Fredy Montero's Hat Trick leads the Sounders to a 6-2 beat down of Chivas USA

By Money Mike


The Seattle Sounders showed once again that they are a dangerous second half team. On Saturday, to know that this guy is the greatest goalscorer in the club's young MLS history, it's hard to believe that this is the first hat trick of Fredy Montero's career as he struck three times in the Sounders 6-2 blowout win over Chivas USA at the Home Depot Center. With the win, the Sounders climb into second place ahead of Real Salt Lake who knocked the Sounders out of the playoffs last season. If the regular season were to come to an end last weekend, the Sounders and RSL would face eachother again in the Western Conference semifinals with RSL hosting the first leg.

Chivas USA found some openings early on in the match. In the third minute, former LA Galaxy player Tristan Bowen who was making his first start of the season for Chivas was found on the near side with some space. Bowen worked a give and go with Nick Labrocca and looked to strike the ball on goal, but the angle was tight so instead he threaded the ball through to Miller Bolanos who tried to place his shot into the far corner, but instead he hit it straight at Michael Gspurning.

Two minutes later, Miller Bolanos played in a low ball toward the near post for Juan Agudelo who tried to direct it into the far corner, but the final outcome of that was another missed opportunity.

The Sounders first opportunity of the game didn't come until the 10 minute mark and they had no problem making it count. Eddie Johnson flicked the ball on for Fredy Montero who brought the ball down and played an excellent through ball to Brad Evans who got in behind James Riley and Evans calmly slotted the ball into the far corner for his second goal of the season and the Sounders took an early 1-0 lead.

In the 15th minute, Chivas USA had another opportunity to score. After a giveaway, Ante Jazic worked a give and go with Agudelo on the far side before whipping in a good cross for Casey Townsend to got in front of Jhon Kennedy Hurtado but he couldn't head the ball on target. There were so many openings on both side of the field all game long. As for Casey Townsend, he should've scored there. He was in perfect position to head the ball home and he ends up missing it. This is why Chivas USA have scored the fewest goals in the league.

In the 27th minute, Chivas loses possession and the Sounders pour down field in a counter attack and make them pay. Christian Tiffert sent Brad Evans in behind with a brilliant long ball. Evans was looking to try and score another goal, but James Riley tracked back and didn't give him any chance at that and had to wait for support. And he got it as he played the ball back to Mauro Rosales who slid the ball through to Fredy Montero and the Colombian did the rest as he turned and hit it low and hard into the far corner to double Seattle's lead with his ninth goal of the season and his 12th in all competitions. As for Mauro Rosales, remember in mid June he began to struggle on the right hand side and he only had a goal and two assists at the time? It's been a different story since than, that assist on Montero's goal was his 11th in 2012 and there was still more to come later on in the game.

What do I mean by later you ask? Well, let's say the 34th minute when he sets up Fredy Montero again for another goal. Fredy Montero picked up the ball from the near side and he stumbles a little bit and loses his footing, but he did very well to use his strength and maintain possession before James Riley could break up the play. The Sounders worked the ball around outside the area before Mauro Rosales played another excellent through ball to Montero who was all alone and Montero chipped the ball over Dan Kennedy and in to make it 3-0. That goal also put Montero into double figures yet again with his 10th league goal of the season.

A couple minutes later, Chivas USA were awarded a penalty kick. Juan Agudelo chipped the ball to the near post looking for Casey Townsend. Now as Townsend was about to volley the ball goalwards, I thought at first he caught one of the defenders with a high boot. I don't know why, I just did. But Townsend never made contact with any defender, and the ball apparently came off the hand of Jeff Parke and referee Jose Carlos Rivero pointed to the penalty spot. Juan Agudelo stepped up and calmly slotted the ball low into the right corner, sending Michael Gspurning the wrong way to cut the Sounders lead to 3-1.

In the 56th minute, Chivas USA let yet another chance slip away. Juan Agudelo played the ball back to Nick LaBrocca who whipped the ball in first time and getting up was Tristan Bowen for a snap down header which bounced just wide.

In the 64th minute, Chivas were able to finish their chance and what was once a 3-0 Sounder lead has now become a 3-2 Sounder lead. Tristan Bowen fed the ball to the near side for Miller Bolanos. Bolanos had a bit of space to decide whether to pass the ball or strike it from distance. He had Ante Jazic making an overlapping run, but Bolanos decided to go for it alone as he cut inside of Jeff Parke and struck the ball low and hard and it skipped underneath Michael Gspurning and into the back of the goal to make it a one goal game. So things started to look pretty interesting in this match as Chivas USA looked like they were down and out earlier in the game before they scored two unanswered goals to get back in this match.

That is until the 67th minute when Seattle restored their two goal lead and began to pull away from there. Mauro Rosales was once again the set up man as he played another brilliant ball to Fredy Montero. Montero avoided the sliding challenge from John Valencia and rifled his shot into the far corner to complete his hat trick and more importantly to extend Seattle's lead to 4-2. Montero is the fourth Sounders player to record a hat trick in the clubs young history. Blaise Nkufo did it on the road against the Columbus Crew in 2010, Lamar Neagle did at home in 2011 which was also against the Columbus Crew, of course David Estrada did it against Toronto FC in the Opener back in March and now Fredy Montero finally joins that list with three impressive goals against Chivas USA.

The Sounders weren't done there. In the 80th minute, the Sounders put together a lot of passes in this move as they worked the ball out wide to Christian Tiffert who looked and curled the ball near post for Sammy Ochoa and the big man got in on the act with a terrific header to make it 5-2 Seattle.

The Sounders would get one more in the 91st minute. Fredy Montero waited for support and chipped the ball into the area looking for Mario Martinez who was making a run toward the far post and Ante Jazic headed the ball into his own net to make it 6-2 and that's how it would end.

The Sounders road trip continues. Right now they're in Trinidad and Tobago preparing for their Champions League match tomorrow against Caledonia AIA. After that they will head to head to FC Dallas Stadium this Sunday to, well take on FC Dallas. Their confidence should be really high right now the way they've played lately. As for Mario Martinez, if you never heard of him, he's a Honduran international who joined the team on loan from Real Espana following the Olympics. This was his debut match for the Sounders, coming on in the 78th minute. In his short time on the pitch, I thought his movement on the ball was good, he's a good passer, he's got a great vision and he's a fast paced athlete. I think the Sounders need to get Martinez completely involved in these late stages as the Sounders get set for another playoff run.


Scoring summary:

Seattle Sounders FC - Brad Evans 2 (Fredy Montero 5) 10'

Seattle Sounders FC - Fredy Montero 9 (Mauro Rosales 11) 27'

Seattle Sounders FC - Fredy Montero 10 (Mauro Rosales 12) 34'

Chivas USA - Juan Agudelo 2 (penalty kick) 38'

Chivas USA - Miller Bolanos 2 (Tristan Bowen 1) 64'

Seattle Sounders FC - Fredy Montero 11 (Mauro Rosales 13) 67'

Seattle Sounders FC - Sammy Ochoa 1 (Christian Tiffert 1, Brad Evans 3) 80'

Seattle Sounders FC - Own goal (Ante Jazic) 91'+


Misconduct summary:

Seattle Sounders FC - Osvaldo Alonso (caution; foul) 54'

Chivas USA - Miller Bolanos (caution; off the ball foul) 93'+


Lineups:

Seattle Sounders FC - Michael Gspurning; Adam Johansson, Jeff Parke, Jhon Kennedy Hurtado, Leonardo Gonzalez; Mauro Rosales (Mario Martinez 78'), Osvaldo Alonso, Christian Tiffert (Steve Zakuani 84'), Brad Evans; Eddie Johnson (Sammy Ochoa 73'), Fredy Montero

Chivas USA - Dan Kennedy; James Riley, John Valencia, Bobby Burling, Ante Jazic; Tristan Bowen (Jose Erick Correa 69'), Shalrie Joseph, Nick LaBrocca, Miller Bolanos; Juan Agudelo, Casey Townsend (Juan Pablo Angel 86')

Seattle Sounders FC monthly rewind: May 2012

By Money Mike


The Sounders started the month on a high note with wins over the LA Galaxy, the Philadelphia Union and FC Dallas. Since then, they have struggled to produce as they are winless in their last four MLS matches. After a long month where the Sounders had to play a total of eight matches, including the U.S. Open Cup, I'm going to look back and give you guys some positives (Bryan Meredith filling in very well in goal) and negatives (lack of finishing and poor defending) from this past month and look ahead to what we have going on for the month of June, including Steve Zakuani's road to recovery.


Positives:

Back on May 2nd against the LA Galaxy, Bryan Meredith came on as a halftime sub for Michael Gspurning after he suffered a hip injury. He was ruled out for 2-3 weeks, but I wasn't surprised that Meredith got the start in goal for the rest of the month. Since filling in, Meredith has done an excellent job as he finished the month with a GAA of 0.92 in six starts and he also has a couple of clean sheets. The Sounders have dealt with their goalkeeping crisis since the end of last season starting with Terry Boss's season ending concussion which also forced him to retire. Josh Ford has been dealing with a few injuries as well and Andrew Weber has had ankle problems that dropped him to the #3 spot in the Depth Chart. I still remember Bryan Meredith making his debut against Monterrey in the final Champions League group stage match and putting together a great performance between the pipes because he just joined the team at the time following Kitsap Pumas PDL Championship run. I've been impressed with this kid and I think he has a great future ahead of him, but unfortunately he won't be in goal much longer when Gspurning returns in a couple of weeks.

I think Fredy Montero has had a solid month for the Sounders and has answered all the stupid and unnecessary critics with four goals and three assists during the month. People have been calling him lazy and I will say that he hasn't been aggressive at the start of the season, but last month was a different story as he really began to challenge the defenders and test the goalkeepers. The Montero/Johnson partnership has had its ups and downs during the month, but I think it will start to take shape as summer rolls around. Montero has been accounted for six of the seven goals Seattle has scored in league play last month.


Negatives:

I'm not sure what to make of this. Last four MLS matches, poor defending and on the other side, poor finishing. This is definitely not the Sounders team we saw at the last half of the 2011 season all the way up to the midweek road match against FC Dallas. On the defensive side, the man who has disappointed me the most is Adam Johansson. He has been caught napping in his last three starts and those three times he got caught, the opposition went ahead and scored. He is 10 times better than that. The coaching staff needs to get in his head, get him fired up or whatever. They need to do something because getting caught in three straight matches is ridiculous. The defense needs to wake up and the offense needs to finish when they get the chance.


Western Conference standings:

1. Real Salt Lake, 9-3-2 (29 pts) GF 22 GA 14 GD 8
2. San Jose Earthquakes, 8-3-3 (27 pts) GF 27 GA 17 GD 10
3. Seattle Sounders FC, 7-3-3 (24 pts) GF 16 GA 9 GD 7
4. Colorado Rapids, 6-6-1 (19 pts) GF 20 GA 18 GD 2
5. Vancouver Whitecaps, 5-3-4 (19 pts) GF 13 GA 14 GD -1
6. Chivas USA, 4-6-3 (15 pts) GF 9 GA 14 GD -5
7. Portland Timbers, 3-5-4 (13 pts) GF 12 GA 15 GD -3
8. FC Dallas, 3-8-4 (13 pts) GF 15 GA 24 GD -9
9. Los Angeles Galaxy, 3-8-2 (11 pts) GF 15 GA 21 GD -6


Look ahead to the month of June:

There's really not much going on this month unlike last month. All we have are four league matches and a couple of U.S. Open Cup matches as well, unless the Sounders end of losing to Cal FC this Tuesday.

Upcoming schedule: June 2012

June 5 vs Cal FC, 7:00pm (soundersfc.com, FOX Soccer)*
June 16 @ Montreal Impact, 4:30pm (KONG TV)
June 20 vs Sporting Kansas City, 7:00pm (KONG TV)
June 24 @ Portland Timbers, 2:00pm (ESPN)
June 30 @ New England Revolution, 4:30pm (KONG TV)

Note: * - U.S. Open Cup match

Now this is huge for the Sounders. Last night Steve Zakuani appeared in a reserve match against the Whitecaps reserves and played a full 45 minutes. It was great to see him back out there as he winds down his long road to recovery from that broken leg he suffered April 23rd of last year. With the struggles the Sounders have gone through late last month and the fact that they have yet to get past the MLS Cup Quarterfinal, having Zakuani back will be a major boost for the Seattle Sounders on their road to MLS Cup 2012.

Sounders and Chivas USA finish all square 1-1

By Money Mike


The Seattle Sounders were coming off a very disappointing 2-0 loss at home Wednesday night to the Columbus Crew and really needed to find a way to keep that from happening again. The way they played on Saturday, Seattle possibly could've came away with all three points but instead they settled for a 1-1 draw at the Home Depot Center against a new look Chivas USA side. The Sounders will now have a two week break from MLS play. They still have a U.S. Open Cup match this Wednesday down at Starfire against the Atlanta Silverbacks and another one on June 5th should they advance with a win over Atlanta. The Sounders currently sit in third place in the Western Conference with a record of 7-3-3 (24 points).

In the 31st minute, former Sounder James Riley played a long crossfield ball to the near side for Ryan Smith. Now here's the problem, Mauro Rosales was all the way back defending because Zach Scott who was supposed to be defending Smith on these plays was in a central defensive position. Smith took advantage of that and maneuvered around Rosales and sent in a low ball to the near post for Alejandro Moreno, but Jeff Parke was there as well to knock it out of play for a corner kick. Parke has been criticised lately about his defending, but he answered all critics in this match and made some great defensive plays.

In the 39th minute, Fredy Montero sent David Estrada in behind the Chivas USA defense and it looked he had all the time and space to either get a cross in or go for goal himself, but James Riley got back and broke of the attack. That was five yards that Riley made up. Estrada is another guy that has been criticised lately. I understand Eric Wynalda was discussing this on FSN West and I have to agree with him on this part. The reason Estrada has stuggled is because of his lack of pace. So far, he's lacking still and he doesn't have the closing speed and hopefully he'll continue to work on that as the season goes on.

Two minutes later, Alvaro Fernandez headed the ball on for Marc Burch to made an excellent run from the back. However he didn't have much of an angle for a shot or a cross and the ball was easily gathered by Chivas goalkeeper Dan Kennedy.

At the end of the first half, the Sounders had the best opportunity to take the lead going into the locker room. Fredy Montero got away from John Valencia and tried to find David Estrada, but the ball was deflected by Danny Califf right to Mauro Rosales who misses a golden opportunity. I don't know how much Rosales knew about it, but that was the best chance of the half for either side.

In the 57th minute, first blood went to the Goats. Peter Vagenas, another former Sounder, found James Riley on the near side with loads of space. Riley curled the ball toward the near post. Now it looked like Bryan Meredith was going to punch this one clear, but Juan Agudelo snuck right in front of him to head that one into the far corner to give Chivas USA a 1-0 lead. Agudelo's first professional goal came against the Sounders while he was playing for the New York Red Bulls and now in his second game for his new club, he repeats the trick and scores his first goal for Chivas USA against the Seattle Sounders.

In the 61st minute, the Sounders would come right back and tie it up. Shortly after coming on, Alex Caskey makes an immediate impact as he curled in a low ball right into the mixer and all David Estrada had to do was get a toe to the ball and that's exactly what he did as he made a run around John Valencia and poked the ball home for his fifth goal of the season. As for Caskey, that was his third assist of the season and I got to tell you he's outperforming Alvaro Fernandez so far this season. If Fernandez doesn't pull his head out soon, he could lose his starting job.

In the 90th minute, Eddie Johnson made a run all the way to the end line before trying to square the ball for Cordell Cato, but Cato couldn't get a foot on it. The ball bounced to Andy Rose for a first timed shot, but it was cleared away by Danny Califf. Had he not cleared the ball, it probably could've been a goal at the same time Kennedy may have had that covered, but the bottomline is Seattle couldn't find the breakthrough and come away with only a point.


Scoring summary:

Chivas USA - Juan Agudelo 1 (James Riley 2, Peter Vagenas 1) 57'

Seattle Sounders FC - David Estrada 5 (Fredy Montero 3, Alex Caskey 3) 61'


Misconduct summary:

Seattle Sounders FC - Andy Rose (caution; foul) 20'


Lineups:

Seattle Sounders FC - Bryan Meredith; Zach Scott, Jeff Parke, Jhon Kennedy Hurtado, Marc Burch; Mauro Rosales, Andy Rose, Brad Evans, Alvaro Fernandez (Alex Caskey 61'); David Estrada (Cordell Cato 78'), Fredy Montero (Eddie Johnson 73')

Chivas USA - Dan Kennedy; James Riley, Danny Califf, John Valencia (Rauwshan McKenzie 66'), Ante Jazic; Laurent Courtois, Peter Vagenas, Ryan Smith (Cesar Romero 88'); Juan Agudelo, Jose Erick Correa (Blair Gavin 76'), Alejandro Moreno

Sounders close out the regular season on a winning note, 3-1 over Chivas USA.

By Money Mike


The Seattle Sounders on the last day of the 2011 regular season crush Chivas USA 3-1 at the Home Depot Center. The Sounders finish the regular season with an 18-7-9 record which gives them 63 points and also become the 10th team in history to win 9 road games in a season. Chivas USA ends their season with a record of 8-14-12 which is good for 36 points. The Sounders next week will head to Rio Tinto Stadium to face Real Salt Lake in the 1st Leg of the MLS Cup Quarterfinals. The match will either be played on Saturday or Sunday. The return leg will be on either November 5th or 6th at CenturyLink Field.

Now this is was a scary moment for the Sounders. In the 5th minute, Mauro Rosales, who made his first start since the D.C. United match when he sprained his MCL, looked to have sprained it yet again. 2nd year man, Ben Zemanski came in hard and late on the tackle and picked up a yellow card for the Challenge. Rosales taken off the field on a stretcher and was replaced in the 10th minute by Roger Levesque. A couple minutes later, Rosales got up off the stretcher and walked to the bench under his own power. As far as we know, the injury doesn't look as bad as it first looked on the screen.

Now onto the 53rd minute when the Sounders took the lead after an own goal. After some nice build up by the Men in Rave Green with James Riley and Fredy Montero, Andrew Boyens tried to clear the ball away, however, he accidentally backheeled it into his own net to give the Sounders a 1-0 advantage.

15 minutes later, El Flacco doubled the Sounders lead. Brad Evans, after seeing that both Roger Levesque and Fredy Montero were in an offside position chipped the ball over the defense for Alvaro Fernandez who curled it past Dan Kennedy and into the far corner for his 9th goal in MLS this season and his 11th in all compitions. Five minutes later, it would be Sammy Ochoa's turn to get on the scoresheet with a terrific diving header off a Fredy Montero cross to make it 3-0 Sounders.

Chivas would get a consulation goal in the 83rd minute off a header by Victor Estupinan for his first MLS goal, but that wasn't enough for the goats as the Sounders come away with a 3-1 win.


Scoring summary:

Seattle Sounders FC - Own Goal (Andrew Boyens) 53'

Seattle Sounders FC - Alvaro Fernandez 9 (Brad Evans 5) 68'

Seattle Sounders FC - Sammy Ochoa 2 (Fredy Montero 9, Roger Levesque 3) 73'

Chivas USA - Victor Estupinan 1 (Andrew Boyens 1, Mariano Trujillo 2) 83'


Misconduct summary:

Chivas USA - Ben Zemanski (caution; Reckless tackle) 5'

Seattle Sounders FC - Roger Levesque (caution; Reckless foul) 40'

Seattle Sounders FC - Brad Evans (caution; Dissent) 79'

Seattle Sounders FC - Fredy Montero (caution; Lack of Respect for Game) 80'


Lineups:

Seattle Sounders FC - Kasey Keller; James Riley, Jeff Parke, Jhon Kennedy Hurtado, Leonardo Gonzalez (Tyson Wahl 81'); Mauro Rosales (Roger Levesque 10'), Osvaldo Alonso, Brad Evans, Alvaro Fernandez; Fredy Montero, Mike Fucito (Sammy Ochoa 64')

Chivas USA - Dan Kennedy; Zarek Valentin, Heath Pearce (Andrew Boyens 46'), David Junior Lopes, Ante Jazic (Mariano Trujillo 56'); Alejandro Moreno, Blair Gaven, Nick LaBrocca, Ben Zemanski; Juan Pablo Angel (Victor Estupinan 75'), Marcos Mondaini

Seattle Sounders FC vs Chivas USA preview

By Money Mike



The Seattle Sounders return home to face Chivas USA having re-gained confidence last week late in their match against Kansas City, scoring two goals and coming away with a 2-1 win. Last year, the Sounders took the season series against Chivas, drawing on the road and winning 2-1 in their final regular season home match. The Sounders look to pull into second place in the western conference and stay in the hunt for the top spot in MLS. Right now they are sitting in third place at 41 points, FC Dallas just a point ahead of them for 2nd, sitting at 42 points and the LA Galaxy are on top with 48 points.


Injury report:

Chivas USA - For Chivas, only one player listed here. Jimmy Conrad has been battling a concussion since week 3 and he's not gonna make his return this week.

Seattle Sounders FC - For the Seattle Sounders, of course we have Zakuani out. Brad Evans is right now listed as probable with a strained hammy. Terry Boss has been dealing with a concussion these past couple of weeks, he is no longer on the injured list. And both Jhon Kennedy Hurtado and O'Brian White are game-time decisions for this match.


Key matchups:

Justin Braun vs Jeff Parke - Justin Braun has been scoring in bunches this season, I don't know how he hasn't recieved an international call-up (Bob Bradley at his best. lol). 7 goals this season including two hat-tricks. And Jeff Parke who has stuggled these last couple of times can not afford to make one wrong move that will allow Justin Braun to score.

Mauro Rosales vs Ante Jazic - These two teams lead their respective teams in assists this season. Mauro Rosales has 7 assists to go with his three goals. On the other side Ante Jazic, who is a left back, has 6 assists. You just wonder how this dynamic will work on the flank.