Sounders snap skid vs Galaxy: Win 2-0

By Money Mike


The Sounders finally snap their winless skid against the Los Angeles Galaxy with a 2-0 win Wednesday night in front of a crowd of 39,002 in attendance. With the win, Seattle climbs into third place in the Western Conference standings and remain six points shy of the first place San Jose Earthquakes with still a couple games in hand between the two. Seattle's next match is Saturday afternoon at 1pm against the Philadelphia Union here in Seattle. That game will be televised nationally on the NBC Sports Network.

Seattle got it rollin' early in the match and put LA's weak backline under pressure. Mauro Rosales's free kick was intended for Jhon Kennedy Hurtado and it looked like Chad Barrett got a head on it and goalkeeper Bill Gaudette came off his line to gather the ball. Gaudette is making his second straight start in goal for Josh Saunders who is suspended indefinitely after being enrolled in Major League Soccer's substance abuse and behavioral health program. In the 10th minute, Mauro Rosales made a cut outside of Bryan Gaul and whipped in a good cross to the six yard area for Fredy Montero who turned and tried to slide the ball through, but Bill Gaudette made a huge kick save.

In the 23rd minute, Mauro Rosales sent Eddie Johnson away down the right hand side. Johnson waited a couple of seconds for help to arrive in the penalty area before doing a scissors move to get past David Lopes. As help arrived, Johnson decided to go alone with his left foot which was spilled by Gaudette and Fredy Montero was there for the rebound, but somehow Gaudette was able to get a foot to that to deny Montero point blank.

The breakthrough finally came in the 40th minute as Seattle capitalized on some poor defending all around in LA's half. Mauro Rosales was left with loads of time and space and he whipped in a beautiful curling ball to the middle of the penalty for Eddie Johnson who beats two LA defenders for a snap header that probably should've been saved by Gaudette, but the ball ended up in the back of the net for Eddie Johnson's second goal in as many matches to give Seattle a 1-0 lead going into the break.

In the second half, the Sounders ended up making a change in goal. Michael Gspurning was replaced by Bryan Meredith after a hip injury that has been bothering him for about a week. So unfortunately, he was taken out and Meredith came on for his first MLS appearance.

In the 48th minute, Fredy Montero finally got on the score sheet in big way. Once again, no pressure on the ball from LA and Montero from 35 yards out hits an absolute belter for his first goal of the season that he's been chasing for seven games and quite possibly a top candidate for Goal of the Year, but more importantly, it gave the Sounders a 2-0 lead.

The LA Galaxy hoped to claw their way back and get something out of this match by bringing in Mike Magee and Edson Buddle and for most of the second half, the Galaxy had a ton of possession, but didn't really have anything to show for. In the 62nd minute, Landon Donovan tested Bryan Meredith from about 20 yards away with a left footed strike, but it was straight at Meredith. A minute later, Mike Magee tested him from about the same distance and a few thought it went in, but it missed just wide of the far post. That was the last real opportunity in the match for LA.


Observations:

Another great turnout by the Sounder nation, that's 55 consecutive MLS matches that have been sold out here in Seattle since the Sounders joined MLS and I don't see that streak ending anytime soon. As a matter of fact, not in a long time. Because of the success this team is having right and the direction they're going in the future, fans will continue to pack the stadium and add to their streak of sellouts as Soccer in America continues to grow. Every year, the capacity for Sounder matches has increased. At the start, the capacity was around 28,000 in 09' and then the fan base started to grow and grow and it continues to grow, so now the capacity is around 39,000 now although there are four matches this season including the friendly match against Chelsea where they'll open up the entire stadium.

Former Sounder Pat Noonan made his return to Seattle since he was taken in the Re-entry Draft by the Galaxy last December. He came on for the last 19 minutes match and didn't really do a thing for the Galaxy because they were outplayed, outcoached, weren't fully prepared for this match. Landon Donovan had a disappointing night, Edson Buddle was unable to provide any spark to LA's attack, Sean Franklin had a disappointing night, Marcelo Sarvas came close a couple of times to getting a red card, Bryan Gaul had a rough night defensively, all night LA just couldn't find a way to click it into full gear.

I was a little surprised to see Bryan Meredith come on in the second half. I thought he did very well in his 45 minutes of work. Took a couple of touches at the start of the half, made a good stop on the shot from Landon Donovan, kept his nerve the entire half and he didn't look like was playing under a bit of pressure. Meredith made his Sounders debut in the final group stage match of the 2011-12 CONCACAF Champions League against Monterrey, mainly because Sigi wanted to rest Kasey Keller for the playoffs that time and Terry Boss and Josh Ford were on the DL. The reason he was out there as a backup to start the match was because Josh Ford is still out injured as well as Andrew Weber.

Gspurning underwent an MRI earlier today on his hip and it appears unlikely that he'll play Saturday in their home match against the Philadelphia Union. If he's unable to go, what I'm hearing is Bryan Meredith will get the start and a guy named Steve Spangler who recently played goalkeeper at Oregon State University will join the squad as an emergency backup.

Eddie Johnson had another terrific night, picking up his second goal of the season and hopefully his goal last night can put an end to all the critics about the Sounders trading Mike Fucito, who unfortunately is now with the Portland Timbers, and Lamar Neagle to the Montreal Impact to get Eddie Johnson. He's made a lot of progress getting back into goalscoring form and so far he hasn't disappointed. I can say now that the Sounders pulled off a good trade because of Johnson's performance recently and also because of his caliber which is much higher than Fucito and Neagle.

In case anybody who was at the game didn't notice, Leon Washington of the Seattle Seahawks was at the match. He does have a couple of pictures and videos from the match on his twitter page. Tony Ventrella caught up with him at halftime for a Sounders 1 V 1. Here's the video....



The Sounders have now won three in a row and continue to add to their best start in franchise history. Even though the Galaxy didn't put their strong team out there, it was nice to get that first home win against them out of the way. The Sounders are three points back of Real Salt Lake for 2nd place in the Western Conference with three games in hand and are six points back of the San Jose Earthquakes for 1st place in the West and if they can take advantage of those games in hand, not only can they take over first in the West, they can take over the top spot in the race for the Supporters Shield.


Scoring summary:

Seattle Sounders FC - Eddie Johnson 2 (Mauro Rosales 1) 40'

Seattle Sounders FC - Fredy Montero 1 (Osvaldo Alonso 1) 48'


Misconduct summary:

Los Angeles Galaxy - Marcelo Sarvas (caution; foul) 34'


Lineups:

Los Angeles Galaxy - Bill Gaudette; Bryan Jordan (Pat Noonan 71'), A.J. DeLaGarza, David Lopes, Bryan Gaul; Sean Franklin, Marcelo Sarvas, Juninho, Landon Donovan; Adam Christman (Edson Buddle 53'), Chad Barrett (Mike Magee 58')

Seattle Sounders FC - Michael Gspurning (Bryan Meredith 46'); Zach Scott, Jeff Parke, Jhon Kennedy Hurtado, Leo Gonzalez; Mauro Rosales (Marc Burch 74'), Osvaldo Alonso, Brad Evans, David Estrada; Fredy Montero, Eddie Johnson (Alex Caskey 81')

Sounders acquire D.C. United defender Marc Burch in the Re-Entry Draft

By Money Mike

The Seattle Sounders and the Vancouver Whitecaps swapped Re-Entry Draft spots prior to the draft, so my thoughts after hearing that were that they were actually thinking about drafting somebody. I'm still waiting for information about the trade with the Whitecaps, wondering if a player being traded was part of the deal or not. But instead of picking 14th, the Sounders were first in line in the second stage of the Re-Entry Draft and they wasted no time picking up Marc Burch who spent the last five seasons with D.C. United. The Sounders also lost a couple of forwards who were just completely worthless on this team, Nate Jaqua to the New England Revolution and Pat Noonan to the LA Galaxy.

Marc Burch was drafted in 2006 by the Los Angeles Galaxy in the second round. He actually began his career as a forward. He made three appearances for LA before being traded to the Columbus Crew on July 11, 2006. In his short stint with Columbus, he made seven appearances. On April 4, 2007, Burch was traded form Columbus to D.C. United where he was converted from a striker to a left back and he became an asset to D.C.'s backline. In 07', Burch made 18 appearances with one goal and three assists. From 08-09', he made 54 appearances, tallying another goal and five assists. In February of 2010, Burch suffered damage to his right foot and was out until July 31st when he made his return against Real Salt Lake and made four consecutive starts before re-aggrevating his foot that resulted in season ending sergery. In 2011, Burch missed half of the season with another injury, but still made 17 appearances with one goal and one assist.

Of course, Seattle lost Nate Jaqua and Pat Noonan in the Re-Entry Draft. Jaqua made 66 appearances for Seattle in League play and scored 9 goals for this team (all in 09'). Noonan wasn't any better, making 21 appearances in his two seasons with Seattle and scoring only one goal.

As for Burch, he still has to agree to terms with the Sounders before he's officially added to the roster, which is more likely to happen than not since they traded picks with Vancouver to get him. It's just a question if he can stay healthy because he had his injury problems in his past two seasons with D.C. United. If he can stay healthy and perform the same way he did with United prior to 2010, I think he'll fit in very well here in Seattle.

Sounders fall 2-0 to Philadelphia

By Money Mike



The Seattle Sounders needed a win last night to keep any hope of winning the Supporters Shield alive, or at least a point to officially secure 2nd place in the West. Neither of that happened. The Philadelphia Union who were unbeaten in their last 6 matches have come to Seattle and shut out the Sounders 2-0 at CenturyLink Field. With the Win, the Union have taken over the top spot in a very tight Eastern Conference. For Seattle, the loss means that they'll have no chance of taking over first place in the West and that LA has clinched their second straight Supporters Shield. But here's the problem though, in 14 MLS seasons, only four teams that have won the Supporters Shield have gone on and won the MLS Cup. Only four teams. Seattle still looks like the stronger side heading into the playoffs despite the loss last night.

The game started off slow, with sloppy passing from both sides of the midfield. The best chance in the first half from either side came in the 35th minute from Brad Evans when he latched onto a pull-back from Lamar Neagle, but he got under the ball and skied it over the top of the goal. The Sounders were without their leading goalscorer Fredy Montero who was serving a one game suspension after Yellow Card accumulations. Mauro Rosales was also out with a Sprained MCL that he suffered about three weeks ago in a 3-0 win over D.C. United, there's a chance however the Sounders will get him back next Saturday when the San Jose Earthquakes come to town. Alvaro Fernandez was on the bench after passing a late fitness test after suffering a concussion Tuesday night in the U.S. Open Cup final, but he didn't see any action at all in this one. Pat Noonan and Nate Jaqua both played like crap yet again. Sammy Ochoa barely even had possession of the ball since coming in as a sub in the

The Sounders were forced to make a change defensively. Jeff Parke was taken out at halftime after picking up a head injury and was replaced by Patrick Ianni.

In the 60th minute, the Union broke the deadlock. Gabriel Farfan somehow beat James Riley to the ball before it even crossed the endline. Farfan pulled it back to Freddy Adu who buried it into the top corner.

The Union doubled their lead in the 72nd minute. After the Sounders started to put pressure on the Union back line, they end up getting caught on a counter attack. Brian Carroll sent former Sounder Sebastien Le Toux loose and off to the races. Carroll got the return pass from Le Toux off the outside of his boot, through the retreating Seattle defense. Carroll made a good run toward the endline and tucked the ball away beautifully into the far corner. And that was just about the last highlight of this one.

Next Saturday, the Sounders will host the San Jose Earthquakes at 7:30pm. This will also be Kasey Keller's final regular season home match of his career. Over 55,000 tickets have been sold for the home finale in the 2011 regular season and there are still more available. So if you want to catch him in person at least one last time, I would suggest you get your tickets.

Following this match, the Sounders will close out Champions League group play at home on October 18 against Monterrey as they look to clinch the top spot in the Group which would assure them home field advantage in the second leg of the Champions League Quarterfinal.


Scoring summary:

Philadelphia Union - Freddy Adu 2 (Gabriel Farfan 2) 60'

Philadelphia Union - Brian Carroll 1 (Sebastien Le Toux 9) 72'


Misconduct summary:

Seattle Sounders FC - Lamar Neagle (caution; Reckless foul) 63'


Lineups:

Philadelphia Union - Zac MacMath; Sheanon Williams, Carlos Valdes, Danny Califf, Gabriel Farfan; Michael Farfan, Brian Carroll, Justin Mapp (Jack McInerney 86'); Freddy Adu (Amobi Okugo 75'), Sebastien Le Toux, Veljko Paunovic (Stefani Miglioranzi 89')

Seattle Sounders FC - Kasey Keller; James Riley, Jeff Parke (Patrick Ianni 46'), Jhon Kennedy Hurtado, Tyson Wahl; Brad Evans, Osvaldo Alonso, Erik Friberg, Lamar Neagle; Mike Fucito (Nate Jaqua 68'), Pat Noonan (Sammy Ochoa 62')

Sounders hold on for a historic win at Monterrey in the Champions League.

By Money Mike




The Seattle Sounders became the second MLS team to beat a Mexican team on Mexican soil in over a week. The Sounders upset defending CONCACAF Champions, Monterrey 1-0 to move into first place in the Group Stage. There were a couple of nervous moments in the second half when Monterrey came right at them, but the Sounders were able to hang on and get the full 3 points. People need to start taking this tournament seriously, especially with the Sounders off to a 2-0 start in Group play. I mean, winning the Champions League is as big as winning the MLS Cup. Even out of all of that, America is just too freakin stupid to understand that. If this wasn't a big win, I don't know what the hell is. Sigi Schmid left Kasey Keller, Mauro Rosales and Fredy Montero out of the 18 man squad and partnered Nate Jaqua up front with Pat Noonan. Terry Boss, as expected, got the start in goal. Josh Ford was on the squad as a backup goalkeeper behind Boss. And also, Amadou Sanyang made his Sounders debut, coming on in the 84th minute of the match.

The Sounders ceded most of the possession early opted to play counter attacking football and in the 38th minute, Seattle was on the move as Pat Noonan fed Alvaro Fernandez with a pinpoint ball. Flacco split defenders Darvin Chavez and Miguel Morales and calmly roofed the ball past Goalkeeper Jonathan Orozco to give Seattle a 1-0 lead.

In the second half, Monterrey came out strong. In the 66th minute, the Sounders dodged a huge bullet. Terry Boss lost the ball to Aldo de Nigris as he was trying to clear it. He then nearly took him down which would've resulted in a penalty and possibly a straight red card. de Nigris laid the ball back to Humberto Suazo who ripped the ball wide of goal. That would've been a disastrous moment for Terry Boss and the Seattle Sounders. Despite Monterrey finishing with 11 shots on goal, it was Seattle who came away with a full three points over the CONCACAF Champions.

The Sounders return home to Seattle as they get set to host the Columbus Crew on Saturday at CenturyLink Field. Then they host FC Dallas in the semifinals of the U.S. Open Cup next Tuesday at the Starfire Sports Complex in Tukwila.


Scoring summary:

Seattle Sounders FC - Alvaro Fernandez (Pat Noonan) 38'


Misconduct summary:

Seattle Sounders FC - Nate Jaqua (caution; Reckless tackle) 48'


Lineups:

Seattle Sounders FC - Terry Boss; James Riley, Zach Scott, Jeff Parke, Tyson Wahl; Roger Levesque (Amadou Sanyang 84'), Brad Evans, Servando Carrasco, Alvaro Fernandez (Leonardo Gonzalez 76'); Nate Jaqua (Osvaldo Alonso 65'), Pat Noonan

Monterrey - Jonathan Orozco; Darvin Chavez, Hiram Mier, Severo Meza (Ricardo Osorio 83'); Jesus Manuel Corona (Abraham Carreno 73'), Neri Cardozo, Luis Ernesto Perez, Hector Morales (Walter Ayovi 62'); Aldo de Nigris, Jesus Eduardo Zavala, Humberto Suazo


Now here's a look at the highlights:

Sounders strike twice in the final minutes to defeat Sporting KC 2-1 and give Sigi Schmid his 150th career win.

By Money Mike

The Seattle Sounders played a terrible game against Sporting KC, but terrible as it was, the Sounders stormed back with a 90th minute equalizer by Mauro Rosales and a stoppage time goal by Lamar Neagle to steal all three points from Kansas City, snap their 14 game unbeaten streak and give head coach Sigi Schmid his 150th career win in Major League Soccer. What a big win it was for the Sounders, when it looked like they were gonna go down for the 2nd match in a row, they find a way to pull it off.

Sporting got on the board first in the 20th minute. Matt Besler just like he did on Wednesday whipped in another good long throw into the danger zone and found Kei Kamara unmarked and Kamara headed the ball into the net before Kasey Keller could claim the ball and Sporting KC prooving to be a different team now than it was earlier in the year took an early 1-0 lead over the Men in Rave Green.

In the 55th minute, Sigi made a double change, taking off Fredy Montero and Alvaro Fernandez and bringing on Mike Fucito and Pat Noonan for tactical reasons. Fernandez and Montero, both Designated Players, were ineffective in this match.

Four minutes later, this turned out to be the game changer. Omar Bravo came in with a two footed challenge on Pat Noonan with his studs showing and referee Jair Marrufo make no hesitation to reach into his back pocket and show the Mexican international a straight Red Card.

With Kansas City down to 10 men, coach Peter Vermes took out C.J. Sapong and replaced him with Canadian born-U.S. international Teal Bunbury. Bunbury had a couple scoring opportunities since coming on including a long range effort in the 88th minute that went wide of Kasey Keller.

The Sounders began to threaten in the last 20-25 minutes of the game. In the 69th minute, Mike Fucito created space for himself but his left footed area from 19-yards out was saved by Jimmy Nielsen. Lamar Neagle stepped to put in the rebound, but Nielsen made a huge kick save.

In the 90th minute, the Sounders finally came through. Servando Carrasco played in a good ball to Mauro Rosales who beat two KC defenders and slotted the ball past Jimmy Nielsen to steal a Victory from Sporting Kansas City. As a matter of fact, they would steal all 3 points. In the 2nd minute of stoppage time, Mike Fucito was able to push the ball to Lamar Neagle who quickly struck the ball first time off the hands of Nielsen and that was the match winner. With the win, Seattle now improves to 11-5-8 with adds up to 41 points so far. Kansas City now drops to 7-7-9 with the loss. Seattle returns home next Saturday to take on Chivas USA and then they open up Group play in the Champions League on August 16th at home.


Scoring summary:

Sporting Kansas City - Kei Kamara 6 (Matt Besler 2) 20'

Seattle Sounders FC - Mauro Rosales 3 (unassisted) 90'

Seattle Sounders FC - Lamar Neagle 2 (Mike Fucito 1) 92+'


Misconduct summary:

Sporting Kansas City - Birahim Diop (caution; Reckless foul) 37'

Sporting Kansas City - Omar Bravo (ejection; Serious foul play) 59'


Lineups:

Seattle Sounders FC - Kasey Keller; James Riley, Jeff Parke, Zach Scott, Tyson Wahl; Mauro Rosales, Osvaldo Alonso, Servando Carassco, Alvaro Fernandez (Pat Noonan 55'); Roger Levesque (Lamar Neagle 67'), Fredy Montero (Mike Fucito 55')

Sporting Kansas City - Jimmy Nielsen; Michael Harrington, Julio Cesar, Matt Besler, Seth Sinovic; Jeferson (Luke Sassano 39'), Birahim Diop, Graham Zusi; Kei Kamara (Chance Myers 82'), C.J. Sapong (Teal Bunbury 65'), Omar Bravo


Omar Bravo's red card/dumbass behavior:

Now back to that red card on Omar Bravo. So look people, you may think was a bad call because Bravo got the ball first, but he came in two footed with his studs showing on Pat Noonan, so that is definitely a red card. The decision made by the referee was correct. But after the red card, Bravo, rather than getting off the pitch, decides to go after Pat Noonan. Noonan reacted and then Bravo just falls to the ground like he was headbutted. Arlo White was spot on, he let Sporting Kansas City down. He should not be allowed to antagonize a player after being sent off and as a veteran, he should know that. MLS has to take action for this bullshit.

Congratulations Omar Bravo, you're the new public enemy #1.

I mean look what this stupid fuck is doing.....

Sounders defeat LA 3-1 in the U.S. Open Cup Quarterfinal

By Money Mike

In front of 4,322 at the Starfire Sports Complex in Takwila, the Seattle Sounders faced off with the Los Angeles Galaxy in the U.S. Open Cup Quarterfinal and pretty much a replica of last years Quarterfinal matchup with LA, the Sounders come away with a win.

The Sounders, with the win, advance to the U.S. Open Cup semifinal against FC Dallas. That match will take place on August 30 at Starfire.

In the 4th minute, the Sounders struck early. After hitting the post a minute ago, Nate Jaqua was sent behind the defense off a Pat Noonan through ball and he calmly slotted it inside the far post. It was Jaqua's 8th career goal in Open Cup play (7 of them with the Sounders).

In the 25th minute, Jaqua was involved in the 2nd Sounders goal. I don't what the hell this guy was thinking. Defender A.J. DeLaGarza gave the ball right to Jaqua who quickly fed it to Fredy Montero who cut the ball to his left foot and put away his third goal in two matches to double Seattle's lead at 2-0. The Sounders could've been up 4-0 or 5-0 up to that point, but they just couldn't capitalize on their chances, most of them coming from Jaqua and in the 40th minute, LA pulled one back. Adam Cristman finished a cross from Chris Birchall at the front of the net.

On the stroke of halftime, Birchall almost came away with one for himself, but Terry Boss made the save.

In the 74th minute, the LA back line got caught off another through ball. After some work on the ball, Alvaro Fernandez sent one through for Lamar Neagle who made a diagonal run through the penalty area to score. That goal prooved to be the knock out punch for the Galaxy as the Sounders once again, win a U.S. Open Cup match.

The Sounders get back to work in MLS as they return home to face that fucker who broke Steve Zakuani's leg on purpose............ yes I'm talking about Brian Mullan. He's gonna be there along with the Colorado Rapids on Saturday. That match will be shown live on FOX Soccer Channel, if you don't have that channel, sucks for you.

Scoring summary:

Seattle Sounders FC - Nate Jaqua (Pat Noonan) 4'

Seattle Sounders FC - Fredy Montero (Nate Jaqua) 25'

Los Angeles Galaxy - Adam Cristman (Chris Birchall) 40'

Seattle Sounders FC - Lamar Neagle (Alvaro Fernandez) 74'

Misconduct summary:

Seattle Sounders FC - Osvaldo Alonso (caution; Tactical foul) 22'

Seattle Sounders FC - Fredy Montero (caution; Unsporting behavior) 54'

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

Los Angeles Galaxy - Paolo Cardozo (caution; Reckless tackle) 59'

Seattle Sounders FC - Mike Fucito (caution; Delaying a restart) 90'

Lineups:

Los Angeles Galaxy - Josh Saunders; Bryan Jordan, A.J. DeLaGarza, Gregg Berhalter, Todd Dunivant; Chris Birchall, Michael Stephens, Juninho (Jovan Kirovski 78'), Landon Donovan (Hector Jimenez 75'); Paolo Cardozo (Miguel Lopez 64'), Adam Cristman

Seattle Sounders FC - Terry Boss; Zach Scott, Jeff Parke, Patrick Ianni, Leonardo Gonzalez; Pat Noonan (Erik Friberg 64'), Osvaldo Alonso, Alvaro Fernandez, Lamar Neagle; Nate Jaqua (Roger Levesque 71'), Fredy Montero (Mike Fucito 79')