SEATTLE - Despite dominating play, the Seattle Sounders FC fell to the Portland Timbers, 1-0, in the Community Shield preseason friendly match on Thursday night before a crowd of 18,606 on the Xbox Pitch at Qwest Field.
The lone goal of the match came in the 44th minute when Timbers midfielder Ryan Pore found O.J. Obatola in the middle of the box. Obatola knocked it past Kasey Keller, ending Seattle's preseason defensive scoring streak at 337 minutes.
Sounders FC finished with a 15-6 advantage in shots (6-1 on goal) and 7-1 in corner kicks.
Seattle controlled possession in the opening half, earning four corner kicks and taking five shots. The hosts remained aggressive on offense in the second half but could not find the back of the net and were held scoreless for the second game in a row. Seattle had drawn 0-0 at Vancouver last Saturday.
Sounders FC forward Steve Zakuani put the pressure on the Timbers defense throughout the match, nearly finding the net on a Brad Evans cross in the 15th minute.
Evans raced past Timbers defense in the 78th minute and hit a cross to the middle of the box where it eluded the outstretch foot of Fredy Montero.
The Community Shield match benefitted the Sounders FC four charity partners, with over $75,000 to be split between the Boys and Girls Club of Washington State, Seattle SCORES, Soccer Saves and Washington Youth Soccer.
In the last meeting between the two clubs, the Sounders FC beat the Timbers 2-1 in the third round of the 2009 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup in Portland. scored in the opening minute of the match and Stephen King added a second goal in the 27th minute.
The Seattle Sounders FC will wrap up preseason play on the road when it faces the Colorado Rapids on Friday, March 19, at 6 p.m. The Sounders FC will host MLS First Kick on March 25 at 6:30 p.m. against the Philadelphia Union on the Xbox Pitch at Qwest Field.
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Goals by Period
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1
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2
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Tot
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Portland Timbers
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1
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0
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1
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Seattle Sounders
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0
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0
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0
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Scoring Summary:
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POR -- O.J. Obatola (Ryan Pore) 44
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Portland Timbers -- Steve Cronin, Stephen Keel, Ian Joy, Ross Smith, Mamadou Danso, Quavas Kirk (Scot Thompson 73), James Marcelin (Derek Gaudet 89), Rodrigo Lopez (Alex Nimo 54), Ryan Pore, O.J. Obatola (Doug DeMartin 61), George Josten (Josh Cameron 87).
Substitutes Not Used: Matt Pyzdrowski, Brian Farber. TOTAL SHOTS: 6 (O.J. Obatola 2, Ryan Pore 2); SHOTS ON GOAL: 1 (O.J. Obatola 1); FOULS: 10 (James Marcelin 2, Ian Joy 2); OFFSIDES: 4 (George Josten 2); CORNER KICKS: 1 (Rodrigo Lopez 1); SAVES: 6 (Steve Cronin 6) Seattle Sounders -- Kasey Keller, Brad Evans, Tyrone Marshall (Jeff Parke 46), Jhon Kennedy Hurtado, Leo Gonzalez (Tyson Wahl 80), Kevin Souter (David Estrada 60), Peter Vagenas (Stephen King 74), Osvaldo Alonso, Steve Zakuani (Patrick Ianni 67), Freddie Ljungberg (Roger Levesque 46), Fredy Montero. Substitutes Not Used: James Riley, Nathan Sturgis, Sanna Nyassi, Zach Scott, Terry Boss, Lamar Neagle, Jamel Wallace, Ellis McLoughlin. TOTAL SHOTS: 15 (Fredy Montero 7); SHOTS ON GOAL: 6 (Fredy Montero 3); FOULS: 6 (Fredy Montero 2); OFFSIDES: 1 (Roger Levesque 1); CORNER KICKS: 7 (Freddie Ljungberg 4); SAVES: 0 |
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Misconduct Summary:
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POR -- James Marcelin (caution; Reckless Tackle) 70
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Referee: Elias Bazakos
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Referee's Assistants: -Jeff Hosking; Mike Rottersman
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4th Official: Josh Wilkens
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Attendance: 18,606
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Time of Game: 1:50
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Weather: Cloudy-and-46-degrees
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All Statistics contained in this boxscore are unofficial
POSTGAME QUOTES:
Seattle Sounders FC Head Coach Sigi Schmid
General Comments "There's not a whole lot to say, we're obviously disappointed with the result tonight. Last year, a week before the season we lost to Colorado. This is two weeks before the season and hopefully we get all the bad luck out of us now. Often enough in preseason, what you do here is not a predictor of how you're going to play in the regular season. Sometimes teams have great preseasons, you see that in all sports, and then when the season starts that all changes. I was happy with our movement of the ball today. I thought we moved the ball pretty much at will. I thought our possession was good. It was the old bugaboo, not getting enough people in the box, we had crosses coming a little bit too late. Because we're not a big team, especially without (Nate) Jaqua, so balls have to be hit early so that people can escape people and get to where they're not posting up people. Maybe sometimes hesitation in pulling the trigger a little bit quicker and hopefully a goal comes. We were around it, we were close to it. We went to a 3-5-2 in the last 25 minutes. Overall, I still thought our play was much better than it was in Vancouver."
(On Portland's goal...) "When you're dominating the game, there's always a chance you're going to take a counter. On that particular play we had like three guys very tight to the ball, one pass beat all three guys and we got caught. That's always the danger when you look at the sport sometimes statistically, not always the team that dominates possession or when you're playing at the other team's end of the field, sometimes you don't win the game. Sometimes you lose the game more often than you win it. So we were playing at their end of the field and they caught us on the counter, they caught us on a counter late in the game as well but that was when we were really pushing, trying to go for the equalizer so that's a little less concerning to me, but we just got caught."
(On Nate Jaqua's status...) "He's been doing more and more this week. He's working right now with our fitness coach and we expect him to be in bits and pieces of training next week. I don't think he'll be available to start when we open the season but he should be someone who can be available to us off the bench."
(On the offense...) "That's always worrisome but also the last thing that comes together for you in preseason is the offensive side of things. I remember I was coaching the Galaxy one year and we had two days of practice, and we were asked to play the South Korean National Team and we ended up beating them 1-0. Here's a national team, Korea, they'd been training, they were fit, ready to go and we caught a counter goal and scored it somehow the ball stayed out of our net for 90 minutes. We ended up winning the game. I remember the reporters there were all kind of panicked, this is doom and gloom for Korea, they couldn't score and you guys had only been training one day. Sometimes things like that happen. It's a concern but the offensive side's going to come together at the end. I'd be more concerned if we weren't creating chances, we weren't possessing the ball, moving the ball. We did a good job of finding (Freddie) Ljungberg, we found all kinds of spaces in there which is what we want to do. We just need to refine our play in that final third. After the Vancouver game we worked on getting the ball into the final third, we did such a poor job of moving the ball against Vancouver. So our play of moving the ball and getting into the final third was much improved, we just need to work on the final third of play."
(On the fan support...) "It was great, we're just sad because we disappointed them. They stay behind us and it's more important if we lose a battle along the way, that we win the war. We'll take this battle loss. Our fans were great, the support was great. It's just a great feeling being out there in front of them and hear them singing and chanting. The support is really important."
(On David Estrada...) "It was the first time he's played in front of a crowd like that. I thought he was active, he was busy, I thought he got behind their defense a couple of times. I thought he had some good moments. There were also some times when he could have played the ball a little bit quicker, but overall I thought he did well."
(On Brad Evans' performance at right back...) "I thought he did well. I thought for me, he was probably our best player over 90 minutes, our most consistent player. The guys who went 90, we asked them to run the whole line in the second half when we went to a 3-5-2 and he pushed inside in midfield, and thought he was one of the guys who was dynamic and looking to get forward. Sometimes we miss him in the middle of midfield because he's someone who finds his way into the box."
Kasey Keller - Goalkeeper
(On defensive scoreless coming to an end . . .) "These games aren't where it matters. I have been on teams where I have won everything in sight in preseason and lost our first couple games and other teams where I thought 'Oh my God, we are going to get relegated before Christmas,' and we end up in first place after the first three or four games. So I'm not too stressed about it right now. Sure you want to win and obviously you are not happy to lose at home against Portland [Timbers]. That's frustrating."
(On being back at Qwest Field . . .) "It was nice. Obviously it is great to be back at Qwest and, like I said, it is nice to get that out of the way as opposed to having the guys have that first feeling when they step out against Philadelphia [Union]. So let's just hope that some guys took this for what it was and say 'We don't have any right to just step on the field and win a game. You have to earn it. Credit to Portland. They came in, they defended very well as a team and limited our chances. Last twenty minutes we put them under some pressure and they weathered that storm and really should've gotten a second one at the end. So you have to give them a bit of credit too. But at the same time, we are extremely disappointed with our performance."
Brad Evans - Midfielder
(On how to improve offense . . .) "It's just confidence. Once we get one, the ball keeps rolling and you get two, three and four. I think we said it at halftime 'Once we get one, we are going to pile on here.' So it's just a matter of getting our confidence and getting one in the back of the net. So we have one more tune-up next week in Colorado. We have to bang goals there because the big test comes in two Thursdays. Goals build confidence and, like I said, it is kind of a snowball effect. Like last year, we scored three in the opener and the next couple games we get a shutout and finish our chances and we get ourselves in good position for the rest of the season. That's something we have got to take advantage of. It is going to be a good test next Friday night."
PORTLAND QUOTES
Head Coach- Gavin Wilkinson
(On his thoughts about the game tonight...)"I think the players worked hard and it shows where we are at this point of the season. We were not as creative and didn't get as forward as I would have liked, but it's a matter of where we are in preseason. We have had a few hard weeks of preseason. The guys are a little bit tired and you can see that with the guys not coming forward. We didn't really have rhythm in the attacking half, but we defended well and we showed good displace and great mentality. At this stage of the preseason and I have to evaluate players and I'm very impressed."
(On being able to withstand the Sounders offense firepower...)"I think tactically we dealt with it very well. We didn't get exposed too many times. In their defense I think one goal opens the game up, sometimes it's a matter of preseason and guys are not in form as you would like. They posed us a lot of problems and we had a little bit of luck with defending them. You have to take that in the professional game, but I'm still happy with the guys."
(On being able to compete against a higher level of competition...) "I think so, we still expect a little bit better on possession and we gave the ball away a little bit too much. We had taken too many unnecessary risks in the first half and put our guys in a bad position. A lot of those were mental errors because our guys were fatigued. If we get a little bit fitter I think we tidy those mistakes on up."
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