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Montero the hero again as wild finish sees Seattle top Colorado

Fernandez - Getty

By CALEB SONNELAND

The bad blood between the two teams was evident for everyone to see as the Seattle Sounders and Colorado Rapids played out a wild 4-3 Sounders victory rife with disciplinary and goal-mouth action from start to finish.

With the score knotted at 2-2 going into the home stretch of the game, it took some Fredy Montero magic to unlock the Rapids' defense to give the hosts a win and all three points at CenturyLink Field.

"Not to say that it was a perfect week, but I definitely feel very good," said Montero who had three goals and an assist in MLS play this week.  "Especially because the team accomplished our objectives."

"We have to maintain and keep our form, reinforce what we are doing and motivate the entire team. I'm very proud of what the team has done today and that we got the three points."

With goals initially coming from Wells Thompson and Jeff Larentowicz to give the visitors the lead, Seattle twice clawed its way back through Montero who registered a goal and an assist for Mauro Rosales in the span of one minute. 

Coming off a big week in Portland, it was Montero who rescued Seattle once more when he popped up at the back post to nod home a cross in the 83rd minute to put his side in front for the first time all match. Just a minute or so later, the Colombian played Rosales in behind the back line for the latter to smash home past Matt Pickens.

After an early goal from Wells Thompson, it was DP Alvaro Fernandez who got his name on the score-sheet to bring the hosts level in the 7th minute after being laid in behind the back line by Osvaldo Alonso.  Fernandez shook off Kosuke Kimura before finishing cooly at the far post to even things up for his fifth of 2011.  Roger Levesque provided the Sounders second goal just after the stroke of half time after he nudged home a Rosales cross to make it 2-2.

"Obviously, I think the character we showed from being down twice was superb," said Sigi Schmid.  "My hat's off to the team in that regard.  I didn't like the fact that we gave up three goals, but I'm a coach and I'm paid to worry."

The Rapids had gotten off the mark as Wells Thompson punished a poor Jeff Parke clearance in the 1st minute to smash a good shot past Kasey Keller from 12 yards out.  The goal was Thompson's first of the season and set the stage for a wild match in the Northwest.

Jeff Larentowicz then Colorado's score in the 42nd minute after he whacked a left-footed shot off the far post and in past a helpless Kasey Keller.  Despite being contained to primarily counter-attacks in the first half, Colorado capitalized well on its chances and made the hosts pay for not converting their own.  

Caleb Folan brought the game within a goal in the 90th minute when he tidied up a close-range goal to make the score 4-3 and give Colorado a glimmer of hope.  But it wasn't to be as the time expired and an equalizer could not be found.

One of the major talking points preceding the match was the exclusion of midfielder Brian Mullan from the traveling Rapids team.  Coach Gary Smith cited "back issues" and what he was likely to encounter from the Seattle crowd as reasons for his omission.

Unfortunately for the Rapids, the team may have to adjust to life without Conor Casey, as the striker was forced to leave the game in the first half with a left calf/ankle injury.

Highlights here.

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What did you think of the game? Is Montero up for Man of the Match again?  How do you feel about Mullan not traveling?

Comments

  1. He did that last year too. Really worked out well for him. They lost both matches.

    The thing about Colorado (and their fans) is they think they deserved to win MLS Cup last year and don’t see it as a fluke. They got massively lucky switching to the east and getting the own goal to beat Dallas but for some reason think their talent won it. They aren’t RSL.

    I really feel bad for Nyassi. Marshall, not so much.

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  2. I strongly dislike Jeff the Ginger. After he scored, he mocked the fans. I didn’t like him to begin with. Now I really want to see bad things happen to him. I want him to walk out of his house tomorrow morning and walk right into a spiderweb. I’ll start the new tag: #classyJeffLhate

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  3. Colorado is now the team I dislike most in all of MLS. Just because of who they are. Not that they’re the Rapids. Or because they’re from Colorado or some other nonsense. Just because of that collection of players and the way that they play. A bunch of talentless hacks.

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  4. Meh, it’s a couple of games in a long season—a couple games without our starting CB. It’s an aberration for now.

    Too much parity and too convoluted a playoff system to go picking Cup favorites, but I’d be shocked if the Sounders don’t get there and the defense is to blame…

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  5. The Seattle Sounders are the most exciting team in MLS. This win proves that. They have the opportunity to do the double this year, no doubt. All the non-believers can go suck a fatty.

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  6. Come on people! Just going to bash the friendly games, because it sounds good? These friendlies fund a huge portion of teams revenues. This, in a league that is losing money in many markets. Vancouver is a new team and needs this revenue. This is not catering to Euro whatevers. This is business. A team like Seattle does not need too many friendly games. This is why they dropped them down to one. The team is in three tounaments and is averaging over 36k per game. Teams like the Galaxy are trying to market their brand. Teams that are not drawing enough, or are new like Vancouver rely on these games for major cash flow. Lets all remember not to be too proud, or smug when you have not made it and need a little help from the ones who have. Evenually, the friendly games will not be needed as much. Now, they are great for the league. Take advantage of the oportunity. It’s good business.

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  7. The more you attack. The more you leave yourself open. 3-2. Two own goals. A 4-2 lead after 88 minutes. Come on Serously. Are you serious? Prior to these two WINS. Seattle has had one of the best goals against average in the league.

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  8. You are right and you are wrong. Yes if you look at the begining of the season alone Seattle D looks good. If you look at the whole now it looks average. If you look at it recently though, it’s not good at all. 5 goals conceded in two games. MLS cup is about the hot team, and while Seattle is certainly hot in the attack they are looking porous of late at the back.

    I was merely stating that an unbeaten run does not equte to great D in this current Seattle run. Rather a very powerful O, but Offensive outbursts are more prone to coming and going than defensive stability.

    If Seattle is to win MLS cup they will have to get the defense back from the early going. It has been downhill recently. I hope they can get it done though as they have been exciting to watch this year more than most teams. Last years Colorado winning was a travesty. MlS cup needs some excitement this year.

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  9. Do you know how to read? Please tell me how I cancelled my argument.

    Let me break it down for you, as from your above posts it is clear you are a little on the slow side.

    I said:

    1. MLS values friendlies with out of season Euro sides more than regular season games.

    2. This is apparent by the insertion of real grass over fake pitches when a Euro side comes to town.

    3. Tonights Vancouver vs RSL game was cancelled due to this retarded position, since the inserted grass did not have enough time to take root properly for the MLS game and the rainy conditions would have made it dangerous. It was laid with plenty of time to be ready for an international friendly though. Regular season be damned. Had their been grass in place for the regular season of MLS no such problem would have occured. In addition if MLS didn’t pander to Euro sides there would have been no attempt to place grass over turf and again, the game would have been playable on the artificial surface, though nobody ever actually wants to play on them.

    I know my previous post said this in fewer words, but this is the argument spelled out more clearly so that your simpleton mind might possibly comprehend it. Next time you respond how about doing it from a point of knowledge rather than one of ignorance as you have now displyed. Have a nice day.

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  10. 1.22 goals conceded per game is not terrible. It’s more or less an average defense. Dallas has a great defense and is conceding exactly one goal a game.

    More importantly, Seattle’s defense has been above average to elite over the course of the entire season. In our first 9 games, we conceded only 7 times. Over the course of the entire season, we’ve conceded 23 times in 22 games- again, nearly indistinguishable from Dallas’ mark, and Dallas is one of the best defenses in the league.

    There are few teams with a better GAA than Seattle over the course of the season. Philadelphia, LA, and Salt Lake are the only teams with a GAA below 1. Columbus and Dallas have a GAA of exactly 1, and Seattle is just behind them at 1.04 GAA.

    Add that to the fact that much of Seattle’s tally comes from the past two games that, as far as I can tell, are outliers not entirely representative of the quality of our defense, and that the 9-game streak which you castigate us for included three clean sheets, including one on the road against LA, and I don’t think we have a problem.

    That said, I don’t think anyone can predict the MLS Cup with any certainty because the whole damn thing is a crapshoot.

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  11. I’m not too worried about the D correcting itself. For our first two years we were held back by an inability to finish, endless scoring droughts, and a tendency to wilt when we fell behind. That’s what I think we’ve figured out. Plus the ball is finally flying around the field beautifully with a lot of nice one- and two-touch passing.

    Agree about the CBs, but it’s a little better when Hurtado is in there and far better in general now that Tyrone is in Colorado.

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  12. Yes, we’ve given up 11 goals in 9 games, but in fairness we gave up 5 in our last two, both wins, and both mostly played without Hurtado anchoring the central D.

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  13. I’m sorry, I forgot to read the part of your above statement that said your D was bad now but might get better. I could have sworn your sarcastic remark meant you thought the D was playing well.

    My mistake…

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  14. +1 Agreed! I hate how Bruce Arena coaches for the 1-0 win or 1-1 tie, it’s so boring. I’d much rather see a team win playing attractive soccer and giving up tons of goals than see that crap.

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  15. tied for 8th out of 18 teams, seems like above avg defense to me. plus weve played more games then anyone in the league.. just saying

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  16. I’m sure the brain trust over at SSFC will be looking into shoring up the D during the transfer window.. It ain’t the playoffs just yet amigo..

    That’s in late OCT

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  17. Yup, grass is too good for MLS teams apparently. Only when a big foreign team comes do they put down grass. Then because of this things like todays rain out of the RSL v Vancouver match happen. Vancouver can say its for player safety all they want and that may be technically why it is cancelled but the thing is had their not been a friendly around the corner no grass would have been laid and the MLS match would have been played today.

    Way to go MLS, you just showed everyone that you don’t even value your own product as much as a bunch of out-of-season, reserve team, Euro sides. Congrats.

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  18. Actually that would be 9 games undeaten, unless you mean in all competitions. In those 9 games you have given up 11 goals. That is not good D at all. If you add in USOC games that is 11 unbeaten and 13 goals in that stretch. No matter how you look at it that D is not very good. If the offense can’t keep posting 4 goal games come playoff time Seattle won’t be hoisting the cup unless that D gets better. Right now it is not good.

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  19. I do agree I would like the galaxy to play more attractive soccer but sometimes I feel with all the injuries and lack of depth its hard to field an attacking team.

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  20. Where’s the D?

    I’d rather see an aggressive Oswaldo “Honey Badger” ALonso creating more goal opportunities then some dull bunker Bruce Arena ball.

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  21. Not if we don’t tighten up…

    I’d like to see a game where our CBs dont clear straight up the middle to a waiting oponent…

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  22. Colorado was just along for the ride this game. Only looked to try and counter, never really carried the play. Commanding performance by Seattle, although 5 conceded goals in the last 2 games is a concering development.

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