few before that when they were in the USL, and they've drawn and lost a couple during that stretch. And there was no doubt I enjoyed being part of it. Mainly because the entire stadium was packed. CenturyLink Field is a great venue for soccer and the U.S. soccer federation needs to think about making this place a possible venue for any future USA matches. As for you folks out there. If you haven't gone to a Sounders match at all, I would suggest you get your tickets to one of the last two remaining matches on October 17th or the 21st. You would have to be an idiot to deny that Seattle is the greatest Soccer City in America.


Scoring summary:

Seattle Sounders FC - Own goal (Mamadou Danso) 25'

Seattle Sounders FC - Eddie Johnson 14 (Brad Evans 4) 28'

Seattle Sounders FC - Fredy Montero 13 (unassisted) 62'


Misconduct summary:

Seattle Sounders FC - Christian Tiffert (caution; foul) 69'

Portland Timbers - Diego Chara (caution; foul) 72'


Lineups:

Portland Timbers - Donovan Ricketts; Lovel Palmer, David Horst, Mamadou Danso (Eric Brunner 68'), Rodney Wallace; Sal Zizzo (Mike Fucito 46'), Jack Jewsbury, Darlington Nagbe (Eric Alexander 78'), Diego Chara, Franck Songo'o; Bright Dike

Seattle Sounders FC - Michael Gspurning; Adam Johansson, Jeff Parke, Jhon Kennedy Hurtado, Leonardo Gonzalez (Marc Burch 77'); Mauro Rosales (Andy Rose 87'), Osvaldo Alonso, Christian Tiffert (David Estrada 88'), Brad Evans; Eddie Johnson, Fredy Montero

By Money Mike


The Seattle Sounders have clinched a playoff berth for a fourth consecutive season since their arrival to Major League Soccer. That spot was secured on Saturday when they went down to Vancouver and battled the Whitecaps to a 0-0 draw. Yes, the Sounders only needed a draw to clinch a playoff spot, but there was no doubt that they wanted to come away with all three points. The Sounders next three games are at home. Starting on Sunday against the rivals from the South, the Portland Timbers. Over 66,000 tickets have been sold for that game. Then they have a week off the following weekend before they prepare for a midweek match on the 17th against Real Salt Lake. Then their last home match of the regular season will take place on Sunday October 21st against FC Dallas before they close out the regular season against the Los Angeles Galaxy on October 28th. So now that they've made the playoffs again, can they finally avoid another early round exit and advance to the Western Conference final? At this point it's not important because there's still four more games to go in the regular season before we can turn our attention to the MLS Cup playoffs.

Seattle did start this match off brightly early on. In the 12th minute, Brad Evans poked the ball to Ozzie Alonso from outside the penalty area for a first timed shot but it went wide of Brad Knighton's right hand side.

A couple minutes later, the Sounders caught the Whitecaps on the counter but just came within a whisker of breaking the deadlock. Barry Robson curled the ball out from the far corner looking for Jay DeMerit but Michael Gspurning punched the ball out of the box, but not quite out of danger. John Thorrington stepped up and looked to strike the ball on goal, but Leo Gonzalez got in the way and Mauro Rosales got the attack going as he found Fredy Montero and the Sounders sprinted back the other way in a four on two break. Montero played the ball back to Rosales who's first timed cross just eluded Brad Evans who got the start at left midfield over Steve Zakuani.

Shortly after, the Vancouver Whitecaps had to go their bench early. John Thorrington has had some injury problems with his right leg over the course of his career in MLS, and he appeared to have re-aggravated his right knee. So the Whitecaps had to use their first of three available substitutes in the 17th minute with Matt Watson coming into the game. Watson was one of four players who followed head coach Martin Rennie to Vancouver from the Carolina RailHawks during the offseason. Things would go from bad to worse for the Whitecaps later on in the half.

In the 30th minute, the Whitecaps missed a golden opportunity to open the scoring. Ozzie Alonso gave the ball straight away to Gershon Koffie in his own area. Koffie then used a little trickery to get away from Alonso and Leo Gonzalez and played in a perfect ball to Darron Mattocks and all he had to do was strike it on goal to give the Caps a 1-0 lead, but he took a split second too long and Jeff Parke slid in to break up the play.

Five minutes later, Koffie had room to shoot from long distance, but his shot went well wide. There wasn't much action early on up to that point, but since then, the game started to open up.

About a couple minutes later, the Sounders got away with what looked like a foul that wasn't called. Not only that, the Whitecaps had make another change. Kenny Miller fed the ball to Darron Mattocks to took one touch to try to get around Jeff Parke and it appeared that Parke dragged Mattocks to the ground just out side the area and Mattocks collided with goalkeeper Michael Gspurning who came off his line to challenge for the ball. Mattocks stayed down immediately holding his right hammy (Hamstring, in case any of you don't know what I mean) while Gspurning got up off the ground limping. If there was a foul, I don't know if Parke would've been sent off because again, Gspurning came out to challenge for the ball. Also, that the foul been given, it would've been a free kick outside the area. The bottomline is, Mattocks got the worst of the collision after suffering a right hamstring injury and the Whitecaps had to go to the bench for the second time in the first half.

A minute into the second half, Camilo Sanvezzo who came on for Darron Mattocks late in the first half, cut inside of Adam Johansson and sent in a low ball towards goal but he didn't get enough power on it and it was easily gathered by Michael Gspurning. Johansson had a lot to prove in this game after a horrible performance last Saturday against the San Jose Earthquakes. He bounced back very well in this match and had a decent performance in this match. It wasn't great, but it was a lot better than last Saturday. Hopefully during the offseason, Johannson will work on that and come into the 2013 season with a little more confidence.

Two minutes later, Gspurning nearly got beat from distance. Alain Rochat locked his ankles and struck the ball brilliantly with his laces and Gspurning alertly got a left arm to it. The movement of the ball nearly fooled the Austrian goalkeeper as he saw the ball drifting toward his right hand post, but then it started knuckling and Gspurning nearly ran past it.

With over 10 minutes to go in the match, the Sounders could've been up 1-0 had there not been a defender covering the near post. Christian Tiffert took the corner from the near side and found Jeff Parke in the middle of the penalty area for a half volley which was on target and looked to have had goalkeeper Brad Knighton beat, but fortunately for him, Lee Young-Pyo was there to clear the ball off the line.

There was a lot more drama late in the match, especially in the final minute of stoppage time, first in the Whitecaps area. Christian Tiffert curled the ball toward the back post which was behind Fredy Montero, but Montero used his strength to bring the ball down, turn and strike on goal. However the ball drifted away from goal.

You thought that was the last chance of the game, eh eh, not so fast. In the final seconds, the Whitecaps quickly sprinted back the other wide and Camilo missed what was probably the biggest opportunity of his young career. Barry Robson's cross found Kenny Miller would couldn't direct his header goalwards, but the ball found Camilo at the far post and he's put his shot just wide. At his caliber, he usually has no problem putting those away and he probably should've put this one away, but he didn't and the Sounders dodged a huge bullet and came away a point which was all they need to secure a place in the MLS Cup playoffs.

The Sounders wanted the three points, even though they only needed one to get into the playoffs. With the next three at home, it's important that the Sounders take advantage of the home field because home field advantage in the second leg is the key. We're looking at a matchup against either the LA Galaxy or Real Salt Lake should we finish second or third in the Western Conference standings. If they finish fourth, they would have to face Vancouver or Dallas in a wild-card matchup at home, with the winner facing San Jose in the MLS Cup quarterfinal and I'm pretty sure that is something the Sounders wouldn't want.

This team should be able to finish above fourth place at the least, but either way when it comes time for the playoffs, they can't afford to lose anybody to injury. Remember, Mauro Rosales suffered a sprained right knee in the final regular season match of 2011 which ruled him out of the MLS Cup quarterfinal against RSL and that proved costly to the team. That can't happen again, you gotta have your big guys out there at all costs. The Sounders are well overdue to advance out of the Quarterfinal. In 2009, they could've had at least three or four goals against Houston and they ended up losing 1-0 in extra time. Both Seattle and Houston had the best defense in the league, tied to the fewest goals conceded with 29. In 2011, well I think you already know. Losing the first leg 3-0, doesn't mean that you don't have a chance of coming back. If anybody remembers the 2005 UEFA Champions League final, Liverpool was down 3-0 to A.C. Milan but they came back with three second half goals and went on to win the final on PK's. I don't think the Sounders will find themselves in this situation again this postseason. If there was anytime for the Sounders to advance, perhaps this will be it.


Scoring summary:

NONE


Misconduct summary:

Vancouver Whitecaps - Jordan Harvey (caution; foul) 49'

Seattle Sounders FC - Jeff Parke (caution; foul) 55'


Lineups:

Seattle Sounders FC - Michael Gspurning; Adam Johansson, Jeff Parke, Jhon Kennedy Hurtado, Leonardo Gonzalez; Mauro Rosales (Steve Zakuani 70'), Osvaldo Alonso, Christian Tiffert, Brad Evans (Andy Rose 74'); Eddie Johnson, Fredy Montero

Vancouver Whitecaps - Brad Knighton; Lee Young-Pyo, Andy O'Brien, Jay DeMerit, Jordan Harvey; Gershon Koffie, Alain Rochat, Barry Robson, John Thorrington (Matt Watson 17'); Kenny Miller, Darron Mattocks (Camilo Sanvezzo 42')

By Money Mike


The Seattle Sounders will have to wait another week to clinch a spot in the playoffs for the fourth straight year. On Saturday, the Sounders made their second trip to Jeld-Wen Field this season and came away with a valuable point as they drew 1-1 with their arch rivals the Portland Timbers. As for the Cascadia Cup, the Sounders do retain the Cup for now. Had the Sounders lost the match, then the Timbers would've won the Cup and a couple members of the Emerald City Supporters would've had to walk across the field and hand the Cup over to the Timbers Army (I wonder how that would feel. Surrendering the Cup on their ground).

There wasn't much action early on in the match. In the 10th minute, Fredy Montero got through Rodney Wallace and Kosuke Kimura after juggling the ball a few times and chipped the ball the far post for Eddie Johnson but Hayner Mosquera got in the way. Portland struggled to clear the danger. Ozzie Alonso found Andy Rose on the far side. Rose tried to play the ball to the near post for Steve Zakuani but Mosquera got in the way again. The ball fell to Alonso for a half volley, but he didn't strike it cleanly and it went wide left.

We're gonna fast forward to the 38th minute now. Rodney Wallace fed the ball to Franck Songo'o who has been a pain in the ass for the Sounders back line all game long, here's one of the reasons why. Songo'o cut inside to his right foot and gave a rip from outside the area and it was parried away by Michael Gspurning. That was the first time that the Timbers tested the Austrian goalkeeper in this match. The Sounders can't let Franck Songo'o cut inside to his right foot because that's where he's dangerous.

In the 44th minute, Sal Zizzo had a shot blocked by Jeff Parke and cleared out of the box by Brad Evans. However, the clearance fell right to Jack Jewsbury who gave it a go but the ball bounced wide of Gspurning's right hand post.

In the 51st minute, the Timbers suffered a big blow. Goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts, who was acquired last month by the Timbers from the Montreal Impact in exchange for Troy Perkins, collided in the box with Eddie Johnson as he was challenging for the ball. Here's what happened, Zakuani fed Andy Rose who then sent in a low cross toward the near post for Fredy Montero who just missed getting a head on it, otherwise it probably would've been a goal. Ricketts came off his line and punch the ball away and while doing so, he collides with EJ. Ricketts has been dealing with injurys since he joined MLS in 2009. Of course in the 2009 MLS Cup final against Real Salt Lake here in Seattle, he was subbed out after suffering a right hand injury. He missed half of last season with a broken wrist. Now in this match, I remember in the first half intermittently he was holding on to his left arm. He did stay in the match for a few more minutes, but all signs showed that he had to come out and he was replaced by Joe Bendik in the 57th minute.

Seconds later, Bendik was tested immediately and beaten. On the restart, goalkeeper Michael Gspurning booted the ball long down field. The ball found Fredy Montero who chested the ball down, turned and struck it beautifully over the head of Joe Bendik and into the net for his 12th of the season and the Sounders took a 1-0 lead at Jeld-Wen Field.

In the 78th minute, I don't know what happened on this play but the bottomline is the Portland Timbers leveled this match at one. Jack Jewsbury curled the ball out toward the near post and found Rodney Wallace unmarked. Now again, I'm trying to figure out what the hell happened here. I've been looking at this over and over again. From what I saw, the header bounced off Leo Gonzalez who was covering the far post. Michael Gspurning was trying to pounce on it, but Gonzalez just as he was trying to clear the ball just kicked the ball into his own net. This could've been ruled an own goal on Leo and MLS can still go back and change the scoring on that. The only thing that matters though is that the goal counted and the Timbers leveled this match at one.

Now onto the second minute of stoppage time, the Timbers nearly stole one late. Jack Jewsbury took the corner again, this time an inswinger. This one was intended for David Horst, who scored against Seattle in the last meeting between these two, but the ball fell to Bright Dike and he struck the ball off the post and Adam Johansson alertly cleared the ball out of danger. Everybody thought that was in. Michael Gspurning had no chance at that one, but the post saved the Sounders on that one and the game ends in a 1-1 draw.

The Sounders head to Honduras to take on Marathon on Wednesday knowing that a win will earn them a spot in the Champions League Quarterfinal. Eddie Johnson is suspended for Saturdays home match against the San Jose Earthquakes for Yellow Card accumulations so he will make the trip to Honduras. Mauro Rosales and Christian Tiffert will not make the trip to Honduras however because they are dealing with injuries. However, there's a chance that they'll recover in time for the San Jose match. We need those guys out there, we're getting to a point where we can't afford to lose a key player to injury that could potentially rule them out for the playoffs.


Scoring summary:

Seattle Sounders FC - Fredy Montero 12 (Michael Gspurning 1) 57'

Portland Timbers - Rodney Wallace 1 (Jack Jewsbury 4) 78'


Misconduct summary:

Seattle Sounders FC - Eddie Johnson (caution; foul) 26'

Seattle Sounders FC - Mario Martinez (caution; foul) 79'


Lineups:

Seattle Sounders FC - Michael Gspurning; Adam Johansson, Jeff Parke, Jhon Kennedy Hurtado, Leonardo Gonzalez; Brad Evans (Marc Burch 78'), Osvaldo Alonso, Andy Rose, Steve Zakuani (Mario Martinez 70'); Eddie Johnson, Fredy Montero

Portland Timbers - Donovan Ricketts (Joe Bendik 57'); Kosuke Kimura, Hayner Mosquera, David Horst, Rodney Wallace; Darlington Nagbe, Jack Jewsbury, Diego Chara; Sal Zizzo (Kalif Alhassan 83'), Bright Dike, Franck Songo'o (Danny Mwanga 72')

By Money Mike


The Seattle Sounders were up 2-1 on aggregate going into the away leg against Santos Laguna, but Santos came right back and knocked the Sounders out of the Champions League. Not only did the Sounders get eliminated, they got owned. Santos won the second leg by a final count of 6-1 and won the series 7-3 on aggregate. I know this was not going to be easy. I know that Santos were the favorites to move on, but did I think that it would end like this? Well, no I didn't. Seattle kicks off their 2012 MLS campaign this Saturday at home against Toronto FC, who by the way, just knocked the Los Angeles Galaxy out of the Champions League.

Santos got things going early in the match. In the 8th minute, Cristian Suarez looked like he was well defended at first, but he fired a low left foot drive past Michael Gspurning and into the low left corner. Two minutes later, Santos struck again. This time it was Oribe Peralta fighting off Jhon Kennedy Hurtado and slotting it home for the goal to make it 2-0 Santos in the second leg and 3-2 Santos on aggregate. It was Peralta's 5th goal of the tournament. Seattle did manage to regroup though. Doing a better job at keeping possession and creating a couple of chances to pull level in the series and in the 37th minute, they did just that. Fredy Montero's curling ball found Alvaro Fernandez for the goal that leveled the series up at 3-3. The momentum looked like it shifted Seattle's way after that goal.

Unfortunately, the momentum was lost and things got ugly for the Sounders in the second half. In the second half, it was Herculez Gomez off a feed from Cristian Suarez to put Santos back up on aggregate. Gomez would add another one in the 68th minute. Cristian Suarez would then add his second goal in the 76th minute. And then Santos would add one more in the 81st minute from Carlos Ochoa. The Sounders 2011-12 Champions League campaign is over, tough way to start the 2012 season.


Observations:

Again, it's a tough way for Sigi Schmid and his team to end your Champions League run. I'd still give the Sounders credit. In their first season in the Champions League in 2010-11, they finished last place in group play, only finishing with three points. In 2011-12, I just wondered how far they could go, if they're good enough to compete in their group and looking at their group prior to their first match against Comunicaciones, I thought maybe they do have a chance here and they ended up finishing second in the group with 10 points. I wasn't too pleased with the result, but like I said, I'm impressed with their performance overall in the Champions League and I'm looking forward to watching them compete in MLS this season.

On my last preview, I said that the altitude could play a factor here in the second leg and I have to say, it really got to the Sounders in this game. The defense got caught on a few breaks. Fredy Montero, really struggled this series despite picking up two assists. Mauro Rosales and Alvaro Fernandez were the only ones who looked alive in this game. Soccer players in America are taught to play under a low altitude, not high altitude and a 90 degree temperature. That's why I'd prefer playing in a cold environment.

This team's going to get better at this stage as they continue to progress. Will this loss effect their confidence? No. We have a team that can compete and will compete for the Championship and it's easy to believe that with the Sounders right now than it was with the Mariners about a couple of years ago. You would have to be a stupid ignorant moron to deny the fact that the Sounders are one of the teams to beat in Major League Soccer.


Scoring summary:

Santos Laguna - Cristian Suarez (unassisted) 8'

Santos Laguna - Oribe Peralta (Daniel Luduena) 10'

Seattle Sounders FC - Alvaro Fernandez (Fredy Montero) 37'

Santos Laguna - Herculez Gomez (Cristian Suarez) 49'

Santos Laguna - Herculez Gomez (Oribe Peralta, Jorge Estrada) 68'

Santos Laguna - Cristian Suarez (Jorge Estrada) 76'

Santos Laguna - Carlos Ochoa (unassisted) 81'

* Santos Laguna advances 7-3 on aggregate.


Misconduct summary:

Seattle Sounders FC - Leonardo Gonzalez (caution; foul) 14'

Seattle Sounders FC - Fredy Montero (caution; handball) 30'

Santos Laguna - Oribe Peralta (caution; dissent) 41'

Santos Laguna - Felipe Baloy (caution; fight) 45'

Santos Laguna - Juan Pablo Rodriguez (caution; foul) 80'


Lineups:

Seattle Sounders FC - Michael Gspurning; Adam Johansson, Jeff Parke, Jhon Kennedy Hurtado, Leonardo Gonzalez (Christian Sivebaek 77'); Mauro Rosales, Osvaldo Alonso, Brad Evans, Alvaro Fernandez; David Estrada (Eddie Johnson 62', Roger Levesque 81'), Fredy Montero

Santos Laguna - Oswaldo Sanchez; Jorge Estrada, Aaron Galindo, Felipe Baloy, Osmar Mares; Marc Crosas (Rodolfo Salinas 33'), Juan Pablo Rodriguez, Daniel Luduena (Candido Ramirez 63'); Cristian Suarez, Herculez Gomez (Carlos Ochoa 69'), Oribe Peralta

By Money Mike


The Seattle Sounders got back to business and picked up where they left off last season, scoring goals. The Sounders came away with a 2-1 victory over a talented Santos Laguna side in the first leg of the CONCACAF Champions League Quarterfinal. The second leg will be next wednesday on Santos's home ground before Seattle opens up MLS play at home against Toronto FC on March 17. One thing that's going to stand out heading into the second leg is the away goal by Santos. I just hope that it doesn't come back to bite Seattle and that they would ease their way through to the semifinal where they would have the home field advantage in the second leg.

Seattle got things going early in the match. In the 5th minute, Mauro Rosales had a go from outside the penalty area, but there wasn't much on it and Oswaldo Sanchez made an easy save in the center of the goal. Two minutes later, Fredy Montero got on the end of an Adam Johansson cross, but again it came to nothing.

In the 12th minute, first blood went to Seattle. Fredy Montero sent in a beautiful curling ball to the far post for a free header from David Estrada and he made no mistake, a downward header past the keeper Oswaldo Sanchez and in the back of the net to give the Sounders a 1-0 lead. Estrada, who hasn't seen much playing time in his first two seasons here and looked ready to leave the club, got the start today over Eddie Johnson and he delivered by scoring his first professional goal. Seattle had another opportunity in the 18th minute. Adam Johansson once again whipped in a good cross for Fredy Montero. This time the header was on target, but Sanchez got his hand to it to force it wide. Santos started creating opportunities in the last 15 minutes of the first half but failed to find the back of the net. Seattle's last real opportunity in the first half came from Alvaro Fernandez. A curler to the far post from just outside the area that just sailed over the bar.

Things went pretty quiet in the first 15 minutes of the second half in terms of creating chances, but then in the 61st minute, Santos Laguna struck back. Marc Crosas sent in a little chip into the penalty area and found Herculez Gomez making a diagonal run in front of Sounders left back Leonardo Gonzalez. Gomez turned and slotted the ball past Michael Gspurning and into the far corner of the net to tie this match up at a goal a peice. I don't know if Gspurning got a touch on that, but that was poor defending though by Gonzalez. That is a vital away goal for Santos Laguna because that puts a little pressure on the Sounders heading into the second leg on their home ground which is really a difficult place to play. However, it didn't take long for Seattle to hit back and re gain the lead.

In the 63rd minute, Mauro Rosales sent in a free kick from the far side of the pitch, an inswinger into the six yard box where Brad Evans battled off a Santos defender and headed it over Oswaldo Sanchez and into the bottom left corner of the net to restore Seattle's one goal lead. From there, Seattle looked content to hold the lead in their first competitive match of the year 2012 and they nearly got a third goal as Eddie Johnson, who entered the match for Alvaro Fernandez in the 78th minute, nearly made an immediate impact and his header in the 80th minute missed wide of goal. That was just about the last scoring chance as Seattle hold's on for a 2-1 win.


Observations:

I tell you what from what I've seen, Oribe Peralta sure had a rough ass time out there for Santos Laguna. He did have a couple of looks at goal in this match, but both center backs Jeff Parke and Jhon Kennedy Hurtado did very well to shut him down and keep him off the score sheet in this match. I had Peralta as one of the players to watch on my match preview, saying that if the center backs get caught sleeping, Peralta would make them pay big time. So I think the backline did a pretty good job defensively in this match, not to mention the goal by Herculez Gomez. Personally though, I think these guys need to tighten up a bit defensively in the second leg because there were some openings that Santos found, but fortunately for the Sounders they were unable to take advantage of that.

We had a lot of pushing and shoving from the players in this match and the referee did a poor job in this one. Seven yellow cards were isssued in this game and the referee did a poor job keeping the players under control and that will just piss every soccer fan off, including me. It's just rediculous when you have a lot of brawls in a match as well as cards that should've been issued to players and haven't. This happened in the preliminary match here at home against San Francisco F.C. Every a match turns into a bitch fight between both teams and the referee's don't do anything about it, then it's pretty obvious they shouldn't be officiating any matches at all. Not even friendlies.

It was really an exciting night for Seattle and the Sounders. I was at the match, I enjoyed it. I was hoping for a better result in this match, but I'll take the 2-1 win. Right now, the away goal by Herculez Gomez could be the factor in this series. Hopefully, Seattle can hang on and advance to the Champions League semifinal.


Scoring summary:

Seattle Sounders FC - David Estrada (Fredy Montero, Leonardo Gonzalez) 12'

Santos Laguna - Herculez Gomez (Marc Crosas) 61'

Seattle Sounders FC - Brad Evans (Mauro Rosales) 63'


Misconduct summary:

Santos Laguna - Juan Pablo Rodriguez (caution; Dangerous play) 28'

Santos Laguna - Osmar Mares (caution; Dissent) 29'

Seattle Sounders FC - Jhon Kennedy Hurtado (caution; Foul) 33'

Seattle Sounders FC - Leonardo Gonzalez (caution; Foul) 58'

Santos Laguna - Oswaldo Sanchez (caution; Dissent) 65'

Santos Laguna - Santiago Hoyos (caution; Dissent) 80'

Seattle Sounders FC - David Estrada (caution; Dangerous play) 89'


Lineups:

Santos Laguna - Oswaldo Sanchez; Ivan Estrada, Aaron Galindo, Santiago Hoyos, Osmar Mares; Marc Crosas, Juan Pablo Rodriguez (Rodolfo Salines 84'), Daniel Luduena (Candido Ramirez 74'); Cristian Suarez, Herculez Gomez (Carlos Ochoa 84'), Oribe Peralta

Seattle Sounders FC - Michael Gspurning; Adam Johansson, Jeff Parke, Jhon Kennedy Hurtado, Leonardo Gonzalez; Mauro Rosales, Osvaldo Alonso, Brad Evans, Alvaro Fernandez (Eddie Johnson 78'); David Estrada (Marc Burch 89'), Fredy Montero

By Money Mike

By Money Mike







In the Champions League Group stage opener at CenturyLink Field, the Sounders gave up an early goal, but bounced back with four unanswered goals to beat Comunicaciones 4-1. Michael Fucito scored two goals and assisted on another. The Sounders didn't seem to lose any focus, even after going down a man when Lamar Neagle was shown a Red Card. You could tell by this teams performance last night, they could play anybody in this region.



In the second minute, Comunicaciones got on the board early. Brayan Ordonez tracked a long ball in the corner, sending in a hopeful cross. When Sounders goalkeeper Terry Boss was unable to cut down the service, Jairo Arreola beat defender James Riley to the far post for an early lead.



In the 35th minute, Seattle answered. Mike Fucito's corner found Brad Evans from point blank range, and Evans headed the ball off the crossbar and over the goal line for the equalizer.



In the 61st minute, Fucito would this time find the back of the net. Fucito ran onto a pass from Fredy Montero, cut the ball inside the penalty area and finished with his left foot to give the Sounders a 2-1 advantage. He wasn't done though. Six minutes later, he would tack on another one. After making another good run on the ball, this time from Alvaro Fernandez, Fucito took one touch the curled the ball around the goalkeeper and in for his second of the match. Seattle would tack on one more on an own goal and maximum points in the first match.





Scoring summary:



Comunicaciones - Jairo Arreola (Bryan Ordonez) 2'



Seattle Sounders FC - Brad Evans (Michael Fucito) 35'



Seattle Sounders FC - Michael Fucito (Fredy Montero, Alvaro Fernandez) 61'



Seattle Sounders FC - Michael Fucito (Alvaro Fernandez, Brad Evans) 67'



Seattle Sounders FC - Own Goal (Alvaro Fernandez) 87'





Misconduct summary:



Comunicaciones - Jairo Arreloa (caution; Dissent) 9'



Seattle Sounders FC - Patrick Ianni (caution; Tactical foul) 16'



Seattle Sounders FC - James Riley (caution; Reckless tackle) 47'+



Comunicaciones - Carlos Castrillo (caution; Reckless tackle) 50'



Seattle Sounders FC - Leonardo Gonzalez (caution; Tactical foul) 54'



Seattle Sounders FC - Lamar Neagle (ejection; Violent conduct) 55'



Comunicaciones - Adolfo Machado (caution; Reckless tackle) 60'



Comunicaciones - Carlos Ramirez (caution; Unsporting behavior) 69'



Seattle Sounders FC - Jhon Kennedy Hurtado (caution; Unsporting behavior) 69'



Comunicaciones - Edgard Martinez (ejection; Abusive Language) 80'



Comunicaciones - Fredy Thompson (caution; Reckless tackle) 91'+





Lineups:



Comunicaciones - Juan Jose Peredas; Adolfo Machado, Edgard Martinez, Carlos Castrillo, Erwin Morales; Carlos Ramirez, Juan Marquez (Rigoberto Gomez 77'), Fredy Thompson, Jairo Arreloa, Bryan Ordonez (Carlos Mejia 70'); Transito Montepeque (Hernan Sandoval 78')



Seattle Sounders FC - Terry Boss; James Riley, Patrick Ianni (Roger Levesque 84'), Jhon Kennedy Hurtado, Leonardo Gonzalez (Zach Scott 75'); Lamar Neagle, Servando Carrasco, Brad Evans, Alvaro Fernandez; Fredy Montero (Mauro Rosales 63'), Michael Fucito

By Money Mike