Sounders Battled Valiantly With 10

Let me get this out of the way early on: Kansas City sucks butt. Seriously, this is not a good MLS team. This game felt like Arsenal V. Wigan (which by the way Arsenal won 4-1, after spotting the Wigs a goal and a couple of good chances) or Arsenal v. West Ham.

Our players looked better on the ball, sharper of mind and faster. Our defense looked capable, we had an offensive strategy that consisted of something slightly more sophisticated than the ol' NASA moon launch.

But, when we lost Keller on the red card and went to 10 men, well, if we got out of Large Tele Co Stadium with a 0-0 draw, then that'd be a fine evening. But...But...winning streaks are made to be broken and with a first-year team doing the unthinkable, Kansas City was probably just one of many teams that wanted to see a stop to the Sounders' precocious ways.. Anyways, the result was a 1-0 loss, with Sounders battling a man down for 65 minutes.

The first half, before and after Keller's ejection was largely scrapping for posession, with a few build-ups here a few coutners there. But after Sigi had a chance to chat with the guys at halftime, Sounders came out with their ears pinned back. Man, they took it to the Lizards of KC like the man-advantage was reversed.

I counted 4 excellent chances on goal, any one of which would've won the game. Montero rattled the woodwork on a free kick, had a point-blank open goal taken away by a lucky leg stab from a defender (created, BTW, by incredible hard work from Nate Jacqua to keep a lost cause inbounds and then feed Montero), Evans had a shot, and I think Jacqua had a go somewhere in there.

But after all that, the 9 field players got tired. You could see it in their body motions. They were flagging a bit, and the Liz started bringing posession into our half. I thought it was time to bring Zakuani in to freshen up our midfield, but Coach didn't insert him into the formation until after Davey Arnaud scored. I thought the keeper's positioning was a bit weak on the shot, but the opportunity was created by soft defending that was certainly caused by fatigue.

Even after the goal, though, the Sounders kept pressing and came close to equalizing. While the result was their first loss, this didn't feel like a loss; more like a moral victory and the Lizards escaping Seattle with a fortunate result. They won't win a ton of games this year...that is, unless they get the man advantage throughout the season.

The Sounders, on the other hand, will win plenty more games, despite this setback.