By TRAVIS CLARK
The Seattle Sounders opened up the La Manga Cup preseason competition with a 3-0 loss to Rosenborg BK on Thursday.
Seattle came out with a fairly strong first XI that included Fredy Montero, Kasey Keller and Freddie Ljungberg. Proceedings got off to a bad start, however, when Rosenborg opened the scoring inside two minutes of the match.
After the first goal, Seattle struggled to maintain possession, and prospects of victory took a turn for the worse when a Rosenborg shot from outside the 18 took enough of a deflection off James Riley to beat a sprawling Keller. The Danish club added a third goal in the second half to seal the win.
Here's a look at other preseason friendly results from this week:
RED BULLS ROLL AGAINST U.S. U-17s
The U.S. U-17s have served time as MLS whipping boys so far during the preseason. This time, it was the New York Red Bulls doing the damage, defeating the U-17s 6-0 on Tuesday. New York got two goals a piece from Juan Pablo Angel and John Agudelo in the romp.
TORONTO, D.C. BATTLE TO DRAW
In another Florida friendly, Toronto FC and D.C. United couldn't find the back of that net in a 0-0 draw. Danny Allsopp, United's Australian signing, made his debut after visa issues were settled, but D.C. failed to score for the second friendly in a row. Meanwhile, Toronto started Dwayne De Rosario, Julian de Guzman and trialist Paul Dickov and enjoyed the better of the chances.
DYNAMO DEFEAT SAN JACINTO
Houston scored four second half goals against San Jacinto Junior College and cruised to a 4-1 victory on Wednesday. The Dynamo were actually down 1-0 after San Jacinto scored right before halftime, but a Dominic Oduro braced keyed a second half comeback.
FIRE SWEEP PRESEASON FRIENDLIES
Chicago enjoyed a successful opening to the 2010 preseason schedule with two wins on Monday. Former Fulham striker Collins John scored twice in a 4-1 win against the Vancouver Whitecaps. Later in the day, Chicago bested local club Arizona Sahauros 1-0, with John Thorrington scoring the long goal from the penalty spot.
CHIVAS FALLS IN MEXICO
Chivas USA lost for the first time in the preseason on Tuesday, falling 2-1 against Universidad de Guadalajara, a second-division club in Mexico. Chivas fell behind 1-0 in the 33rd minute, before Justin Braun equalized late in the first half. A Guadalajara goal ten minutes into the second half stood wrapped up the scoring.
FC DALLAS EASES PAST SMU
Dallas won for the third straight time in preseason, this time coming away 4-0 winners against Schellas Hyndman's previous employer, Southern Methodist University. David Ferreira scored one and set up another as FCD cruised on Tuesday.
What do you make of these results?
Share your thoughts below.
They beat completely different U-17s that have just started their cycle, all of the players are at least a year younger than the U-17s that the NY faced last season. Still a solid result though.
I’m just sitting here in my wool cap watching the snowboarding competition in the winter olymoics, dude.
jumping to conclusions based on preseason is stupid
THIS SITE IS KILLING MY WORK PRODUCTIVITY!
how about jeff parke too?
Rosenborg regularly plays Champions League. Didn’t wanna lose, but I don’t think this was Seattle losing face at all.
Interestingly, it was just last spring when RBNY LOST to this badly over-matched U-17 team.
Hmmmm…what could be different about this year’s RBNY team, I wonder??????
I thought Freddy Montero got traded overseas or somthing?? and Hethaberwyn is right.. Collins John is about to go off for Chicago
Anyone know where Kandji is at? Did I miss some news or something?
He needs to gain fitness. Collins John is going to light up the league. 15-20 goals.
They had just flown in the day before and were jet-lagged. I would hardly put any stock in losing to the Norwegian champions especially under those circumstances.
well this proves that seattle’s overated. toronto can’t score, chivas still sucks, and dallas will win the league
They did the same last year and Columbus also played them.
Ives, what’s the latest on van den Bergh?
why are the red bulls playing children for preseason training? lol
Sounders game was on live stream and just was not that great. The Sounders played a minimum of 4 or 5 subs, I am guessing RBK did too, as the game was pretty sloppy.
I was hoping to see how the Sounders stacked up against the top teams from Norway…even if it was preseason. IT ended up just being preseason.
Wilmer stated after the last U-17 WC that his teams would need to play more games to be better prepared. IDK if this is what he had in mind.
lol!
Juan Agudelo scored two of the goals and set up one of Angel’s two goals…. dude is a beast…. MLS needs to let Red Bulls pay him handsomely
rosenborg are from norway and not denmark…