Seattle 1 : 1 Red Bulls - The Good the Bad and the Ugly

The good news is that the entire Sounders team put on a soccer clinic against the Red Bulls. The bad news is that the clinic was entitled "How To Squander Opportunities in Soccer". You name a player, and I can tell you that they missed a goal tonight.

The Good.
Fredy Montero is a freaking soccer god. I can't believe that there is anyone in Seattle (or anywhere) that isn't sold on this guy. He is a one-man clinic, picking defenders pockets, smashing balls into the net, curving balls into the net, passing, heading, crossing, dribbling. Anyone left who doesn't like this guy should come on down to Take 'Em All Blog World HQ so I can bitch-slap you. In addition to a goal he had two posts and set up cross after cross. He stripped Blue Balls defender Jeremy Hall on a slide tackle from behind, grabbed the ball, turned, ran 15 yards across the box and then blasted the ball into the top of the net. Then he lifted his jersey to reveal an undershirt with a message congratulating Hurtado on the birth of his son. Awesome. The Europeans are going to come sniffing for this guy any day now...

The Bad.
The Blue Balls goal was a bloody circus play. Sounders (Ianni and Marshall) tried to clear but the ball took a freak deflection back into the box and was picked up by the Blue Balls' Juan Pablo Angel who put it past Kasey Keller as Keller slipped and fell. Angel ran around like he actually did something other than fall ass-backwards into good fortune, like a trust fund baby who actually believes that he deserves his money. Wanker.

The Ugly.
Hard, late tackles that weren't carded by the ref. The game looked like an NHL hockey team for the first bit of the second half: they were more interested in hitting and checking than in scoring. They woke up towards the end of the half but couldn't score. They had all kinds of opportunities inside the box, including two posts hit by Montero and a bunch of open shots from the top of the box that sailed high.

Advice for Sigi:
1. Bench Defender Tyrone Marshall. He's cost us two games in a row.
2. Practice keeping one-time shots from the top of the box DOWN. Gotta get over the ball and drive it into the ground. Better a soft grounder towards the net (eg. see Jaqua's goal against DC United last week) than one sailing 20 yards high.
3. Hire some genetic engineers to grow Ljungberg a pair of balls (any color but blue). He was a scratch because of a tight hammy. This game was a guaranteed win and three points if Freddy was in. I guess Sigi wants to keep his star happy...

The "What the...?" moment of the game:
Subbing out Le Toux and Jaqua for Nyassi and Roger Levesque mid-second half when the game was tied. Huh? Care to explain that one, Sigi?