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Sounders tripped up by Rochester

July 11, 2008 - USL First Division (USL-1)
Seattle Sounders News Release


The Sounders tough run in USL-1 league play continued tonight in Rochester as Seattle fell 1-0 to the last place Rhinos.

It was the second straight 1-0 loss in USL play for the Sounders as they have not won a league game since June 7 (0-2-3) when they knocked off the Minnesota Thunder 3-1 at Starfire.

The team will now travel north to Montreal to take on the Impact on Sunday. Kick-off is set for 12:30 pm (PT) and will be shown on USLlive.com.

Coming off a marathon U.S. Open Cup quarterfinal match against the Kansas City Wizards on Tuesday night that Seattle won on penalty kicks (0-0, 6-5 PK's), Seattle flew to Rochester for their sixth match in 13 days.

In their first meeting this season at Starfire on May 14, the Sounders jumped ahead on a Zach Scott header in the 76th minute only to give up an 88th minute equalizer to Scott Palgutta. The teams settled with the 1-1 draw.

Rochester took advantage of the Sounders fatigue and got on the board early in the seventh minute when Luke Kreamalmeyer received a cross from Danny Earls and headed it perfectly over an outstretched Chris Eylander.

After the early goal, the Sounders had trouble combining to create open looks. Their best chance at an equalizer in the half came when a ball played in the air from Hugo Alcaraz-Cuellar found Andre Schmid at the edge of the 18 yard box who headed the ball down to the feet of a wide open Sebastien Le Toux for a shot, but the play was ruled offsides.

The Sounders played out the remainder of a mostly closed half and went in facing a one goal deficit.

Coach Schmetzer brought in defender Michael Rodriguez at the re-start to try and hold possession for Seattle as they looked to find a quick equalizer. With Rodriguez in a defending midfield position, Kenji Treschuk was free to press forward in the second half firing in three shots in the 45 minutes, the most shots taken by a Sounder in the game.

The Sounders had energy early in the half, but found it difficult to break down a Rochester side content to drop back and defend their advantage.

The best chance for Seattle came from Youssouf Kante in the 74th minute. Coming in with fresh legs in the 71st, Kante received the ball on the left side of the final third of the field, did a short step over move a few yards outside of the 18 and accelerated into the box before firing in a shot. The effort was saved nicely by keeper Scott Vallow but the rebound looked sure to fall at the feet of Leighton O'Brien in front of an open net if not for the effort of Vallow, stretching out and getting his fingertips on the ball to knock it away.

The Sounders seemed to run out of gas around the 80th and struggled to retain possession. Seattle managed to create consecutive corners in extra time but failed to convert and fell 1-0.

After the game on Sunday in Montreal, the team has a five day break before again facing the Rochester Rhinos for the final time on Friday, July 18, this time at the Starfire Sports Complex. Kick-off is set for 8:00 pm (PT). Tickets are available at www.ticketmaster.com.



USL First Division Stories from July 11, 2008


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