Seattle, WA – This Sunday the New England Revolution are coming… to Royal Brougham Park (CenturyLink Field) for a tilt against the Sounders. This game will be the first meeting between the two clubs in the 2011 season. The Revs are currently sitting in the relegation zone on a full league table (oops… wrong league), whereas the Sounders are tied in second position overall and touting 28 points. Although their respective place in the overall standings might look like polar opposites, I assure you this matchup isn’t written off, or cut and dry.
Historically, these two clubs have seen the Revs grab near maximum points, and at times have had a great sense of goal scoring flare thrown into the game. In 2009, New England swept the two meetings, winning 1-nil in Seattle, while notching a 2-1 victory on their home turf. In 2010, these two sides brought out the firepower when at home. Seattle bombed the Revs to the tune of a shutout while scoring three goals of their own. At Foxborough, New England made sure their muskets were loaded and the front line was ready to fire. They scored three times without retaliation in front of The Fort after going down in the 59th minute to a Zakuani strike. New England leads head to head three wins to one, and are up a goal on 6 – 5 aggregate.
Two defensive minded gurus from the Sounders, Leo Gonzalez and Osvaldo Alonso, both received their fifth yellows of the season in the game versus the New York. They’ll both be sitting out on Sunday due to yellow card accumulation. Alonso has tallied two goals in the last three matches, and Leo assisted from a corner on Mr. Levesque’s first goal on Thursday. Replacing these two shouldn’t be too difficult a task for head coach Sigi Schmid due to Gonzalez just recently returning to favor, and Tyson Wahl easily filling the void. Alonso has been tough to cover in the past as he has put in the most minutes by any field player for the Sounders this season. Whereas in this year’s draft, Seattle did a great job grabbing Servando Carrasco who most likely will have the difficult task of filling Alonso’s position.
Sharlie Joseph has been a thorn in the Sounders side, scoring three goals in four meetings, all three coming in 2009. While both Fredy Montero and Steve Zakuani have tallied two goals apiece versus New England for the boys in rave green. Both teams have notched a shutout against the other, and the Sounders have led in three of the four matches at some point during those games.
Selfishly, I hope to see Benny Fielhaber on the pitch Sunday. I’ve really enjoyed watching him play in the past, and this will be my first opportunity to see him live in MLS action. Benny is currently nursing a right ankle sprain and is listed as probable on the Rev’s injury report. When both he and Sharlie are healthy, I can only imagine that the duo would be one of the more dangerous center pairings in the league. They are both good offensively, as well as on defense. If they are ever both healthy and in form at the same time, I can only hope they’re not playing the Sounders.
The Sounders are rounding out quite a long week. Three games in eight days with one of those being in Toronto. After only one day rest they’ll battle the Kitsap Pumas in official US Open Cup play, but that’s another story. Our boys have been playing well during their run of form averaging 2.2 points per game in their last five matches and looking to close out the month of June without surrendering a loss.
Image courtesy of Seattle Sounders
