Seattle quickly garnered a pair of early goals in their home game against the New York Red Bulls. After allowing New York to tie it up, Roger Levesque was subbed in and it made all the difference. He scored two more goals, securing a 4-2 win for Seattle and placing them at second overall in the MLS with 28 points. They now only trail the LA Galaxy, who currently has 34 points.
The match, with an overwhelming attendance of 46,065 at Qwest Stadium, not to mention the national audiences watching online or on television, was a constant back and forth, jib and jab, ups and downs style for the better part of the ninety. An early through ball from New York was swallowed up by the arms of Kasey Keller in the third minute. Another chance arose for New York in the ninth minute of play, when Dwayne De Rosario had a wide open chance on goal, but instead decided to kick it into the stands. In the 11th minute, some bumbling defense from New York resulted in a wild, hooking shot from Erik Friberg. The shot is what we like to call “threading-the-needle”. Two minutes later, Osvaldo Alonso smashed a volleyed ball from the top of the arch which went screaming past goalkeeper Greg Sutton to put the Sounders up two nil. The pair of goals ties the Sounders’ personal record for fastest consecutive goals scored.
New York began to panic and sacrifice their integrity once they began trailing. Jersey grabbing, aggressive tackling, and a general sense of urgency was implemented, and for good reason. Shortly thereafter, Dane Richards scored from the top right corner of the goal box, the same exact spot as Hassli a few weeks ago. Hopefully, this will not continue to be a weak spot for Keller and be exploited throughout the season. The half ended with a near perfect free kick from New York, which was caught by a patient and aware Keller.
The second half can be summed up as yellow cards and an unstoppable Levesque. Both teams were issued several cautions, yet they maintained their composure and the carding never made it past the cautionary stage. Seattle, unhappy with only having scored twice, put up another goal in the 58th minute. Unfortunately, it was an accidental, ricocheted, own goal off the foot of Zach Scott. Following the own goal, the score stood at 2-2. In retaliation, a corner kick taken by Seattle found the head of towering Levesque, who headed it past the keeper. Again, in the 79th minute, Levesque stole the ball from the Red Bulls goalie off a backwards pass, and was able to dribble the ball into the net. The score would stand at 4-2 for the remaining ten minutes of play.
Red Bulls Starting XI – Greg Sutton, Jan Gunnar Solli, Carlos Mendes, Stephen Keel, Roy Miller, Mehdi Ballouchy, Teemu Tainio, Joel Lindpere, Austin da Luz, Dwayne De Rosario, Dane Richards
Sounders FC Starting XI – Kasey Keller, James Riley, Jeff Parke, Zach Scott, Leo Gonzalez, Osvaldo Alonso, Erik Friberg, Mauro Rosales, Alvaro Fernandez, Fredy Montero, Mike Fucito
