Sounders 2 : 0 Real Salt Lake

Montero Rocket Seals Sounders Win as Ljungberg Debuts

March 28

Sounders v Salt Lake Player Ratings

Goals from Nate Jaqua and a third of the season from Fredy Montero from 30 yards guided Sounders FC to a hard fought victory over a combative and competitive Real Salt Lake. Kasey Keller was called into action more often than he had been against New York, as he saved good chances from Movsisyan twice.

With Morales and Beckerman in the Salt Lake engine room in midfield, Salt Lake’s four man midfield gave Evans, Alonso and Le Toux a far harder battle than New York’s’ five man midfield had last week. But like last week, they coped albeit with a little more difficulty this week. Schmid made one change from last week, replacing Nyassi with Zakuani. The change worked well as Zakuani posed numerous problems down the left wing for Tony Beltran before being taken off for Freddie Ljungberg.

Meanwhile Zach Scott had an admirable game dealing with the veteran Clint Mathis down Salt Lake’s right, especially in the first half.

A Second Dose of Freddie Fever

Other than the goals, the obvious highlight of the evening was the appearance as a substitute of Freddie Ljungberg who came on in the 61st minute.

The man whose signature alone sold 3,000 season tickets looked keen to impress his new fanbase. Once again Fredy Montero looked to be a fantastic capture for the Sounders, while Jhon Hurtado again looked to be a rock solid central defender, in tune with his teammates despite not speaking too much English so far. Tyrone Marshall looked commanding in defence again, and Brad Evans was effective in snuffing out much of the visitor’s creativity.

A foretaste of what was to come took place in the fourth minute when Osvaldo Alonso and Javier Morales swapped verbal tirades. Beckerman was booked shortly after lashing out at Montero. In the 12th minute, Movsisyan beautifully turned Tyrone Marshall and his shot was parried around the post by Keller. From the resultant Morales corner, Nat Borchers mistimed his jump, as far as he jumped at all, and the corner passed unthreateningly.

On the quarter hour, Congolese Steve Zakuani showed the first taste of what he could do as he dribbled into a shooting position and drove only to see his shot cannon off a defender. He was the first to react though and took a second shot which was deflected wide. A minute later Montero beat Beckerman and twisted Borchers, but his shot went over the bar.

Sounders took the lead in the 17th minute when Osvaldo Alonso spread a beautiful pass from inside the centre circle out to the left where Zakuani picked it up. With six touches with his right foot, Zakuani tormented Tony Beltran and delivered an inch perfect cross with the outside of his boot to Nate Jaqua, who bundled the ball in with his knee. It was Jaqua’s sixth goal against RSL.

The game descended then into a scrappy phase with Alonso getting cautioned for lunging at Canadian Will Johnson before Morales received one for knocking over the little Cuban in revenge. In the 24th, Zakuani found Jaqua again who was foiled by Rimando going down low to his right.

On the half hour, Borchers misplaced a loose defensive header which landed at the feet of Jaqua, who drove over. A minute later, it was RSL who threatened when Clint Mathis was fed by Robbie Findley, and he beat Zakuani comprehensively before his zipped cross into the penalty box went through Yura Mosvivyan’s legs to safety. At the other end, Rimando came out to punch a Seb Le Toux corner clear nine minutes before half time.

The second half was mostly an uphill struggle for Sounders. Keller was called into action again as Movsisyan threatened again just after half time. Goal mouth incidents were rarer as Salt Lake had more of the ball, but a well organised Seattle rearguard kept them at bay.

At the other end, Sébastien le Toux, Seattle’s hardest worker on the night, did the hard part very well on the hour, but scooped the ball over the bar. A minute later came the moment many had been waiting for as Zakuani was withdrawn to make way for Swedish international Freddie Ljungberg. The Swede looked happy to be playing but will take some time to get to grips with the pace of the MLS. Nevertheless, his undoubted class showed through. Also making his Sounders MLS debut was Nate Sturgis who came on ten minutes later for Nate Jaqua, with Le Toux finally returning to the forward role he occupied last year.

Montero Swerver Settles Seattle

Kyle Beckerman shot wide from a distance but Salt Lake were beginning to run out of ideas, and soon Robbie Findley was taken out and Andy Williams brought on to freshen up their attack. But as with New York last week, Sounders created a goal when they were most under pressure. And again it will be the moment everyone, especially Nick Rimando, will be talking about. Alonso found Montero a good distance out from the goal. Montero just looked up and hammered the ball goalwards but Rimando’s positioning seemed assured that there would be no danger. The ball however dipped and swerved, the latter very late, leaving the keeper helpless.

The goal came at a good time for Seattle who had been on the back foot for much of the half, but it lifted all the pressure off the home side, and Montero tried again from even further out four minutes later. Former Tacoma Tide player and local boy Raphael Cox came on for RSL replacing Beltran before Roger Levesque got his second injury time appearance, replacing the exhausted Le Toux.

The 2-0 result maybe flattered Seattle who surrendered much of the possession to a Salt Lake side who lacked offensive firepower. But that won’t matter to the Sounders fans as the team prepares to hit the road for the first time. Six points have been gathered from the first two games and a third victory in Toronto would make Sounders the most successful expansion team in MLS history. 28,548 braved the cold to stand, cheer and sing the team to victory against a Salt Lake franchise playing in front of the biggest crowd in its history. Sounders now have six points out of six but face their first ever road game when they travel to Toronto next week.

Look out for our Sounders player rankings and an updated player ratings table.

Sounders FC: Kasey Keller; Zach Scott, Tyrone Marshall, Jhon Hurtado, James Riley; Osvaldo Alonso, Brad Evans, Steve Zakuani (Freddie Ljungberg 61′), Sebastien Le Toux (Roger Levesque 90′); Fredy Montero, Nate Jaqua (Nate Sturgis 71′)

Subs (not used): Ben Dragavon, Tyson Wahl, Stephen King, Patrick Ianni

Real Salt Lake: Nick Rimando; Tony Beltran (Raphael Cox 83’), Chris Wingert, Nat Borchers, Jamison Olave; Kyle Beckerman, Javier Morales, Clint Mathis (Jean Alexandre 88’), Will Johnson; Robbie Findley (Andy Williams 74’), Yura Movsisyan

Subs: Ned Grabavoy, Tino Nunez, Chris Seitz, David Horst

Referee: Baldomero Toledo. Assistants: Jeff Hosking, Darren Clark
Crowd: 28,548
Weather 39◦F

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