Seattle Sounders 2-Orlando City 1
Midweek matches can at times be trap games for home sides. An early goal, a call that goes the opposite way, whatever the reason games during the middle of the week often seem to have weird situations and often weirder results. Thankfully the Seattle Sounders did not fall victim to this curse. Despite allowing a late goal the Sounders held off Orlando City SC 2-1 in front of a wet 37, 722 at CenturyLink Field.
The Sounders took the lead early after Raul Ruidiaz scored in the 19th minute off of a clever pass from Brad Smith. Things didn’t look too good for the Sounders early in the second half after Jordan Morris left in the 53rd minute with an injury. But as the Sounders attack have shown all season they don’t just rely on one player as his replacement, Handwalla Bwana, made an immediate impact scoring in the 68th minute to give the home side the 2-0 advantage.
Orlando did make things interesting late as Chris Mueller cut their deficit to one with his goal in the 75th minute. The good news is that Orlando made 100% of their shots on target. The bad news is that Mueller’s goal was their lone shot on target ending the match at 2-1. Wednesday’s loss is their third in a row and pushes them close ‘must-win’ territory on Saturday night as they host FC Cincinnati (3pm EST, ESPN+).
For the Sounders (7-1-4, 25 points) the win stretches their unbeaten run to five matches. While Wednesday’s match did mark the return off Ruidiaz to the roster after an injury, Morris going off to what was later announced as a hamstring injury will certainly be a worry to head coach Brian Schmetzer. They will travel to Philadelphia on Saturday to take on the Union (8pm EST/5pm PST ESPN +).
On hand to cover the match was Prost Photographer Paul Kahl. You can check out more of his work on his SmugMug page which includes over seven years of Sounders photos!
Seattle Sounders FC
Orlando City
