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What a beautiful weekend in the Emerald City and I am not talking about the weather. Spring is finally here and Sounders FC won an impressive game against a vastly improved Toronto side in front of a sellout crowd of rabid fans.
Well, they were rabid for a brief spell anyway.
To Continue...
It seems that Ljunberg and Zakuani quieted the Toronto faithful down quite a bit before halftime. Many of the folks dressed in red headed to the beer garden before half time. And, once half ended I am not sure many of them left the beer garden.
So this is the first match day where our boys were on the road. My ritual is very similar. Get up, check my e-mail, do a few twitters, Read my colleague's pre-match report right here on Next Season Sports, don my kit for the match and head downtown.
My friends wanted to go to Fado so I decided to meet them there. Fado, along with George and Dragon, is one of my favorite places to watch matches. It is a beautiful Saturday afternoon. I was thinking that it would be a brilliant day for a home match. Oh well, perhaps this Saturday, right?
I order my favorite breakfast of Eggs Benedict and settle down in the back room with my buddies (who I play soccer with in men's league) to watch the match.
The Match
Unlike the last few weeks, Sounders FC take control of the match rather quickly. They are going against the wind and the pitch is smaller than at home, which provides a challenge.
But, Sigi has the boys well prepared. Montero did not make the trip to Toronto so Ljungberg and Jaqua start up front. The passing is short and crisp and, as usual, Alonso owns the midfield.
Ljungberg's pace looks fantastic and with about 14 minutes in, he pushes the ball up and does a quick 2 on 1 pass to Jaqua. Ljunberg cuts through the defense, Jaqua back to Ljungberg and a shot from Ljungberg results in a goal. 1-0 Seattle. The packed crowd at Fado erupts in jubilation. It was a text book give and go and a brilliant finish.
With one minute left in the half: Riley down the line to Ljunberg to LeToux to Jaqua a shot a rebound to Zakuani, In my best Max Bretos (FSC) imitation, "yeeees!" Seattle goes into the locker room with a 2 to nil lead.
That was all she wrote in terms of scoring. Toronto did have their chances; a shot off the post and a solid header from DeRosario only to be thwarted by a spectacular "save of the week" from Kasey Keller.
A few observations
Who knew that Jaqua had the makings of a WWE pro wrestler. At about 58 minutes in as he was going up for a ball, "Jaqua The Snake" executed a perfect DDT on Kevin Harmes for the win. Ladies and gentlemen, your new Intercontinental Champion is... All kidding asside, Jaqua is very great and humble guy off the pitch but on the pitch he plays the game with passion and fights for every ball. Hmm... maybe I may start refering to him as "The Snake" always ready to strike.
At about 72 minutes in Seattle fans got quite a scare as Ljungberg went down holding his left knee. You could have heard a pin drop in the place. While he was on the ground one of the Toronto faithful decided that they would waste a perfectly good $8.00 beer by throwing it on Ljungberg. Really classy move Toronto fan, I am sure your parents are really proud.
Ljungberg was able to continue and finish strong before coming out of the match at about 80 minutes. Well done.
Honorable Mentions
Again, Osvaldo Alonso was just about flawless on both sides of the ball. James Riley continues to impress with aggressive play on both sides of the ball and great runs up the right. Sebastien LeToux is just one of those types of players that gives everything he has all the time. He always seems to know where to go with the ball before he gets it. He does the little things that can impact a match.
He made a wonderful initial pass to Jaqua that ended up in a rebound goal from Zakuani.
Zach Scott once again was solid in the air at the left back, Hurtado, and Marshall kept the shots on net down to a minimum and when Keller was tested he came up huge.
Brad Evans is just solid in the midfield and works so well with Alonso and Zakuani continues to make the most of his playing time.
Sanna Nyassi came in with ten minutes left and his speed and creativity on the ball is a treat to watch. He created a couple potential scoring opportunities.
All in all
It was a great team effort in a tough environment. We are the first expansion team to win its first three games and we have scored seven goals to our opponent's 10, with the scoring coming from a variety of sources. We have a lot of weapons in our arsenal (and a former great Arsenal player on our side).
I sure am looking forward to another great match day with our boys at home. Maybe we will be blessed with some great weather. If not it doesn't matter because myself along with the rest of Sounders Nation will be there later this week in full force and full effect.
Reach Greg Roth at nextseasonsports@gmail.com
