Photo by Joe Nicholson/USA Today Sports Images
By JASON MITCHELL
SEATTLE — The Vancouver Whitecaps may well finish ahead of the Seattle Sounders in this season’s MLS standings, but they’ll probably be happy if they can avoid their Cascadia rivals until 2016.
Just days after snatching the Cascadia Cup from the Whitecaps with a 3-0 road win, the Sounders repeated the drubbing in front of 37,624 at CenturyLink Field on Wednesday night, eliminating Vancouver from the 2015-2016 edition of CONCACAF Champions League.
The win returns Seattle to the competition’s knockout rounds for the third time in club history. Seattle advanced to the quarterfinals of the 2011-2012 tournament before reaching the semifinals in 2012-2013.
Chad Barrett and Lamar Neagle, maligned and struggling for much of the summer, fueled Wednesday’s win. A Neagle brace bookended a Nelson Valdez header initially credited to Barrett, and Barrett assisted on both Neagle goals.
With everything from the Supporters’ Shield to playoff seeding and even qualification still very much an open question in league play, both teams fielded decidedly mixed lineups.
Yet the Sounders — knowing they would be eliminated by anything short of a win — trotted out a significantly stronger group. Regulars such as Neagle, Marco Pappa, Erik Friberg, Tyrone Mears, Brad Evans, Chad Marshall, and Nelson Valdez fronted first-choice goalkeeper Stefan Frei. Whitecaps’ head coach Carl Robinson started a significantly younger and less experienced lineup.
Neagle opened the scoring in the 32nd minute, thundering into the heart of the 6-yard box to one-touch a Chad Barrett cross past goalkeeper Paolo Tornaghi for the 1-0 lead.
Valdez doubled the lead in the 39th minute, getting the slightest touch on the ball after Barrett headed a Pappa free kick toward the back of the net.
Seattle put the match away just moments into the second half. Barrett again found Neagle, this time capitalizing on a Pa Moudo Kah turnover and finding Neagle in acres of space behind Vancouver’s defense for the 3-0 lead.
The Whitecaps never seriously threatened until second-half substitute Kekuta Manneh unleashed a shot on the counter in the 69th minute that never really challenged Frei. It was just Vancouver’s second shot of the night; the first since Matias Laba took a gamble from 30 yards out midway through the first half.
The win extends a return to form for the Sounders, who scooped up the Cascadia Cup trophy over the weekend, find themselves not only in the thick of the playoff race but well within striking range of a second straight Supporters’ Shield, and have now won four of five across all competitions after a late summer swoon. A deeply accomplished roster awaits any CONCACAF opponent in spring of 2016.
Despite the loss, Vancouver still sits in the catbird seat in league play, well positioned to hoist its first Supporters’ Shield and a third trip to the playoffs in club history.
Looking forward, the Whitecaps host New York City FC (9-14-7, 34 points) on Saturday, while the Sounders visit Sporting Kansas City (12-8-8, 44 points) on Sunday.
The Sounders are for the most part healthy for the first time since the beginning of June, so this line up shows the depth of the team. Started what could be considered the #1 defense, but other than Valdez the other guys are competing for time off the bench. I would guess Friberg and Pappa would be the next two in line to get into MLS games.
It really isn’t shocking the team is playing well they played well before the injuries and call ups in June. You take the top 3 to 5 players of any MLS team and you will get a bad MLS team.
Why do they even play (MLS Teams)? A Liga MX team will win it anyway, as always. They should just hold a mini-tourney amongst the qualified Liga MX teams to find the Club WC representative from CONCACAF. It will save a lot of time, money and travel for everybody. Just a suggestion.
Swooning over Liga MX won’t do you any good, football is a year to year spectacle and just like in any sport on any given day any team can win. I’m not denying that the Mexican league has dominated this competition but other leagues are catching up to their standard so you never know
Don’t feed the troll
Dont deny him wisdom and knowledge.