By IVES GALARCEP
The Seattle Sounders are off to a winless first month of the Major League Soccer season, but they have a chance to give their season a much more positive vibe with a win against Mexican powerhouse Santos Laguna in their CONCACAF Champions League semifinal series, which kicks off tonight at CenturyLink Field (10pm, Fox Soccer Channel).
Santos Laguna will look to duplicate the knockout round success they enjoyed against Seattle last year, when they eliminated the Sounders after a home blowout in Torreon. Herculez Gomez, Darwin Quintero and Oribe Peralta lead a dangerous Santos attack that could wreak havoc on Seattle’s suspect defense.
The Sounders will be looking to get their attack going, with Sigi Schmid turning to some new faces in the first leg tonight. Eddie Johnson, Mauro Rosales and Steve Zakuani are on the bench tonight, while Sammy Ochoa leads the line in a 4-2-3-1 that will also feature the Sounders debut of Shalrie Joseph.
SBI will be providing live commentary on tonight’s match so please feel free to follow the action here. As always, you are welcome to share your own thoughts and opinions in the comments section below.
Enjoy the action (Tonight’s  Match Commentary is after the jump):
The Dynamo werent soundly beaten they beat themselves. The Sounders have no one to blame but themselves they went and got Joseph instead of a creative midfielder. The defense did well last night but the front 3 guys were terrible. Ochoa is so limited and Mario looks out of his league right now. Sorry but I think Sigi is a coach who hasnt changed with the times. He’s a motorola.
The Dynamo handled Los Guerreros at BBVA but were soundly defeated in Torreon. It’s going to take a miracle for Seattle to go in there and get a resounding victory. Maybe they’ll face a “B” team–not likely.
I sense some irony here with Herc and Sigi.
So Seattle will lose by 3 at Torreon. How long before Seattle wins again?
Herc is awesome but struggles to win shoulder to shoulder challenges. Yielding smoked him on that one and he was out muscled several times in big spots against Mexico. I worry that he won’t be able to compete against the more physical international sides in the WC.
Yedlin. Stupid autocorrect
Sounder fans blame your coach for this result. You cant bench your best players vs a good team.
Sigi out
Quiero Montero?
Gomez tells Yedlin to move the throw in a few yards back and he does. Gomez smiles.
playing with the kid. he’d never do that in the EPL
Is there a reason why the Sounders decided to play their bench in such an important game? No Rosales, Zakuani, Johnson, Martins and no Hurtado. What gives?
Johnson and Martins are hurt. Gspurning was suspended. Beyond that it is just regular squad rotation
Sick and tired..of watching MLS teams get knocked out of Champions league….by Herc Gomez…who is a frickin US international player.
That couldn’t even find a job in MLS
Yeah, how about that?
Sounders really look out of their depth vs Santos, even on that abominable carpet
Yedlin is getting owned all over the place.
Not sure why you would think that, been great going forward. Has left him open defensively a couple of times but to say owned is false.
Bull, he’s all bluster and hype like you’d expect for someone his age. For every aggressive forward or defensive movement he makes he equally gets stripped of the ball badly or makes poor decisions that directly lead to scoring opportunities forthe other team.
Great decisive, one time strike. Herc is showing his international quality and confidence.
I understand if Sounders fans want to see Herc’s right knee sticking out of his left ear….but damn I love that guy. And I like Seattle enough…but Gomez is just about everything that is good in a sportsman.
Herc. Just Herc. Always, always him. The dude is just a stone cold killer.
and that about wraps it up.
The kid Yedlin looks good. Shalrie is his old self now that he’s out of Chivas. Seattle is getting chances in the box, just need to put a couple in.
So, which team is Seattle?
Haha nice one. When we played them in those uni’s I thought Seattle too (I’m a Dynamo fan)