New England Revs 2 : 1 Sounders FC

Other Results Provide Solace for Seattle

Sounders suffered a crucial defeat for their playoff hopes in Foxboro tonight. Their 2:1 reverse against NE Revs will not be fatal to their playoff hopes, but leaves them more than a little to do to secure post-season play. Two goals from Grenadian Shalrie Joseph were enough to secure all 3 points for the home side.

Edgaras Jankauskas and Wells Thompson returned for New England after missing the New York fixture through suspension. Sounders were missing Seb Le Toux through flu, with Nate Jaqua being selected at a wide right midfield position. Chris Albright and Taylor Twellman were absent for New England through injury. Brad Evans came in for Peter Vagenas in midfield for the visitors.

WESTERN CONFERENCE TABLE

Club	P	W	D	L	Pts
Houston	27	12	7	8	43
Los Angeles	27	10	11	6	41
Colorado	27	10	9	8	39
Seattle	27	9	11	7	38
Chivas USA	25	11	5	9	38
Real Salt Lake	27	9	8	10	34
FC Dallas	26	8	6	12	30
San Jose	25	6	7	12	25

Sounders’ defeat left them nervously watching other results later on in the evening. Fortunately for them, as you can see from the table above, the footballing deities smiled on Seattle this day. New England completed the double over the Sounders having earlier triumphed 1-0 at Qwest Field.

Unlike previous games where the inability to finish a litany of chances was Sounders’ undoing, goal opportunities were at a premium. After Montero’s fifth minute wonder goal, Seattle created just two more shots on goal. That said, throughout the duration of the 45 minutes for which they led, they appeared to be coping adequately with the minimal threat provided by New England.

Yet it all began to go well for the Sounders. Fredy Montero who had been listed as a forward, seemed to be playing as a right midfield position when he picked up the ball. He elegantly turned his closest marker, took a few strikes forward and hammered the ball, seemingly hopelessly towards the New England goal. He effortlessly turned an opponent around the half way line to create the masses of space in front of him. Having looked up and seen little movement ahead, he just hammered the ball in off the underside of the bar for a stunner of a goal, leaving Matt Reis with no chance.

The goal itself was enough to silence any remaining Montero cynics, though in fairness, he has had a few shots of this magnitude before and they have gone harmlessly wide. It may well be he is allowed a few more going over or wide, before a peep of criticism is heard again! Montero has now scored four goals in Seattle’s last five away games.

The longest serving MLS player of all time, Steve Ralston, had been forced to leave the field in 20 minutes and was replace by Kheli Dube, a change which seemed to temporarily disorient the Revs.

Sounders then survived the remainder of the first half surprisingly comfortably. The Revs seemed initially restricted to copycat speculative long range efforts, all of which failed to trouble Kasey Keller in the Sounders’ goal. However, in the last five minutes before the interval, the Revs came closer to the Sounders’ goal and Sanna Nyassi misdirected a snapshot, having picked up a loose ball from Emmanuel Osei. This could have served as a warning to Sounders, coming minutes before the interval as it did.

One minute before halftime, Kheli Dube raked his studs into the shins of Nate Jaqua. Jaqua was lucky to escape injury, Nyassi was lucky enough to escape a red card. He didn’t even get a yellow and after another poor challenge was later removed as a precaution by Steve Nicol.

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However, once the penalty was awarded, the momentum swung to the home side and Sounders seemed ready to accept, as did many fans, that this wasn’t their day. Kheli Dube’s cross did strike Leo Gonzalez hands as he tried to protect himself. The question is whether he could have removed it in time, or ought to have been challenging with his hands at a less advanced position, leaving himself unprotected. The current thinking appears to be that if a player is moving his hands towards the flight of the ball for whatever reason, then a penalty is the right award.

Several angle of replays showed Shalrie Joseph to be standing in an offside position when he received the ball from Jeff Larentowitz’s cross. However he headed in the winning goal with some aplomb and there may be an angle that includes a defender, playing him onside as there was in Dallas earlier in the season. The match finished with further disappointment for Sounders. The returning Nate Jaqua picked up a needless yellow card in the 92nd minute and will now miss the trip to Columbus next weekend.

The Revolution have to visit in form FC Dallas in Texas on Wednesday night. Sounders FC remain on the road in their tour of Eastern Conference opponents, facing Sigi Schmid’s former club Columbus at Crew Stadium on Oct. 3.

Seattle now fall behind Colorado in the Western Conference Table, after Colorado’s third consecutive draw, this time 0-0 with Kansas City. After two draws with lowly San Jose, the Rapids have now dropped six points in their last three games against bottom of the table sides, but due to Los Angeles’ 2-0 defeat in Columbus remain in contention for an automatic place that comes with finishing top two in each conference.

That will most likely go to Chivas USA now who have several games in hand. However, they failed to beat New York last night after Sacha Kljestan put yet another MLS injury time penalty wide of the goal. The spirited New Yorkers have now deprived New England and Chivas of maximum points, and it seems that the sides with nothing to play for are becoming impossible to beat. Real Salt Lake’s 3-0 defeat at Pizza Hut Park has almost certainly closed the chapter on their play-off chances after two more Jeff Cunningham goals ensured their seventh straight defeat in Dallas.

We’ll have a full round-up of the weekend’s MLS action and its repercussions after the last game of the day when DC United aim to take advantage of the missteps of the other challengers when they host San Jose.

Rew England v Sounders Player Ratings

New England Revs: Matt Reis, Kevin Alston, Darrius Barnes, Emmanuel Osei, Jay Heaps, Sainey Nyassi (Kenny Mansally 66), Jeff Larentowicz, Shalrie Joseph, Wells Thompson, Steve Ralston (Kheli Dube 21), Edgaras Jankauskas (Pat Phelan 69)

Substitutes not used: Brad Knighton, Amaechi Igwe, Gabriel Badilla, Nico Colaluca, Chris Tierney

Sounders FC: Kasey Keller, James Riley, Tyrone Marshall, Jhon Kennedy Hurtado, Leo Gonzalez (Stephen King 90), Steve Zakuani (Roger Levesque 69), Osvaldo Alonso, Brad Evans, Nate Jaqua, Freddie Ljungberg, Fredy Montero.

Substitutes Not Used: Peter Vagenas, Patrick Ianni, Tyson Wahl, Terry Boss.

Attendance: 15,961

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