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Seattle Sounders FC

Sounders FC News & Notes

November 5, 2012 - Major League Soccer (MLS)
Seattle Sounders FC News Release


Sounders FC Visits Real Salt Lake in Second Leg of Western Conference Semifinal

Seattle Sounders FC will look to advance to the Western Conference Final for the first time in club history on Thursday night in the second leg of the semifinal series with Real Salt Lake. Kickoff is set for 6:30 p.m. PT at Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy, Utah.

The match will be the second of the two-game aggregate goal series. The sides finished level at 0-0 on Friday night at CenturyLink Field, so Seattle must win on Thursday to advance. If the aggregate score is tied after 90 minutes, the teams will play a 30-minute overtime period followed by penalty kicks, if necessary.

The winner of the semifinal series will face the San Jose-LA Galaxy victor, which the Earthquakes lead 1-nil after Sunday's match in Los Angeles.

In the Eastern Conference, fifth-seeded Houston Dynamo downed Sporting Kansas City at home, 2-0, while New York and D.C. United both conceded an own goal in a 1-1 draw at RFK Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

The series with RSL kicked off on Friday night at CenturyLink Field as the teams battled to their third straight scoreless draw. The strong attacking play from both sides was thwarted by great goalkeeping by Michael Gspurning and Nick Rimando, who each made highlight-reel saves to preserve the shutout.

The scene now shifts to Sandy, Utah, where Sounders FC has the league's longest unbeaten streak (1-0-2), holding Salt Lake scoreless in the last visit on July 4. Seattle hopes to learn from last postseason where the Rave Green were stunned, 3-nil, by RSL in the away leg.

With three consecutive scoreless draws, and just one goal scored in the past four meetings, both the Seattle and Salt Lake attack will likely push for goals in the final 90 minutes of the series. And, fortunately for the Seattle faithful, leading scorer Eddie Johnson will return to the fold on Thursday to provide a spark to an already potent Rave Green attack.

The three other Conference Semifinal matchups will be played on Wednesday. New York hosts D.C. United at 5 p.m. PT. The Houston Dynamo visit Sporting Kansas City at 6 p.m. PT, and the San Jose Earthquakes host the LA Galaxy at 8 p.m. PT.

The Conference Finals begin on Saturday, November 10 and will conclude on Sunday, November 18. MLS Cup will be played on December 1 at the home site of the higher seed.

Winning Ways

With 24 wins across all competitions in 2012, Sounders FC has the more victories than any other MLS team this year. Sounders FC won 27 games last season, breaking Chicago's record (26) from 2000. The LA Galaxy ended the 2011 season with the top mark with 28 total victories.

Most Wins in 2012

Team MLS Wins Cup Wins CCL Wins Total Wins

Seattle 15 5 4 24

Kansas City 18 4 N/A 22

San Jose 19 2 N/A 21

Salt Lake 17 0 2 19

Los Angeles 16 0 3 19

Houston 14 0 2 16

Sounders in Sandy

Sounders FC has been the most successful road team at Rio Tinto Stadium since entering the league in 2009. Just one other MLS team - the San Jose Earthquakes - has matched Seattle's record of 1-1-2. Sounders FC also has the longest undefeated streak at Rio Tinto Stadium (1-0-2), with the lone loss coming in 2009. Ten MLS teams have never won at Rio Tinto Stadium, and of the eight active teams that have a victory, no side has won more than once at Real Salt Lake's home. Seattle is unbeaten in its last five trips to elevation, going 1-0-2 at Real Salt Lake and 2-0-0 at Colorado Rapids. Overall, Seattle is 3-3-3 all-time in the Rocky Mountain states.

On the Road, Again

Seattle will hit the road for the second leg of the Western Conference Semifinals looking for its first road playoff win in four seasons. Sounders FC has lost all three previous postseason away matches, including a 1-nil overtime loss to Houston in 2009, a 2-1 loss to the LA Galaxy in 2010 and 3-0 to Real Salt Lake last season.

Despite Seattle's lack of success on the road in the playoffs, the team will draw from its regular season road success to get a positive result at Salt Lake. Sounders FC is the second-best road team in MLS over the past four seasons, earning 94 points (24-18-22) - eight fewer than league-leading LA Galaxy. Seattle has had two of the league's longest road undefeated streaks this season: five games from April 7 to May 26 and four games from June 30 to July 28, and the club's 10-game unbeaten road run from 2011 to 2012 was the second-longest in MLS history. Overall, Seattle is 24-18-22 on the road in regular season play, and has averaged the third-most road goals (1.29 per game) this season. Only the Conference winners, San Jose and Kansas City, posted better road records than Sounders FC this season.

Scoreless in Seattle

On Friday night, Seattle and Salt Lake met for the fourth time this season, resulting in the third straight scoreless match between the two west rivals. There has been just one goal scored over 360 minutes of play this year, and Seattle has held RSL scoreless in four of the past six meetings. Three-hundred and nine minutes have passed since the last goal in the series.

Despite stout defense that has held its opponents scoreless over the past 343 minutes, Salt Lake's offense has struggled to put the ball in the net. RSL has not scored in the past month, going 332 minutes without scoring a goal, dating back to a 2-1 win over the LA Galaxy on October 6. Seattle has scored six goals in league play in that time span.

Home Field Advantage?

Real Salt Lake is the higher seed in an MLS Cup Playoffs series for the second time in franchise history. In 2010, RSL hosted the second leg of the West Semifinals and fell to FC Dallas, 2-1 on aggregate. The three times that RSL has won the Conference Semifinals the team was the lower seed: 2011 against Seattle, 2009 against Columbus and 2008 against Chivas USA. In their 2009 championship season, RSL was the eighth and final seed entering the playoffs. Overall, 14 lower seeds have advanced in 36 home-and-home series in league history, meaning home teams have gone 22-5-9 in the second leg.

Salt Lake is 3-1-1 at home in the playoffs, having lost to the New York Red Bulls in 2008 and conceding a draw to FC Dallas in 2010. RSL went 11-4-2 at home this season, marking the most home losses since 2007.

Sounders Play Knockout

With hopes to survive and advance, Sounders FC will draw from its success in other knockout tournaments in the chase for MLS Cup. Outside of the playoffs, Seattle is 20-2-4 when facing elimination, having lost to Santos Laguna in the 2011 quarterfinals and Monterrey in the 2010 group stage of the CONCACAF Champions League. In the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup - a single-game elimination tournament - Seattle has won 18 of 20 matches while drawing the other two, with one win and one loss in the penalty shootout. Overall, Sounders FC is 29-13-4 in knockout tournaments excluding the playoffs.

Ironman Ozzie

Osvaldo Alonso is the only Sounders FC player to play every minute of the club's first seven MLS Cup Playoffs matches. Alonso has played the most regular season minutes in club history (9,660), and is tied with Fredy Montero for the most regular season starts (109). The Cuban midfielder logged 2,688 minutes in 2012, the second-most of any field player in franchise history behind his own 2011 campaign (2,891 minutes played).

The Marathon Season

It has been 243 days since Sounders FC kicked off against Santos Laguna in the CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinals. Over the past eight months Seattle has played 34 regular season games, six Champions League games, five U.S. Open Cup matches and one MLS Cup Playoffs match for a total of 46 total games, matching Toronto FC for the most competitive matches of any MLS club in 2012.

A Cautionary Tale

Brad Evans and Jeff Parke received yellow card cautions in the first leg of the Western Conference Semifinals on Friday night, as did Salt Lake's Kyle Beckerman and Javier Morales. All four players are one yellow card caution away from a one-game suspension.

As a reminder, the 2012 Playoff Disciplinary rules are as follows:

* Yellow Card accumulation thresholds are re-set entering MLS Cup Playoffs

* Once the Playoffs begin and up until MLS Cup (when Yellow Card accumulation for Playoffs will be re-set again), a player accumulating TWO (2) Yellow Cards will be suspended for the next match which he is eligible. Exception: A player who earns his second Yellow Card in Conference Final #2 is eligible to play MLS Cup. A player who earns TWO (2) Yellow Cards in the same match is suspended for the next match, including MLS Cup.

* A player who earns a Red Card in any Playoff Match, whether a straight Red Card or two Yellow Cards, is suspended for his next match. If this occurs in MLS Cup, then the suspension carries over to the first Regular Season Match of 2013.

* If a player earns TWO (2) Yellow Cards in the same match, both Yellow Cards will not count against his Playoff Yellow Card accumulation. A player who earns a straight Red Card in the same match in which he previously has earned his second cumulative Yellow Card may be suspended for his next TWO (2) Playoff Matches.

* A player sanctioned by the Disciplinary Committee will have any corresponding suspension applied to the next match(es) for which he is eligible, including a Playoff Match(es) and MLS Cup.

MLS Cup Playoff Format Notes

Ten teams qualify for the MLS Cup Playoffs - the top five in points from each conference.

The fourth and fifth place teams in each conference played in a single knockout match with the winner advancing to the conference semifinals.

The four conference semifinals and two conference championships will be decided by two-game aggregate goal series, with the lower seed hosting the first leg and the higher seed hosting the second leg. If the aggregate score is tied after 180 minutes of play, two 15-minute extra time periods will be played in their entirety, followed by penalty kicks, if necessary.

MLS Cup will be a single championship match hosted by the higher seed.

Academy Beats Vancouver at Home

Sounders FC Academy hosted Cascadia rival Vancouver Whitecaps FC Academy on Saturday at Starfire Sports Complex, coming away with two wins and continuing a run of strong form. First, a Jordan Morris hat trick fueled the U18's in a 4-2 win and extended their unbeaten streak to five games (2-0-3), then the U16's got two goals from Elliot Havens and two assists from Denis Kalamar as they picked up their fourth straight win with a 4-0 result.

The Academy squads return to action in two weeks when they travel down to California to take on San Jose Earthquakes Academy and Cal Odyssey. They face the Earthquakes on Saturday, November 17, at the Nutrilite Training Facility and Cal Odyssey the following day at the Neighborhood Church Fields in Visalia, California.

MLS Recap: Seattle Sounders FC 0 vs. Real Salt Lake 0 - November 2, 2012

Sounders FC and Real Salt Lake battled to a scoreless draw Friday night in the first leg of the Western Conference Semifinals on the Xbox Pitch at CenturyLink Field. Goalkeepers Michael Gspurning and Nick Rimando made a combined nine saves in the match.

Gspurning made four saves and recorded a shutout in his first career MLS playoff match. In the 23rd minute, he came off his line to smother a Ned Grabavoy breakaway, making a slide tackle at the edge of the box to clear the danger.

In the 38th minute, Marc Burch blocked a wide-open Kyle Beckerman shot from the top of the box, then Gspurning slapped away Will Johnson's rebound attempt at the near post.

The Austrian goalkeeper made two crucial second-half saves on Alvaro Saborio headers, first diving to smother a shot in the 47th minute, then diving hard to his right to cover up a strong header from the Costa Rican in the 85th minute.

RSL's keeper made five saves en route to his 10th career playoff shutout, including four in the opening 45 minutes.

In the 33rd minute, he made back-to-back diving stops on Seattle headers on consecutive corner kicks. First he parried a powerful Ochoa header over the crossbar, then similarly knocked away a Jhon Kennedy Hurtado header at the near post.

In the 51st, he made another diving save on a powerful header from Christian Tiffert in traffic.In second half stoppage time, Rimando dove to stop a Mauro Rosales cross intended for an open Fredy Montero.

Seattle saw its best chance to score in the 50th minute when Montero played to Brad Evans up the left side, who sent a cross to an open Ochoa in the box, but the striker's shot sailed high.

Throw-ins

Josh Ford turns 25 on Tuesday, November 6...Osvaldo Alonso turns 27 on November 11 and Daniel Steres turns 22 on the same day...Sounders FC viewing parties for Thursday's match at Real Salt Lake will be hosted throughout the region at Sounders FC soccer pub locations. Fado Irish Pub & Restaurant will host a viewing party beginning at 6 p.m. PT. There is no cover charge, and it is a family friendly establishment until 9 p.m. For more information visit SoundersFC.com...American Red Cross volunteers raised $11,203 at tonight's match for those impacted by Hurricane Sandy. The Paul G. Allen Foundation matched $10,000 for a total of $21,203...Sounders FC players and fans are participating in Movember to raise funds for cancer research. A total of 12 current Sounders FC players are participating, including goalkeepers Michael Gspurning and Marcus Hahnemann, defender Jeff Parke and midfielder Brad Evans.

Check out the Seattle Sounders FC Statistics

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