Le Toux scored on a penalty kick. Greg Roth / NSS
It must have felt like visiting an old home as six former USL Sounders returned to the Starfire Sports Complex pitch to take on Real Salt Lake in a Lamar Hunt US Open Cup match. Six of the starting 11 for Tuesday's match played with the USL club during the 2008 campaign.
The sextuplet didn't disappoint as the Sounders rolled to a 4-1 win.
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They were as follows: goalie Chris Eylander, defender Taylor Graham, defender Zach Scott, midfielder Sanna Nyassi, strikers Roger Levesque and Sebastien LeToux.
The Sounders opened the scoring with a Sebastien LeToux penalty kick goal in the 24th minute. Two minutes later Sanna Nyassi scored on and assist from Sebastien LeToux. In the 32nd minute Real Salt Lake countered with an unassisted goal from Will Johnson. The Sounders went into the locker room with a 2-1 lead.
In the second half Stephen King scored in the 59th minute on and assist from Sebastien Le Toux and Roger Levesque. 2 minutes later LeToux scored on an assist from Levesque which gave the Sounders all they needed for and impressive 4-1 victory.
Seattle controlled most of the match and out shot Real Salt Lake 16 to 11 with 8 of those shots being on goal. Real Salt Lake did not create a lot of scoring opportunities as they ended the evening with only four shots on goal. Eylander came up big when needed to help Seattle protect a 2-1 lead. The match did get physical in the second half with some of the younger players that were given an opportunity to start to show their respective coaches what they could do in a competitive match situation. This resulted in 14 fouls from Real Salt Lake to Seattle's 11.
Starting and making their debut tonight for the Sounders were defenders Tyson Wahl and Taylor Graham as well as midfielders King and Patrick Ianni. Midfielder Jarrod Smith made his rave green debut with the club at the 65 minute mark, replacing Steve Zakuani and Evan Brown made his Sounders debut in the 72nd minute, coming in for Nyassi.
Tonight's match provided a solid test and opportunity for players that have not seen a lot of minutes. In addition, Le Toux had a chance to play up front in his natural striker position and seemed to make the most of it.
Scoring Summary:
SEA -- Sebastien Le Toux (penalty kick) 24
SEA -- Sanna Nyassi (Sebastien Le Toux, Roger Levesque) 26
RSL -- Will Johnson (unassisted) 32
SEA -- Stephen King (Sebastien Le Toux, Roger Levesque) 53
SEA -- Sebastien Le Toux (Roger Levesque) 55
Quotes:
HEAD COACH SIGI SCHMID
On his thoughts on the game:
“Obviously, the result was great for us tonight, and it was good to get some guys on the field who haven’t been playing a lot, and for them to make our job as difficult as possible as coaches. So, obviously, [Sebastien Le Toux] had a very good game, with his two goals, [Sanna] Nyassi, causing a lot of problems, but I also thought Ianni and King played very well in the middle of midfield, kept things together for us pretty much. It was nice to have Taylor Graham back out there. So, overall, I was really pleased with how we played. We’re a bit unfortunate in terms of some other chances. We had some good other chances to finish. They had some chances towards the end, but at that point, our foot was off the gas pedal a little bit.”
On whether Le Toux made his decision of who will start on Saturday more difficult tonight by playing so well:
“Always, that’s the way it should be. That’s what he wants to do. You want to have a team that has 17, 18, 19 guys that can start for you, because it’s a long season. You never know who’s going to get hurt, and who’s going to miss, so this is a good game for people to build their confidence. Seb certainly presents us alternatives, and it was nice to be able to play him up front, where he’s obviously more comfortable than he is in a wide position.”
On the team’s depth:
“Well, it’s what you want to do—you want to have depth. It’s something I learned a long time ago. The reason to have depth, more than any other reason, is you want to have good practices, and the deeper you are, the more competitive practices are, and the better the practices are, the better you’re going to be in games. So if you just had 11 really good players and the other guys weren’t very much, then we wouldn’t be a very good team. It shows that we have that depth, and that’s something that I’m very pleased with. As I said, it’s a long season, and we need everybody.”
On Chris Eylander’s big save to keep the score from becoming 2-2:
“Big save. It’s a big save, and for Chris, it’s good because he’s been out so long with the injury that he had, with the PCL tear. So coming back in the reserve game, it wasn’t the best for him, and the down at Chivas, he had a loss. So this was a big moment for him. We talked earlier in the week and his attitude was good. That’s what you want to do as a goalkeeper. That’s what Keller does for us when he plays, and that’s what Chris did for us tonight. I was very happy with his game.”
On whether that was a momentum-changing moment:
“Oh, definitely. Definitely a momentum-changing moment. I mean, they’re a good team. Everybody you play has got some good players and has some things. So you’ve got to be able to come up with some plays on the defensive end because they’re going to get chances. You can’t expect a game to go by where the other team doesn’t get any chances. So you got to make sure that you stop them, and you got to make sure that you bury yours when you get yours. I think that’s what we did tonight.”
On Steve Zakuani’s and James Riley’s fitness levels:
“Well, Zakuani, we’re trying to build his fitness. With him, it hasn’t been a hard week. He played Saturday, and Sunday was an easy training session for him. Monday wasn’t much either. He played tonight. Tomorrow will be an off-day, Thursday will be easier for him than it is for some of the other guys. So it’s a way for us to build his fitness for sure. Riley is pretty fit. I think I said to him that the last 20 minutes, he tried to kick back a little bit on the field, for sure, as well. That’s why they got behind us a few times on that side. Obviously, somebody had to go. We were able to rest the guys that have some knocks and bruises, and that was important.”
MIDFIELDER STEPHEN KING
On having good chemistry with the attackers:
“Yeah, definitely. I think our whole attack had a great chemistry going, with Zakuani and Nyassi on the outside. We bring a lot of speed, we defend really well as a group, and create turnovers and just try to go from there.”
On whether tonight’s game was a way for him to show what he’s able to do:
“Oh, exactly. Whenever we have games and you get an opportunity to prove yourself, you always want to show what you can do, and show why you deserve to be out there during a league game, so that’s a big motivation for a lot of the guys out there tonight, including myself.”
Sounders FC travel to Chicago to take on "The Fire" on Saturday, May 2nd, The game will be televised at 5:30 (PST) on KONG TV.
Reach Greg Roth - Sounders Fan Insider at nextseasonsports@gmail.com
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