Week 22 of the MLS regular season kicks off on the Xbox pitch at CenturyLink Field in Seattle, Washington. Chivas USA travel north to battle the Seattle Sounders for an early afternoon Western Division clash. The Goats are the only MLS side that the boys in Rave Green have not faced in the 2011 regular season.
The game will kick off just after 1 o’clock PST, and can be seen locally on King 5 TV, and KIRO 97.3 FM. Arlo White will call the match in his usual simulcast fashion for the English speaking fans. The game is also broadcast in Spanish on This-TV which airs locally on KOMO channel 4.2, Comcast cable channel 114, and the radio call can be found on La Gran D 99.3 FM.
This Saturday’s meeting versus Chivas begins a busy stretch of games for the Sounders. The green and blue will play six matches in eighteen days across three competitions. It was really nice to see the boys play a single match this past week, because the twelve days previous to their last match saw the team play four games and travel more than ten thousand miles. During that period there were five Sounders that started and played at least 390 minutes, ninety minutes or more in each match: Kasey Keller, James Riley, Jeff Parke, Osvaldo Alonso, and Mauro Rosales. It’s that kind of hard work and perseverance that the home fans should stand up and show their appreciation to what our boys have achieved during such a tough stretch. Luckily for the Sounders four of their next six fixtures will be played on home turf. Chivas have not had the same such luxury of late and is in the middle of a tough stretch as their trip to Seattle marks the third game of a grueling five game road trip.
Sounders FC have won six of their last eight league games. Their only loss since the beginning of June came on the road against Houston. Their last three wins have all seen the winning goal scored after the 83rd minute. The Sounders lead MLS with 13 goals scored in the final fifteen minutes of games. Lamar Neagle scored one such goal in stoppage time against Sporting KC last week.
“You can tell that our effort is always there,” Neagle said. “At the end of the game we’re still striving to get that win no matter what the score is even though we’re down one or whatever it is, we still come back. We’ve gone down a goal many times, but we always seem to fight back and win the game, and that’s what happened.” The victory over Sporting KC was yet another streak-ending win for Sounders FC.
The Sounders defeated Columbus in 2009 to end the Crew’s 22-match home unbeaten streak, then won earlier this year at Rio Tinto Stadium to end Real Salt Lake’s 29-match home undefeated run. The win was the first ever by a league opponent at Livestrong Sporting Park.
“Obviously, we’re pleased with the result to come from behind like that. You know the red card was a game changing moment,” said head coach Sigi Schmid. “Right after that I felt like we got into a better rhythm…” In the last six games, Seattle midfielder Mauro Rosales has two goals and four assists, including scoring one and setting up one against Kansas City. “Two tremendous plays by Mauro Rosales at the end but overall for our team, after playing 120 minutes in a really hard game against a team from Panama, I was really proud of them,” praised Schmid.
For Sigi, it was his 150th win in league play. He is the first MLS coach to achieve that milestone. “It just means that I’ve coached a lot of good players,” Schmid said. “I’ve had the good fortune of having a lot of good players play for me. They work hard and they put forth the effort together. It’s been successful more times than it hasn’t, so I’m very proud of that fact that I’ve won that amount of games, but it’s a tribute to the players I’ve coached.”
It will be very important for the Sounders to score first in this match. In this 2011 season the Sounders are unbeaten when scoring the first goal of the game. When tallying first they have registered a 7-0-3 record whereas Chivas have only come out victorious one time when giving up the first goal. The Goats are 1-6-1 when conceding first.
The Sounders have won all three of their 1 p.m. games this season. Let’s hope the home team can continue that trend and make it a fourth day-game victory.
See you bright and early at Royal Brougham Park!
(image courtesy of soundersfc.com)
