Seattle Sounders (5-1-1, 16pts) put a makeshift lineup on the pitch to face the Philadelphia Union (2-4-1, 7pts). Sounders are fresh off their first home win against LA Galaxy in MLS three days prior and travel to FC Dallas on Wednesday and home against Real Salt Lake on Saturday . Philadelphia has struggled this season, although their Goalkeeper has posted the second longest scoreless streak in MLS this season at 408 minutes from March 25th to April 18th.
Fredy Montero, fresh off his amazing Golazo against Galaxy, was looking to keep a goal scoring streak going. Montero, and Andy Rose both took some long attempts in the first half. Rose in particular puts a lot of heat on the ball and Zac MacMath showed that he had trouble catching those shots out of the air. Montero had a header that sailed somewhat lazily to MacMath in the 19th minute, and a off-balance shot Montero hit as he was falling that needed to be cleared off the line by Raymon Gaddis in the 7th.
There were a couple of dicey moments, Mauro Rosales hit Kai Herdling with his elbow, that appeared to be inadverdent. A real moment of controversy occurred when a caution was given to Andy Rose for a reckless challenge on in the 18th minute and given a stern talking to by Ricardo Salazar for a tackle from behind on Freddy Adu in the 28th minute. It was one of those instances where a previous caution earns you leniency early in the match. Speculatively, the first challenge was less worthy of a card than the second, but Salazar did not wish to have Sounders down to 10 men so early in the match.
At halftime the Philadelphia Union had attempted 6 shots and only got 1 on target compared to 7 and 4 respectively for the Sounders.
No subs at halftime, and it wouldn’t be until Eddie Johnson came on for Andy Rose in the 61st minute that Sounders would awaken offensively. Johnson made his presence felt immediately on a lateral run with the ball found Montero in the middle against his run. Montero managed to curl his shot right into the crossbar with no teammate to follow up the rebound that was lazily collected by the Union defense and headed back to MacMath.
Montero would not be denied two minutes later, when in the 63rd minute, Johnson traps a long ball with his chest, leaves for Montero, who passed the ball across the top of the box to Mauro Rosales who finished the games only goal and sealed Man of the Match status. Eddie Johnson was originally credited with an assist on the play, but was later taken away. It was a very traditional target forward play, something Sounders have been seeking for their entire MLS existence.
In the end the Union only managed on shot on target the entire match. Considering that the Sounders were missing 4 out of 5 defensive regulars (Michael Gspurning, Jhon Kennedy Hurtado, Zach Scott, or Leo Gonzalez) in the starting lineup the Union offensive output was doubly disappointing.
Attendance 38,399
