Their stadium newly renamed CenturyLink Field, Seattle Sounders FC return home to take on the New York Red Bulls for the second time this season. Sounders FC extended their unbeaten streak with a tremendous 90th-minute free kick goal for a 1-0 win at Toronto FC last Saturday. The Red Bulls kicked off a four-game road swing with a wild 3-3 draw at Portland that saw them score the equalizer with a stoppage-time penalty kick.
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REFEREE: Michael Kennedy. SAR (bench): Bill Dittmar; JAR (opposite): Paul Scott; 4th: Mark Declouet
MLS Career: 133 games; FC/gm: 29.1; Y/gm: 3.8; R: 24; pens: 46
INJURY REPORT:
SEATTLE SOUNDERS FC – OUT: FW O’Brian White (L leg
surgery); MF Steve Zakuani (R leg fracture); MF Brad Evans (Bruised
ankle) DOUBTFUL: DF Taylor Graham (calf strain); PROBABLE: MF Servando
Carrasco (knee contusion); MF Alvaro Fernandez (hamstring strain)
NEW YORK RED BULLS – OUT: MF Carl Robinson (R knee contusion); DF Chris Albright (hernia surgery); FW Luke Rodgers (L foot plantar fasciitis)
INTERNATIONAL ABSENCES:
NY: Rafael Marquez (Mexico); Juan Agudelo, Tim Ream (USA)
SUSPENDED:
SEA: Jhon Kennedy Hurtado (through June 23)
NY: Thierry Henry (through June 23)
WARNINGS:
SUSPENDED NEXT YELLOW CARD:
SEA: Osvaldo Alonso, Leo Gonzalez
SUSPENDED AFTER TWO YELLOW CARDS:
SEA: Servando Carrasco, Jhon Kennedy Hurtado, James Riley
NY: Luke Rodgers
HEAD-TO-HEAD
ALL-TIME (5 meetings): Sounders FC 2 wins, 5 goals ... Red Bulls 1 win, 2 goals … Ties 1
AT NEW YORK (2 meetings): Sounders FC 1 win, 2 goals ... Red Bulls 0 wins, 1 goals … Ties 1
- The teams are playing for the second time this season. New York won for the first time at home against Seattle, a 1-0 win on March 19.
- The teams have split their two meetings lifetime at Qwest Field, Sounders FC claiming a 3-0 victory in the club’s inaugural game to kick off the 2009 season.
Coaches' records: Hans Backe v SEA: P3 W2 L1 D0 … Sigi Schmid vs. NY: P29 W10 L14 D5
LAST MEETING (MLS):
- 3/19: NY 1, SEA 1 (Agudelo 70)
- The game’s lone goal came with 20 minutes remaining. Juan Agudelo ran on to a long ball played out of midfield by Teemu Tainio, and the teenager held off a defender before curling a shot past Kasey Keller.
- NEW YORK RED BULLS (4-1-3-2): Greg Sutton - Jan Gunnar Solli, Tim Ream, Rafael Marquez, Roy Miller - Teemu Tainio - Dane Richards (Danleigh Borman 93+), Mehdi Ballouchy (Tony Tchani 68), Joel Lindpere - Juan Agudelo, Thierry Henry.
- SEATTLE SOUNDERS FC (4-4-2): Kasey Keller - James Riley, Jeff Parke, Jhon Kennedy Hurtado, Leo Gonzalez - Alvaro Fernandez (Mauro Rosales 68), Servando Carrasco (Lamar Neagle 79), Osvaldo Alonso, Erik Friberg - Fredy Montero, O'Brian White (Roger Levesque 73).
NEW YORK RED BULLS
The New York Red Bulls returned to their tying ways, this time in
dramatic fashion as a late equalizer gave them a 3-3 draw with the
Portland Timbers on Sunday night at Jeld-Wen Field. The Red Bulls have
23 points from 15 games, now leading the Eastern Conference.
LAST MATCH
- The Red Bulls took the lead in the fourth minute, when Dwayne De Rosario's cross found Austin da Luz at the penalty spot, and he fired home.
- But the Timbers scored twice in two minutes just after the break. Jack Jewsbury pounced on a poorly cleared ball at the top of the box and slammed it past Greg Sutton (47), then Jewsbury lofted a free kick to the back post where Eric Brunner headed it back across the area and Kevin Goldthwaite finished it off from close range.
- The score became 3-1 when Stephen Keel turned a Jorge Perlaza cross from the right into his own net. But Henry pulled New York back in the 73rd minute as he played a series of one-twos through the Timbers defense before finishing with his left foot in the area.
- Portland looked like restoring their two-goal lead in the 76th minute when Sutton pulled down Perlaza in the area. But Jewsbury’s penalty attempt rapped off the left-hand post. Then in an off-the-ball incident deep in second-half stoppage time, Henry saw a straight red after a tussle with Timbers substitute Adam Moffat, who himself saw yellow.
- Well later into stoppage time, Anthony Wallace handled De Rosario's hopeful, low cross into the area and the Canadian international finished off his own penalty.
- Red Bulls head coach Hans Backe made one change to the team that defeated the New England Revolution 2-1 at Red Bull Arena. Dwayne De Rosario came back into the team for Luke Rodgers.
- NEW YORK RED BULLS (4-1-3-2): Greg Sutton - Jan Gunnar Solli, Carlos Mendes, Stephen Keel, Roy Miller - Teemu Tainio - Austin da Luz (John Rooney 81), Mehdi Ballouchy, Joel Lindpere - Dwayne De Rosario, Thierry Henry (sent off 93+).
TEAM NEWS
- It was the second time this season New York has allowed three goals in a game, and the Red Bulls have conceded 13 goals in the last seven games after allowing just three in the opening eight.
- "Well it's the wild west. We played very good in the first half, very comfortable and very composed. Our shape was phenomenal. It was the way we wanted it going in, winning one-nil," Red Bulls coach Hans Backe said.
- The game was the first of four consecutive road games for New York, with the trip continuing on to Seattle and then Chicago this week, before concluding in San Jose.
- “Games like that take a lot out of you mentally, physically and emotionally,” De Rosario said. “We’re too good of a team to dominate teams like that in the first half and then turn around and have the complete opposite in the second half. … Hopefully we can pick up seven points out of the next three games.”
- Austin da Luz scored his first professional goal to give the Red Bulls an early lead. He later chipped in with his first MLS assist. He has started three consecutive games after making his professional debut May 28 vs. Vancouver.
- "It was a good goal, great transition goal. Started around midfield and played Thierry (Henry), Thierry played D Ro (Dwayne De Rosario), D Ro dragged it back and Thierry had the presence of mind to leave it and I was fortunate enough to take a good first touch and slide it home,"da Luz said.
- De Rosario played up top alongside Henry with Luke Rodgers injured, after returning from CONCACAF Gold Cup duty with the Canadian national team. “That’s why he is who he is,” da Luz said of De Rosario. “He’s a top class player. It’s what we expect of him.
- The Red Bulls have still allowed just eight goals away from home, tied for fewest in the league. But three of those came in Portland.
- “Football is easy: pass the ball between the lines and make sure you keep it like we did in the first half. Second half – I don't know. [It] seemed like we got scared and intimidated by the fans,” said Henry.
- The Red Bulls have also now drawn five games after scoring the first goal – they’ve scored first in 10. That’s the most games in MLS when conceding points after opening the scoring.
- “Obviously going up 1-0 [in a] pretty comfortable first half, I thought we played pretty well. [We] came out very flat in the second half, much too flat. We gave up three goals on set pieces. Overall it was a very strange, strange game but I think we deserved a point," said da Luz.
SEATTLE SOUNDERS FC
Seattle Sounders FC stretched their unbeaten streak to four games in
dramatic fashion, getting a late winner in a 1-0 win against Toronto FC
at BMO Field. Sounders FC have 25 points from 17 games on the season,
sitting in third place in the Western Conference.
LAST MATCH
- Sounders FC went down a man in the 49th minute when Jhon Kennedy Hurtado received his second yellow card of the match for a foul on Alen Stevanovic.
- But in the 90th minute, Seattle won a free kick just outside the area on the right, and Fredy Montero lashed it over the wall and inside Stefan Frei's left post for the match-winner.
- Sounders FC head coach Sigi Schmid made no changes to the team that reached a 2-2 result with Vancouver Whitecaps FC at Qwest Field.
- SEATTLE SOUNDERS FC (4-1-3-2): Kasey Keller - James Riley, Jeff Parke, Jhon Kennedy Hurtado (sent off 49), Tyson Wahl - Osvaldo Alonso - Brad Evans (Erik Friberg 71), Mauro Rosales, Lamar Neagle (Zach Scott 52) - Mike Fucito (Alvaro Fernandez 69), Fredy Montero.
TEAM NEWS
- For Fredy Montero, his stunning strike was his first goal since May 7 vs. Columbus, going six games (four as a starter) since scoring.
- "I was working very hard to get a goal," said Montero. "Today, I just want to say thank God for that amazing goal. Those three points helped the team to get close to the playoffs."
- Sounders FC won a game after going a man down for the first time in club history. In eight previous games with a red card, Seattle had lost six times and twice drawn.
- “I thought in the first half, we didn’t do a good job of holding onto the ball,” Sounders FC coach Sigi Schmid said. “After we got that shot (by Mike Fucito that hit the post in the second minute) it’s almost like we went back into a shell. With 10 men, we actually played our best soccer of the night.”
- Sounders FC have now won three of their last six games and lost just once in that time.
- "One of the things we talked about (at halftime) was picking up the tempo and playing a little bit better. But then obviously everything changes with Jhon Kennedy's red card in the second half,” Schmid said. “And Brad Evans has to come off injured (ankle contusion) as well so it forced our hand, but I thought the team showed a lot of resilience today and I thought we battled. We held firm, and we ended up getting a great goal from Montero."
- When Seattle went down a man, Schmid took off Lamar Neagle and inserted Zach Scott – who had played at fullback almost exclusively in his previous first team appearances – into central defense.
- Schmid was able to bring on Alvaro Fernandez and Erik Friberg for about the final 20 minutes. Fernandez had missed the previous two matches entirely to injury, while Friberg had missed one, then made a late cameo in the draw with Vancouver.
- I thought that the guys that came in did a great job of holding the ball and keeping possession. There was a time in the game where we were concerned as they had the majority of the play and were attacking us and in the 75th minute it just changed a little bit,” Schmid said. “We were able to get some possession, hold on to the ball with some combinations getting players forward.”
