Sounders 4 – Rapids 3

It felt good to be back watching Sounders football live again, but before I go on about the Colorado game something slightly different.

Friday night saw Port Vale play in Everett. Vail are a side that plays in League-2 in the UK, level-4 in the football pyramid, they found sponsorship to have a four game North American tour. Vail is managed by Micky Adams, a defender I saw play quite a few times for Coventry City in the Premier League.

Not exactly a high profile tour like Manchester United, but it was an entertaining game Friday night at Goddard Stadium in Everett. Port Vail won 3-1 in their first pre-season game. The Everett Herald had a nice write up today.

Today was not the best game I’ve ever seen, but if anyone had expectations for the Rapids playing clean, flowing football then they have not been paying attention to how Colorado play the game. This Sounders team is doing what good teams do; they are finding ways to win against good sides. They are playing about the best football I’ve seen at Royal Brougham Park in the last three years.

In the last few weeks they have beaten the reigning MLS champions, the regular season league champions, made it to the last four in the cup, took the Timbers apart in their place and taken 16 of the last 18 points on offer. This is a side that is playing good, entertaining football with a lot of confidence. Oh yeah, they are playing Manchester United Wednesday and are just one point off the top of the league. Expectations are high for the Sounders, and they are delivering.

The ball moves rapidly through the midfield and out wide smoothly. Montero has scored four goals in the last week and is a threat every time he has the ball. Rosales, Alonso and Fernandez seem to be in the middle of everything. Fernandez was going past defenders for fun. He had an outstanding game against Colorado.

It’s a little worrying that the Sounders gave up three goals at home. The first was a defensive mistake (like both at Portland last weekend), the other two came when runners lost their markers in the box. All avoidable and Keller was rightfully angry with his defence on the third goal. The home team fell behind early, played some great football came back and made it interesting at the end by allowing it closer than it should have been. That part sounds a lot like last weeks game in Portland and it’s the sort of habit that ends good streaks.

After going 1-0 down in he second minute we did not have to wait long for the equalizer. A great finish gave Fernandez his fifth goal of the year after running past the right back and slotting the ball past the keeper. It was a  really good finish. Levesque got another goal with a nice finish.

Montero had a low header at the far post and is playing the sort of football right now we all hoped to see from him at the start of the year. He is playing the way I think most of us hoped he would when he signed the designated player contract at the beginning of the year. It was a smart move by the Sounders and I think was done to ensure they get compensated when he moves to a bigger league. If he continues to play like this it’s going to be sooner rather than later.

The final goal went to Mauro Rosales, he looked absolutely ecstatic to have scored. This put Seattle up 4-2 with 20 minutes left to play. They made the last few minutes exciting after giving up a soft goal.

It was not a clean game, Colorado play a very physical style of football that is unattractive, but tends to be rather effective in this league. The referee did not help, he did not have a good game. At one point he was in danger of loosing control and was inconsistent in calling fouls.

It was good to watch football being played on proper grass. Not surprisingly after the rain this morning the field played very slowly. I get why we have carpet, but this is how the game is supposed to be played. The freshly laid grass is clearly not rooted well yet; a lot of players were loosing their footing. Even the referee fell on his arse at one point to a rather loud cheer.

Through bitter experience I know this won’t last forever. We’ll see a game or two that get away, but gosh this run is fun to watch. United Wednesday does not count for much, but should be a great celebration of the game with the whole stadium opened up.