Sounders come on
Score three times in second half, shut out FC Dallas
SEATTLE – If at halftime you would have told most of the 41,108 spectators in CenturyLink Field on Saturday night the margin of the final score, they’d have looked as pleasantly surprised as Leo Gonzalez did as he wheeled away to celebrate the Sounders’ third goal.
FC Dallas was the better team in the opening 45 minutes; Fabian Castillo’s shot that cracked off the right post was the closest either side had come to opening the scoring.
After the break, though, Seattle’s trio of substitutions helped change the game. Brad Evans created a turnover and provided the assist on Lamar Neagle’s opener. Obafemi Martins doubled the lead with a nifty turn-and-finish inside the near post.
And Gonzalez – an 89th-minute defensive sub who usually slots in at left back – stormed forward for his first goal since June 5, 2010, to cap the Sounders’ 3-0 win that gave them 29 points, the most in Major League Soccer.
“It was funny because it was my first touch,” Gonzalez said. “I told the referee, ‘We can’t finish the game until I touch the ball.’ It was funny and I was happy because I don’t usually score.”
In a flashback to the second leg of last year’s Western Conference semifinal, Dallas’ game plan appeared to be fairly straightforward in the first half: Get the ball to Castillo on the right wing and let him go to work. Early on, it worked. Dallas outshot Seattle 6-2 in the first half with a 4-1 edge in shots on goal.
“We gave them way too much in the midfield to play, and as a result, they created a lot of problems, a lot of danger for us,” Seattle coach Sigi Schmid said. “A lot of guys could pick up their heads, pick up Castillo making runs. We were just way too loose.”
Schmid brought on Evans for Gonzalo Pineda at halftime to help shore up the midfield, and the captain made a near-immediate impact in helping set up Neagle’s goal.
Saturday night displayed the full spectrum of Neagle’s game – the reasons why he can’t seem to lock up a starting spot but why he also keeps getting chances to do so.
“He was like the team,” coach Sigi Schmid said. “The first half wasn’t as good, the second half was much better.”
Neagle and Gonzalez combined on the team’s third goal, the midfielder dragging a low pass back for the onrushing defender-turned-forward. Gonzalez smashed the ball through a stranded defense and wheeled away with a look of a bewilderment and joy.