Sounders FC 3 : 3 DC United
Keller: We Were Rightly Booed off the Pitch
June 17
Sounders threw away a two goal lead with a lapse in concentration and a farcical own goal after working hard to overcome the loss of the opening the first goal. They were impressive in going 3-1 ahead and then threw it all away.
The truth is that Sounders had played probably their best football of the season in front of what would have been a national audience, and created chance after chance.
17 shots were taken and nine of those were on target. At times they may have made it too easy for Josh Wicks to make great saves. United had just three shots on target; Keller one save to make as opposed to Josh Wicks’ seven. Sounders committed just one foul in the entire second half, and it is clear that there is an emerging feeling that their gung-ho entertaining and cavalier style is not ideally suited to defending a lead once they have it.
Kasey Keller was honest and frustrated after the game. “Our lack of discipline is killing us, from multiple things. You don’t pick and choose when you mark a guy. You don’t pick and choose when you run with a runner. You don’t pick and choose when you decide to make a run and put pressure on the ball. You do all the hard work and get 3-1 up at home and you sit in and close up shop. But we don’t have the discipline to do it.
You don’t get to take a vacation half way through a play, and say I’m a little tired I’m not going to run this time. Every time you do your job. Unfortunately we’re switching off and it’s killing us. And we’re paying the price for it. We bust our ass eight out of ten times. But you don’t get to do it just eight, you have to do it ten out of ten times. Until we get that in our game, we’re going to throw stuff away.
I’m extremely frustrated. We score three goals at home, and we throw the game away in the 87th minute when we should comfortably have won this game 4-1. We rightly got booed off the field at the end of the game. It’s inexcusable. We got found out tonight and hopefully people will learn from it and if they don’t hopefully they’ll be gone and we’ll find somebody else to do a disciplined job.”
They were strong words but they do encapsulate the frustration at the inability of this club to turn supremacy into victories. There are a few things wrong and no-one will deny it, but Sounders are also doing far more things right than has been the case, and notwithstanding the lapses in concentration to which Kasey alluded, there is plenty more to be happy with – sadly that may be overlooked amidst the disappointment at losing the two late goals.
Tonight’s game started at a lively pace and continued so for the entire evening. In just two minutes, the returning Luciano Emilio hammered just wide from 25 yards.
200 seconds in, James Riley worked wonders on right and found Montero whose cross brought out a great save by Wicks. Wicks again caught the ball after a Wahl cross from the left showed that the full back retains a neat attacking threat. The Evans flick back that fed Wahl was characteristic of the neat 1-2s Seattle were playing. Soon after, a Le Toux cross was parried by Josh Wicks and fell to Nate Jaqua who was intercepted by Bryan Namoff as he was about to shoot. The defender was hacked down by Jaqua for his troubles, and the forward was lucky to avoid a yellow, which would have triggered another suspension.
After seven minutes, Dejan Jakovic hacked down Ljungberg, but the referee seemed determined not to govern through cards, and Seattle had to settle for a free kick. After the resultant free, there was some pinball in the DC area, after which Alonso tried a drive after eight minutes. Although it didn’t trouble Wicks, it was indicative of something special to come.
DC stood firm and after some good possession play that cleverly slowed the Sounders down, Andrew Jacobson drove but couldn’t get the ball off the ground. Their pressure continued and after a Santina Quaranta corner, Jhon Hurtado did some great defending to keep DC out. The first ten minutes had elapsed with more action and incident than many games possess in a half. The crowd was buzzing and the anticipation was palpable.
After a quarter of an hour, Chris Pontius burst through for United and fired too close to Keller who palmed over. It turned out to be the only shot United had on target that didn’t result in a goal. The space given to the impressive Pontius though was to haunt them later when Christian Gomez was awarded the same privilege later on in the game.
United were forced to make a substitution soon after when Fred was replaced by Angel N’Silu, when an abductor strain forced him out. Pontius was involved again and pulled Evans’ shirt and the Sounder seemed to wrench his right shoulder. He was off for a minute and returned, much to the relief of those Sounders fans who recognise his importance to the team. The game was fierce but fair. Hard tackles flew but no-one stayed airborne. Mr Salazar’s decision not to impose an early booking on the first bad tackle seemed to be paying off, although Dejan Jakovic seemed to be the beneficiary of this leniency far too often.
Two minutes before the half hour, Tyson Wahl sent a looping cross over and Fredy Montero rose highest but headed over the United bar. Five minutes later, Marc Burch lashed out at Alonso on the touchline and can count himself lucky the referee didn’t see what the replay showed. It was all action and for a neutral an excellent advert for the entertainment value of the MLS product.
A minute later, DC United took the lead. Santino Quaranta, who had moved to the left after the substitution, swung in a cross which eluded all until it reached Chris Pontius. He finished with pomp to give the visitors the lead. It was a fine goal but not dissimilar to the one the Columbus Crew pierced the Seattle defence with. Sounders will be watching the replays again and wondering if anything can be tweaked to prevent a recurrence.
Sounders responded fast and Seb Le Toux crossed to Montero again on the near post, but he couldn’t get the torque to direct his header on target. But there was a clear Sounders ascendancy beginning to emerge and a deserved equaliser soon followed.
With eight minutes to go to half time, Montero found space and produced Josh Wicks’ best save of the night. As the ball rebounded out, Seattle regained possession and it fell to the hard-working James Riley. The right back linked up with Brad Evans. His pass was then laid back to the returning Osvaldo Alonso. The little Cuban looked up and tried a speculative drive from 28 yards that beat the left hand of Wicks and nestled in the top corner of the net. Wicks had to be sharp again seconds later. Evans found Ljungberg, who slid an inch perfect pass through to Le Toux. Wicks had to be sharp to come off his line and foil the Frenchman.
Sounders were in gear and DC were looking nervously at the clock as it approached half time. Riley and Evans were looking especially intelligent and creative. The clock didn’t tick fast enough for DC.
44 minutes and 50 seconds were on the clock when Brad Evans found Montero, who fed Jaqua inside the box. The ball bobbled and both he and Jacobson hesitated. Nate’s final shot was weak but it hit the unfortunate Mark Burch and tiddled, diddled and doddled over the line. It was 2-1 for Seattle and no one can say it wasn’t deserved. The half ended and Wicks was yelling at Jakovic as DC looked slightly in disarray.
Their apparent disarray continued at the start of the second. Jakovic hesitated and Montero found himself clean through in just fifty seconds but Wicks narrowed the angle well. Freddie Ljungberg burst through on 50 minutes, and Wicks palmed onto the post. Sounders were rampant and Jaqua filed a cross-cum-shot just past Wicks’ right hand post as a third goal looked inevitable.
It was only a matter of time though and 57 minutes were gone when Montero scored a brilliant solo goal. He picked up the ball just inside the DC half, ran at and tortured poor Marc Burch with his right and hammered home an unstoppable shot with his left. At 3-1 Sounders should have been well poised to see the game out but conceded that advantage almost immediately.
As was the case last week, Sounders’ concentration lapsed when they were two goals ahead and in control. Christian Gomez was allowed to run practically unchallenged and beat Keller in the keeper’s right hand corner for the 3-2 comeback goal. That was in minute 63, and a minute later, Sounders nearly responded again when Le Toux and Montero played a lovely 1-2 which ended up with the Colombian firing over.
Freddie Ljungberg and Le Toux provided some neat and impressive interplay again, and it was the latter’s inspirational cross which found Steve Zakuani unmarked, but Wicks saved his shot. It would have been the best goal this young franchise had scored. And the number of good chances Seattle were passing up was beginning to be a concern.
Stephen King, on for Ljungberg, provided some acrobatics by collecting the ball with his back to goal, juggling, turning and volleying all in one movement but volleying wide. Once more it would have been a spectacular goal, and Sounders were still throwing men forward.
Nate Jaqua’s persistence contributed and the big forward looked to have clearly benefited from the rest after his suspension. He lasted 84 hardworking minutes before being replaced by Pat Ianni. Jakovic got a yellow for a foul off the ball and then launched some very high studs at Alonso, who seemed to be in agony for a while. We’ll show a picture of that atrocious tackle tomorrow.
Then, in the 87th minute, came the moment that may well end up reshaping the rest of this franchise’s season. Sounders managed to throw away the win after allowing Chris Pontius too much space on the left. Tyrone Marshall headed the cross from the rookie into his own net. There was still time for Zakuani to head a late chance to poach the points wide.
Sounders will be very disappointed at the number of chances that went unconverted and by converting one for their opponents. Kasey Keller’s anger at the whole thing will be replicated all over the Puget Sound. But people should also recall that tonight wasn’t all bad. They outplayed the top of the Eastern Conference who needed a great goalkeeping performance and a gift to go home with a draw.
Sounders: Kasey Keller; Tyson Wahl, Tyrone Marshall, Jhon Hurtado, James Riley; Brad Evans, Freddie Ljungberg (Stephen King 77′), Osvaldo Alonso, Seb Le Toux, Fredy Montero (Steve Zakuani 67′), Nate Jaqua (Patrick Ianni 84′)
Substitutes not used: Ben Dragavon, Peter Vagenas, Nathan Sturgis, Sanna Nyassi
DC United: Josh Wicks; Marc Burch, Dejan Jakovic, Bryan Namoff; Clyde Simms, Rodney Wallace, Andrew Jacobson (Christian Gomez 45′), Fred (Ange N’Silu, 21′); Chris Pontius, Luciano Emilio (Thabiso Khumalo 72′), Santino Quaranta
Substitutes (not used) Milos Kocic, Greg Janicki, Avery John, Ben Olsen
Attendance: 29,104
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