The first win of the year is in the books and that particular elephant in the room is taken care of. It was not the best performance of the year, but it was good enough and that’s the piece that mattered.
Montero was still out after surgery to his wrist last week; he was around the stadium with a hard cast on. He should be back for next week. For today Mauro Rosales played up front with O’Brian White in a rather conventional, if make shift looking 4-4-2.
We did not have to wait long for the first goal. Rosales set up White in the 7th minute for a well taken header just inside the near post. Very well set up and you did get the feeling that something interesting was going to happen every time Rosales got the ball.
Chicago responded straight away with the impressive Diego Chavez nicely finishing a pass into the middle after Parke slipped and gave him the space to finish.
The second goal was a great finish by Zakuani; he went past his marker and slotted home to give Seattle a 2-1 lead. The building got loud, this is what we’ve been looking for the first four games, and now they just had to hold onto the lead.
This was not Seattle’s best performance of the year. Having said that the home team largely controlled the first half, but the second half was a different story. Chicago made some adjustments at half time. Most notably by pushing the ball wider and playing in a little sooner. This created bigger problems for Parke and JKH in the middle and seemed to stretch the defence
Evans had a good performance, less a playmaker in the middle of the field, but making the runs into the box and taking up good positions. He put a lot of pressure on the defence, not through touches on the ball, but creating space for others to take advantage of.
Alonso was as important as ever; so much of what Seattle does goes through him. If he’s not the first name on the team sheet, it’s only because Keller is ahead of him. His importance to this team can’t be over estimated, and today he played his usual complete game and took a ball to the face defending a free kick late in the game.
What else did we learn today? Keller has plenty of life left in him yet with a couple of top drawer reaction saves in the second half to preserve the lead.
Steve Zakuani took the Chicago left back Jalil Anibaba to all over the park. The defender had no real answer for the pace of the Seattle attacker, this was fun to watch.
Set pieces looked better than ever. Corners especially have been an issue, today was better. With Friberg whipping the ball into the 6-yard box with pace anything can happen, and defences get worried.
Chicago is going to score goals and win a lot of games this year, Seattle beat a very good team that controls the ball and comes forward quickly and with purpose. The two Uruguayans up front look dangerous. This is a playoff quality team.
O’Brian White has earned the opportunity to start over Nate Jaqua, He is a very different player than Jaqua, but is a more effective target forward. He’s faster, more aggressive in the box and has a better first touch than Jaqua. What happens when Montero is back will be interesting, but I think White has done enough to be in consideration with Rosales dropping back to play just behind Montero.
On balance Seattle deserved the three points, they played well and with Montero back next week things are looking good. Its difficult to say this was a must win game, but with a tough game at Philadelphia, coming away with three points today was important.
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Good result, but as you said not the best performance of the year. Three points is what we really care about and now the season is on a roll. I do agree that this is a good fire team we saw yesterday.