The Seattle Sounders grabbed a surprising victory in their first match against Sporting Kansas City last Saturday, with substitute Chad Barrett knocking in a dramatic goal deep into stoppage time to give Seattle the 1-0 victory. Although it was a 0-0 game until the very end, it was an entertaining and competitive affair.
The first thing that Seattle fans should be keeping an eye on has to be the play of all the new acquisitions. Forward Kenny Cooper is a veteran of the league, having scored 72 goals during stints with FC Dallas, the Portland Timbers and the New York Red Bulls. His play will be key this year, as he joins an offensive attack spearheaded at the top by Clint Dempsey and Obafemi Martins. Chad Marshall, who has spent his entire career with the Columbus Crew, is expected to bolster the defense and Swedish goalkeeper Stefan Frei takes over for Michael Gspurning.
The good news is all three of those pieces performed pretty well against SKC. Cooper didn’t score but he had a few good looks, including a rocket shot to the far post mid-way through the second half that just missed going in by a matter of inches. Marshall and Frei played well in the back, yielding a few chances themselves to the Kansas City attack but ultimately helping maintain the shut out.
The play of a couple of the youngsters is sure to draw some attention as well. It was rookie Sean Okoli who fired the cross into the box that led to Barrett’s winning goal. 22-year-old defender Dylan Remick made the opening day start and figures to improve as he gets more acclimated to playing big time minutes.
Remick’s fellow defender Osvaldo Alonso played extremely well, hounding the opposition for much of the day and generally looking like the most dynamic defensive player on the field. It was Alonso’s loose ball recovery that initiated the sequence that led to Barrett’s goal.
Clint Dempsey–the US national team captain and prize acquisition for Seattle–checked in during the 57th minute for Marco Pappa. Analysis of his performance might be divisive, especially because he didn’t play a lot of minutes. But I believe his overall play should give reason for optimism.
In a space of about 10 seconds, Dempsey set up the game-winning cross, almost scored the game-winning goal himself and then registered the assist on the actual game-winning goal by Barrett. He controlled the ball brilliantly on a bullet pass that came from a streaking Alonso. Then, he delivered a difficult, left-footed pass of his own to Okoli who was sprinting up the right sideline. After Okoli’s cross was deflected in the air, Demspey just missed scoring a header, deflecting it off the crossbar. But he was able to knock the ball back towards the goal on the rebound, essentially allowing Barrett to just tap the ball in for the score.
It would have been nice to see Dempsey cash in the header, but it’s really immaterial. He was instrumental in the offensive attack that notched the winning score. Dempsey has been surrounded by questions regarding his lackluster play during his loan to Fulham and on the national team, so we can be sure he will be trying to assert himself as the MLS season gets into gear.
The dramatic win against a defending champion in Sporting Kansas City is about as good a result as coach Sigi Schmid could have hoped to start the season. Interestingly enough, the Sounders have beat Kansas City on a stoppage time goal five out of the last eight times that the teams have played.
Seattle will be tested next Saturday, as a new-look Toronto FC will come to CenturyLink Field.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
