Sounders 1 : 1 LA Galaxy (Match Report)
Riley Sees Red as Ill Discipline Costs Seattle Again
Alan Gordon Equalises for LA
Another full house of 29,025 on Mother’s Day provided further proof that the Sounders FC buzz can compete with everything, but events on the pitch proved that repeating their opening three wins will be harder work.
After the match, Sigi Schmid blasted referee Tim Weyland and revealed that when managing at college level he had been able to provide the authorities with a list of officials he didn’t want refereeing his matches. Weyland had been on his list. Sigi insinuated that this previous hostile relationship had affected Mr Weyland’s officiating.
All of this will probably overshadow Sébastien Le Toux’s first goal in MLS, and maybe even the incident that saw Riley sent off itself.
The day had all begun in a less gloomy mode. Bruce Arena sprang some surprises by dropping ever-present Sean Franklin out of the 18 completely; and Eddie Lewis and Chris Klein, who had started six of the seven matches, were both relegated to the bench. Arena later explained that the recent heavy schedule was the reason. “I think today we had to make changes simply cause of the number of games we’ve played in a short period of time,” the former US Head Coach said after the match. “We made four changes just based on guys being a little fatigued on Wednesday. It’s natural with the number of games and the travel and throwing some altitude in the middle of the week. It tests the players physically.”
Sigi Schmid played Seb Le Toux in a forward position for the first time in MLS, alongside Nate Jaqua in a burly and aggressive forward line.
The game began slowly in bright sunshine to match, although neither side created a clear cut opportunity until Donovan found enough space to drive past Keller’s left hand post a minute after Marshall had been warned for clattering him in the 15th minute. Three minutes later Keller easily scooped a Donovan cross, repeating the same feat lower down seconds later.
Sounders’ first real chance didn’t arrive until the 22nd minute. Steve Zakuani played a through ball to Nate Jaqua who had lost his marker. Jamaican international keeper Donovan Ricketts came charging out of his goal leaving Jaqua an easy pass around Ricketts to an unmarked Sebastien Le Toux. With the ball and no goalkeeper, the Frenchman looked up and saw an easy and open net for his first ever MLS goal. In truth, the LA goalkeeper had been left totally unprotected by his defence.
Sounders nearly followed it up with a second in what turned out to be their best spell of the match. Three minutes after the goal, Brad Evans passed into Jaqua who was again standing unmarked. His glancing header brushed the outside of the post, after he had nimbly stooped to make contact. Sounders were beginning to find their groove and Ljungberg and Le Toux combined regularly with Zakuani to cause LA problems down the visitor’s right hand flank. The Congolese then brushed off a weak challenge from Tony Sanneh to shoot from 25 yards, and Ricketts needed a second try to clasp the ball as forwards rushed in looking for a rebound, once the Jamaican had spilled it.
In the 31st minute, LA’s Alan Gordon was cautioned for a poor but physical challenge on Ljungberg, as the game’s intensity moved up a notch. Ljungberg was being well marked and fouled frequently, and his legs were wrapped in ice after the final whistle, although the Swede himself was reluctant to complain.
Five minutes later however, Jhon Hurtado gave the ball away to Dema Kovalenko in Sounders’ own half. The Ukrainian found Mike Magee on the left. His cross found Alan Gordon, who timed his jump perfectly and headed beautifully home. It was the first header Sounders had conceded but, remarkably, LA’s fourth of their ten goals. After that, LA began to focus more on getting the ball in the air but two successive Landon Donovan corners failed to beat the first defender, in both cases Tyrone Marshall.
Two minutes before half time, Jaqua found himself free in the box and Dema Kovalenko made light contact on his back. Jaqua went down too theatrically for the referee who declined the appeals for a penalty. Brad Evans picked up a needless booking thereafter for dissent from referee Tim Weyland, and at the half time whistle, Freddie Ljungberg unwisely walked in the opposite direction to the players’ locker room towards the referee to continue conversation, although he was unwilling to share the details of the conversation with us after the game.
Second Half
It was Sounders who threatened first after the interval. 160 seconds into the second half, Tyrone Marshall rose to meet a Ljungberg corner but headed wide.
Mr Weyland's Performance Attracted Criticism from Sigi Schmid
Steve Zakuani then ran into the heart of the LA defence and only an excellent intervention by Todd Dunnivant prevented Ljungberg from scoring into what would have been an unguarded net. Eight minutes after the break, it was Zakuani again who tormented Tony Sanneh, as he had been doing all day, before finding Ljungberg who headed his cross over.
The incident that changed the game came in the 58th minute. Sounders were awarded a free kick inside the Galaxy half after Greg Berhalter hauled down Seb Le Toux. Instinctively Greg Berhalter grabbed the ball to prevent James Riley from taking the free kick quickly. Riley tried to grab the ball off Berhalter and a melee ensued. There was pushing and shoving but Riley managed to wrest the ball from Berhalter.
Mike Magee among others arrived, and he and Riley engaged in some pushing that saw Riley clip the back of Mike Magee’s neck. He fell to the ground. Contact was clearly made but given Sigi Schmid’s midweek comments about embellishment, Sounders are sure to be unhappy about the meal Magee made of the incident. Initially, referee Weyland gave Riley just a yellow, but after consulting with his linesman, he produced a red for Riley, leaving Seattle with ten men for the second week running.
It was a full four minutes before the free kick was actually taken. Ljungberg picked up a yellow for his conduct in the ensuing scrum. Schmid reorganised his side, moving Brad Evans to right full back.
Tempers flared and emotion engulfed Qwest Field both on and off the pitch. Shortly after this incident, Magee hacked down a haring Zakuani and received a yellow as the game became ill-disciplined and chaotic. From the free kick, Jaqua narrowly squeezed the ball wide of the LA right post as he ran out of room to turn it in. Donovan continued the conversation with the referee as Ricketts received treatment.
Chris Klein came on for the Galaxy and made an instant impact as he forced Kasey Keller to save well in the 64th minute after LA were able to use their man advantage to find more space around the Seattle defence. It seemed that the turn of events were prime for LA to force only their second win of the season, but oddly it was the home side who seemed to harbour more attacking intent. Stefani Miglioranzi hacked down Zakuani on 71 but the referee seemed to play advantage, although he didn’t return to card the Brazilian after the ball went out of play.
Sigi Schmid then made two offensively inclined changes, bringing on Gambian Sanna Nyassi and Zach Scott for Zakuani and Nathan Sturgis.
With a man advantage, LA should have become the keener to win but in truth Sounders experience with ten men was beginning to prove valuable. Le Toux and Ljungberg continued to combine, with the Swede finding Jaqua in a great position before the linesman raised his flag eleven minutes from time.
A minute later Jaqua was rightfully booked for going in too high and too late with his studs on Greg Berhalter. Berhalter returned the favour, bringing Jaqua down seconds later but from the resulting free kick, Ljungberg could only hit the wall. Miglioranzi was then finally booked for fouling Ljungberg. From that free kick, Berhalter headed the ball clear as Sounders’ set pieces were dealt with comfortably as they have been for much of the season. Sounders were looking the better side despite the man disadvantage, and Bruce Arena must have been wondering what he has to do to win games. It was fairly strange to see him pull off a forward, Alan Gordon, for a midfielder, Eddie Lewis, with as much as 14 minutes to go.
More controversy followed as Donovan brought down Ljungberg again from behind and the referee allowed play to go on, and the two experienced internationals continued to niggle each other, as the home crowd bayed. Stephen King replaced the tiring Le Toux, and Nyassi went forward as Seattle made an attempt to win the game, despite their numerical disadvantage.
Ljungberg and Donovan Tussle for the Ball in a Marquis Match-up
Osvaldo Alonso picked up a free kick in extra time, and after it was headed out, Nyassi tried a drive from all of 30 yards, but it was too high and Seattle’s last chance for an improbable victory had passed.
The final whistle was met with boos from a capacity 29,025 crowd, mainly one would imagine for Mr Weyland, but it is Coach Schmid’s reaction to his officiating that may carry more longevity than that of the crowd.
After the match, he said, “I’ve known the referee for a long time and when I was coaching at college, we were allowed to list a couple of referees we didn’t want handling our games. He didn’t do many of my games. Let me put it that way.
There seemed to be a lot of inequalities in the game. Early on there was an injury to Jhon Kennedy Hurtado and it seemed like it took them forever to get him back on the field. There was an injured Galaxy player and he was able to come on immediately.
The fourth official also told the referee something (that Berhalter should get a yellow). He chose to ignore that. He was retired. He unretired a few years ago. We’ll get the file of the referee’s report and go through the appropriate channels.”
There may be more on this story to come, but the upshot is that LA secured their sixth draw in eight games, and Sounders have won just one in their last five. They play Dallas away next and given the Texan’s poor start to the campaign, a win looks to be on the cards and necessary for Seattle.
Seattle Sounders FC(4-2-2): Kasey Keller; James Riley, Tyrone Marshall, Jhon Kennedy Hurtado, Nathan Sturgis (Zach Scott 72′); Steve Zakuani (Sanna Nyassi 73′), Freddie Ljungberg, Brad Evans, Osvaldo Alonso; Sébastien Le Toux (Stephen King 87′), Nate Jaqua.
Subs not used: Chris Eylander, Patrick Ianni, Tyson Wahl, Taylor Graham,
Los Angeles Galaxy(1-6-1): Donovan Ricketts, Tony Sanneh, Gregg Berhalter, Omar Gonzalez, Todd Dunivant; Jovan Kirovski (Chris Klein 63′), Dema Kovalenko (Edson Buddle 84′), Stefani Miglioranzi, Mike Magee; Alan Gordon (Eddie Lewis 76′), Landon Donovan.
Substitutes Not Used: Josh Saunders, Josh Tudela, Bryan Jordan, AJ DeLaGarza
Attendance: 29025
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I will not be silenced!
Tim Weyland needs to sit out as the fourth official as it does not look like he can properly manage a game.
Let’s face it. SSFC plays with a lot of intensity, which didn’t let up after we were a man down. Add 29,000 cheering fans into the mix and you have an environment unlike any I imagine the average MLS referee experiences.
MLS needs to go to England, entice the refs from the Championship league and replace most of our refs.
I also have to take exception with referring to the foul on Jaqua “soft” which implies that Jaqua dove. Jaqua has no reason to go to ground with only the keeper in front of him. It’s only been eight matches into our inaugural season, but I don’t see Jaqua being that kind of player.
Not only did Weyland impact this past match, but he’s impacted out next match by keeping Riley off the pitch with a red card.
One caveat though, Riley should not put himself in the position to give the ref a chance to send him off, especially not to speed up a free kick. If he’s trying to stop a sure scoring chance then I’m all for it, but not like this.
And finally to Galaxy Fan 13. Please go troll someplace else. Prost has excellent reporting and to be criticized by a troll for one’s writing style when said troll can’t even use capitalization is too much.
Here in Seattle, we have the ability to comprehend large sentences. Perhaps, if you ask nicely, the editor will write a dumbed down version?
“Another full house of 29,025 on Mother’s Day provided further proof that the Sounders FC buzz can compete with everything but events on the pitch proved that repeating their opening three wins will be harder work.”
a 36-word sentence to open the report? what a mouthful! what would your grammar teacher say?
The ref was abysmal. Fouls that should have been given cards were not made at all. The cards that were given were given late which disrupted the flow of the game. This created more hostility with both sides and the crowd. He totally lost control of the game. The rest of his calls were met with the flag waving hand of the players indicating the call he made was rubbish!!!!
NO PK just before half!! Unbelieveable, it was a tackle from behind which should have been a red card.
It seems you’re report is a bit biased, although being a sounders fan i must say anything that tries to minimize how horrible the officiating was I may see as off putting.
The lack of consistency was astounding. There were several times when the official missed calls because he wasn’t even facing the ball! On one occasion Ljungberg was tackled quite harshly only to receive a no call because it happened behind the official’s back. Now how do you explain away officials not even watching the ball/game MLS?
It seems from what they’ve released so far this year the MLS has insisted it believes the problem isn’t their officiating, its the players and fans reactions to the calls being made. OK fair enough i guess. But for a league struggling to raise its profile in this country and gain more fan interest and support such a stance certainly won’t help them achieve their goals. One thing the MLS has proven over the year’s is regardless of the progress made they will always find a way to alienate the fans they seem to want so much.
I wanna see what kind of bs Bruce Arena pulled out of his hat at the end of this game in the press conference. Galaxy played dirty and got rewarded….
I think there has to be some bias against the Sounders. They’ve been screwed out of a decent chance of winning in (at least) two games by multiple wrong calls. There is no way Montero should have gotten a red card last match… and it’s obvious the ref during the Galaxy game did an awful job (and it sounds like he has some kind of history of calling bad games with teams Sigi has coached). It’s like no one can just let the sounders play without finding some way to hurt them…. while leaving the other team pretty much free to do whatever they want.
Never mind the Berhalter questino. I just watched Sigi’s press conference.
It was a really hard game to watch. The line judge on the east side of the pitch kept missing offside calls on the Galaxy and the game was completely out of control early in the 2nd half. If Weyland had just made decent calls in the beginning, it never would have become that ugly.
Where did you learn that the fourth official told Weyland that Berhalter should get a yellow? (Which obviously didn’t happen.) This is the only place I’ve read that, but it certainly would have been logical.
Also, I was sitting right by Hurtado when he was trying to get permission to come back on, and the official seemed to be purposefully ignoring him. I thought it was bizarre then. With the way the game played out, it seems even more bizarre now.
Not wanting to imply that there are special rules for the Galaxy. Or anything.
When the ref throws 6 yellows and 1 red in match the discipline beinf lost int he match is the ref’s fault. It is a clear sign that he has lost control of the game, and that usually occurs when the ref is uneven or unfair in the officiatng, which he clearly was in the game. This was the worst officiated game I have seen in 30 years.
The lack of discipline lies with the ref. He totally lost control of the match. One of the worst officiated games I have ever seen. A good referee should renmain invisible and not impact the outcome or flow of a match. This official did neither. The officiating was just abysmal.