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Tottenham, Sounders play to entertaining draw

Seattle’s Clint Dempsey, left, battles Tottenham Hotspur
Seattle’s Clint Dempsey, left, battles Tottenham Hotspur's Lewis Holtby, center, and Ryan Mason for the ball. (Associated Press)
Don Ruiz Tacoma News Tribune

SEATTLE – Sounders coach Sigi Schmid doesn’t see Seattle’s 3-3 draw with Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday as any indication of parity between Major League Soccer and the English Premier League.

But he liked a lot of what he saw.

“The main thing I think our guys and our teams are always interested in is that they respect what we can do as well, and that we can play,” Schmid said. “I thought our possession in the first half was very good – at times I thought it was much better than theirs. But then against the run of play, they were very clinical.”

Schmid saw it as a bonus that all that was accomplished while entertaining the announced crowd of 55,349 at CenturyLink Field, while not suffering any injuries.

The game was free-flowing throughout, with both teams taking and losing leads.

Tottenham opened the scoring in the 11th minute when Lewis Holtby got his head onto a cross from Harry Kane, and looped it over Sounders keeper Stefan Frei.

Seattle took its first lead early in the second half, when Osvaldo Alonso sent a shot from 30 yards skimming under the crossbar.

Tottenham evened things again when Roberto Soldado nailed a PK after a foul by Chad Marshall.

The Sounders reclaimed the lead in the 79th minute as Tristan Bowen took a cross from Sean Okoli and finished from close range.

Tottenham salvaged the draw with another PK: this time Yago Falque scoring after a handball in the box by DeAndre Yedlin.

“When we come on these tours, a lot of times we don’t know what to expect,” Friedel said. “One thing was for certain when we came to Seattle we knew we were going to expect a good atmosphere and playing against the best team in the MLS right now. Very tough game for us. This was our first one, our first 90 minutes of the entire preseason, so it was always going to be hard. You want a hard test in preseason, and I think especially in the first half Seattle showed us why they’re at the top of the league.”

More All-Stars

Midfielder Alonso and defender Marshall were named to the MLS All-Star roster Saturday, joining forwards Clint Dempsey and Obafemi Martins and defender Yedlin, who were voted in earlier by fans.

Five All-Stars are the most in Sounders FC history, and also the most in Major League Soccer this season.

The All-Stars will play German power Bayern Munich at 6:30 p.m. Aug. 6 at Providence Park in Portland (ESPN2).