SEATTLE– The Seattle Sounders managed to earn a 2-2 draw against Mexican powerhouse Club America in the CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinals on Tuesday night, but left themselves little room for error in next week’s return leg in Mexico.
Twice the Sounders took the lead. Twice Club America equalized, earning itself two invaluable road goals in the process.
Oribe Peralta capped the scoring in the 70th minute of an open and entertaining match, leaping to toe a Rubens Sambueza cross past goalkeeper Stefan Frei to tie the game in front of 42,836 at CenturyLink Field. It was Sambueza’s second assist of the night.
The teams meet again at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City on March 2 in the second match of the two-leg, away-goals series. Club America advances to the semifinals if it wins or settles for a 0-0 or 1-1 tie. The Sounders would advance with a win, a 3-3 (or higher scoring) tie, and can force extra time with a 2-2 draw.
Peralta’s late equalizer dulled the shine of a stellar night from Clint Dempsey, whose brace twice provided the Sounders with a lead.
Dempsey opened the scoring in stunning fashion in the 44th minute, lacing a free kick past goalkeeper Hugo Gonzalez from nearly 30 yards out. With the match tied 1-1 in the 52nd minute, Dempsey then leapt over defender Miguel Samudio to head an Andreas Ivanschitz corner kick past Gonzalez for the 2-1 lead.
Darwin Quintero equalized for Club America mere seconds after Dempsey’s first strike. Quintero, who spent much of the first half testing Seattle’s offside trap, split the Sounders’ central defenders and worked himself under a leisurely through-ball from Sambueza before easily beating Frei from 10 yards out.
Club America, defending tournament champion and winner of the 2014 Liga MX Apertura, has won this competition a record six times and is in midseason form, sitting in fourth place (3-1-3) in league play. The Sounders, on the other hand, had not played a competitive match since last season’s MLS playoffs and debuted a new formation. It was also the club’s first game since designated player and leading scorer Obafemi Martins departed for the Chinese Super League earlier this month.
And yet the hosts began the evening brightly and never looked overmatched. Longtime midfield anchor Osvaldo Alonso skipped a 20-yard shot just wide from the top of the area in the opening minutes of the match. Much heralded rookie Jordan Morris nearly found the back of the net in the 12th minute off a redirected header, but his shot deflected off a Club America defender and was slapped off the line by Gonzalez.
Club America began to develop a rhythm as a wide-open first half wore on, repeatedly probing the Sounders on the counter but failing to connect the final pass or finding itself called offside. Sambueza nearly put the guests ahead off a broken counter in the 27th minute, tracking down a deflection and beating Frei from a difficult angle only to see his shot ricochet off the bottom of the crossbar.
Another mediocre result! WOW! Some defend the crappy transfer of Martins!
I thought Seattle looked decent for being in preseason form but I do agree with the other posters in regards to their CB marking or lack their of. Other observations: 1)Dempsey looked great and played a deeper midfield role in the first half and was dangerous, floated out wide in second half and didn’t create as much. 2) J. Morris looked dangerous at times and over his head at times, overall not bad for his first pro game. He started out wide and moved central (to his benefit) in second half.3) Those young subs for Seattle were dreadful.
Excellent game, certainly had that Champions League feel with two talented teams and a big crowd. glad to see Dempsey back to his old ways. Preseason or not Seattle looked good but nobody in MLS can stop the combo of Quintero and Peralta with Sambeuza feeding them passes over the top, there just is not a defense that plays that fast/alert/organized in this league.
Seattle, SPEND MONEY ON A GOALKEEPER in order to take this team to the next level. Stefan Frei is a good MLS goalkeeper but for teams in MLS to be successful season after season or in CONCACAF competitions they should do what all big clubs do, and that’s having an ELITE keeper between the posts that tilts the odds in your favor in one on one or difficult situations. No top club around the world has a mediocre or average goalkeeper.
As a DC United fan both teams (DC and Seattle) played exceptionally well for teams still in preseason.
Yet frei led the league last year in saves, shutouts and I believe goals allowed …… But he must be the worst right? Right?!
Frei had some decent saves but should of done better on the first goal.
Atx, one bad play does not a bad keeper make….
That’s True DLOA and he wasn’t terrible, I just thought he looked like a weak point out there.
I think Frei is a middle of the road GK in MLS but stats aren’t that useful in evaluating a GK. I think to really evaluate a GK you need to watch games. You could have Courtois or Cech or Neuer back there but if the defense is porous, they will still concede goals.
“Stefan Frei is a good MLS goalkeeper…” I guess you shutoff mentally and missed that part
…and by the way if “saves and shutouts” defines a goalkeeper how come he is on no ones list for MLS BEST XI 2015, 2014 or 2015(food for thought)? Because if you have a good backline you are not going to have to make as many saves (Hence Robles was named MLS best keeper 2015 while ranking 10th in “saves” or Bill Hamid in 2014 ranked 4th).
“Yet frei led the league last year in saves, shutouts and I believe goals allowed”
Absolutely false. He is 3rd in saves behind Josh Saunders and Steve Clark
I don’t remember Frei, but yeah I thought he should’ve come off his line a lot more than he did. Preseason rust? His defense really let him down though. Surprising that veterans like Marshall and Evans had such a stinker, especially since I thought that Alonso in front of them was really good, and so was at least one of the outside backs(Jones?).
I thought Seattle looked the part. Technically and possession-wise they were even with one of Mx best. They just need to shore up the defense. Sorry DC fans, but that game was not even. I know DC almost scored a couple of times, but the Mexican team was clearly better for me.
Sounds like excuses to me. CA will probably score 4 goals on this sounders D down in Mexico.
Probably. Sad. MLS should be dominating Mexican teams at this point. No excuse.
Why should they be dominating Mexican sides? Mexican sides are proving better in scouting and attracting young foreign talent who see the league as a springboard to Europe or even as an adequate league to stay long-term and still be considered for their national squads. The league attracts comparable viewership ratings to MLS IN the U.S., with some matches exceeding those in the US. The clubs play and compete on equal footing with Southt American quality squads in the Libertadores, offering another opportunity for local and international talent to gain experience and notoriety. Whereas MLS, though growing, doesn’t offer the career opportunities or level of competition on an equal plane with Liga MX. Not to say it isn’t on its way. But to say that they already should be dominating Mexican teams is wildly unsubstantiated.
What you say is true but the point is we are a huge wealthy country so our league should be better than Mexico’s. I think that’s what Brian is saying.
The response is that MLS is only 20 years old and before that there was no professional league in this country so, considering MLS basically started from scratch pretty recently, it’s done pretty well. Both are valid points I think although I tend to agree more with the latter argument. If ten years from now we are still behind LigaMX then something is wrong.
I don;’t see the Sounders matching America in Mexico, but 4 goals is a stretch, except for the fact that, as bottlecaps has pointed out, MLS teams aren’t yet 90 minute fit and won’t be in another week and Azteca in Mexico City, being smoggy and at 7,000 feet, gives the home team an extra advantage rarely found elsewhere. Watching this game I thought the main difference between the starting XI’s was that Seattle wasn’t playing as well together as a team yet as America was. America didn’t exactly dominate.
I don’t see much of a talent gap between good MLS teams and MX teams now. The difference in this game was defensive mistakes by the Sounders. I don’t know if it was because MLS is still in pre-season, but there was a big difference in team defense. America players did an excellent job of switching when necessary and giving each other good cover, pretty much seamlessly. Not true of Seattle. A total lack of focus and attention by the Sounders in giving up the first goal at the end of the half. Also I think America played with more intensity and passion in the first half, Seattle seemed to come close to matching them in the second half.Then, with the second goal the Sounders lost focus again–the two defensive backs just basically stood there when the pass came in and nobody picked up the scorer. I don’t want to be too rough on Roldan and Kovar since they are very young and relatively inexperienced, but they were not very good and that hurt the Sounders late. Again lack of depth with MLS teams shows up.
To me, your writeup sounds like one technically and tactically superior team dictated the game. That contradicts your first sentence. Anyways, what do you mean by talent, specifically?
Yea brad Evans and chad Marshall should have to watch that second goal all day today with things holding their eyes open the whole time. Horrific defense. Other than that not a bad game. Roldan and kovar looked in over their heads. I know roldan can play better tho. I also agree about the disparity. MX teams are not amazingly talented yet do have slightly more instinctual prowess than mls. They can settle a bouncing pass with their eyes closed while we have to watch the ball hit our foot. Same as our NT
Simply put, we have the same ceiling but they have a higher floor
I like your succinct summary of same ceiling but higher floor. I think that puts it exactly.