Yikes! Another round of turf-hockey for the Sounders, this time against Real Salt Lake. Kicks to the nuts? Check. Open field horse-collar tackles? Check. Full on broadside assaults? Check. Uncalled handballs in the penalty area? Check. At least Ljungberg wasn't yelling at the ref all game. Now he just shakes his head and walks away, probably because he is carrying 4 yellows and will be suspended for a game if he gets another one. Speaking of suspended, Hurtado got a yellow which means he sits against the LA Prettyboys. Ouch. Double-ouch since LA is finally at full strength have been on fire the past 5 games.Sigi started a pretty different defensive line than what we're used to. Left to right it was Gonzalez (replacing Wahl), Marshall, Hurtado, Evans (replacing red card Riley). Leonardo Gonzalez looked great at left back. He is clearly more comfortable bringing the ball up the line than Wahl, and initiated a few attacks. He held his own against a fast RSL attack as well. Brad Evans also looked good on the other side. They tried sneaking him up a couple of times and it seems like it can work if they can get a clean pass to him. Peter Vagenas was in the midfield. He hasn't played much this year but looked good when Seattle beat Houston at Starfire in the US Open Cup. He also looked pretty solid (one brain fart but the rest of the game was good).
Montero looked flat. He's really a take the ball and shoot kind of forward, but I think that Sigi is asking him to pass more. Pass to who? I don't know.
Am I the only one who thinks that there are better free-kickers on the team than Freddie Ljungberg? He had a bunch of corners that led to nothing and one free kick that barely got off the ground. He worked really hard and created lots of opportunities otherwise, but I just never see his free kicks turning into anything. Seb Le Toux has a great kick, and Zakuani took a corner near the end of the game that almost turned into a goal.
Sounders are now officially in their first slump. They fall to 6th place in the MLS Table behind the Galaxy and Colorado, with RSL coming on strong and Chivas also looking like a threat. All the MLS teams are back to full strength after the summer Cup season, so the Sounders have their work cut out for them the rest of the year.
