Done in by Defoe

SEATTLE – The spotlight was acutely focused on the stars in the Seattle Sounders’ talent-laden home game against Toronto, and on Saturday, at least, the money looked well spent.

Clint Dempsey continued his productive start to the season, scoring his first goal amid second-half comeback efforts for Seattle, but early mistakes ultimately proved too costly in a 2-1 defeat in front of 38,441 at CenturyLink Field.

Forward Jermain Defoe, making his MLS debut after a multimillion-dollar transfer from Tottenham of the Premier League, scored twice in a lethal display of finishing in the first half.

The English international became just one of three players in MLS history to have scored twice before halftime of his first game.

Consider the rest of MLS warned.

“If you give a good player like Defoe two good looks on goal, he is going to show you he is a good player – and he did,” Sounders coach Sigi Schmid said.

Seattle (1-1) had been dominant against Toronto, coming in with a 6-1-1 record all time, including five straight wins. The script was completely different against a revamped Toronto roster, however, one also featuring newly acquired U.S. Soccer star Michael Bradley.

Trailing 2-0 in the second half, the Sounders cut into the deficit in the 68th minute when Obafemi Martins collected a pass on the right wing from Lamar Neagle and centered the ball to Dempsey, who blasted a right-footed shot past goalkeeper Julio Cesar.

With the goal, plus an assist last week, Dempsey has already matched his production from last season with the Sounders over 921 minutes.

“I have to keep pushing,” Dempsey said, “and there is more to come.”

Seattle hoped that would be the case in regard to an equalizer, but one never came despite 72.9 percent of the possession and a 7-1 shot advantage in a lopsided second half.

The deflation of the season’s first defeat was buoyed by the dominant second half.

“We came up a little bit short in not getting an equalizer, but at the same time, I thought we showed a lot of heart,” Dempsey said.

Toronto (1-0) opened the scoring in the 17th minute when Defoe got behind the defense on a perfectly weighted pass by Jonathan Osorio and fired an open shot past goalkeeper Stefan Frei. The play was aided when Seattle captain Brad Evans had to leave the field with a calf injury, an ailment that would soon force him out of the game, and the Sounders failed to cover his area in midfield.

The advantage quickly doubled when Defoe recovered a horrible back-pass from Seattle’s Marco Pappa in the 24th minute and calmly put away his second goal.

“We gave up two goals that were very soft,” Schmid said. “I thought we gave them two gifts.”