Sounders get goal and point in CCL opener

VANCOUVER, B.C. – The Seattle Sounders had gone 433 minutes without a goal.

Then one finally went in late Wednesday, and they made it count, opening CONCACAF Champions League with a road point from a 1-1 draw with the Vancouver Whitecaps at BC Place.

“Happy to see us get an equalizer,” coach Sigi Schmid said. “It had been a long time since we had hit the back of the net.”

The goal came from Lamar Neagle in the 72nd minute. It also came a month and two days since Tyrone Mears had scored Seattle’s previous goal in a Major League Soccer match with D.C. United.

“Great,” Neagle said about his feelings when the ball hit the back of the net. “A little bit of relief.”

For the Sounders, the result was a dramatic improvement from the 3-0 MLS loss to the Whitecaps four days earlier in Seattle.

Only three Sounders – forward Chad Barrett and defenders Brad Evans and Dylan Remick – repeated as starters from the lineup used in that previous meeting. The rest of the lineup was composed of reserves such as goalkeeper Troy Perkins and midfielder Micheal Azira, and some deeper reserves such as midfielder Aaron Kovar and defender Oniel Fisher.

The young lineup started strongly while largely dominating the first half, which ended scoreless.

“I didn’t think we played with enough energy on Saturday night, so we wanted to be sure that we came out tonight and played with energy,” Schmid said. “I thought we showed good energy. I thought we were unfortunate to go behind 1-0.”

That happened in the 61st minute, when defender Tim Parker redirected in a corner kick from Pedro Morales.

The Sounders responded 11 minutes later when Andy Rose slipped a pass to Neagle who fired high and in.

That goal ended a streak of four consecutive scoreless MLS matches for the Sounders.

The Sounders are at Los Angeles on Sunday in MLS play.