Seattle Sounders Launch Surge With Big Help From International Talent

When Sounders’ fortunes were plummeting earlier in the season top brass knew that the alarming spiral was due to more than injury misfortunes, though they were indeed a factor. The Sounders needed to jump start their season after falling to 4-8-4 in MLS Western Conference Standings. They now stand at .500 with an 8-8-4 mark with 28 points and a chance to move into winning territory Saturday night with a win against Chivas U.S.A. at Home Depot Center. The match is slated to begin at 8 p.m. PT.It was at the Home Depot Center in a July 4th 3-1 loss to the L.A. Galaxy, that the team hit rock bottom.“We need to do some tightening in the midfield area,” Coach Sigi Schmid exclaimed.  “We need to toughen up and close up holes that are allowing people to roam free and score.”The change occurred, the middle was tightened, but there was great improvement on offense as well. Some of that progress, understandably, was occasioned by the tougher defense and greater opportunity to possess the ball and mount offensive attacks.Two critical and well-timed moves by General Manager Adrian Hanauer in the front office assisted the current Seattle victory surge. Two World ...

Sounders-Dynamo: Latin Combo Fernandez, Montero Delivers Win in Second Half

The Latin Combo delivers when needed, as the visiting Houston Dynamo learned when the Seattle Sounders capitalized on goals from Colombian Fredy Montero and Uruguayan Alvaro Fernandez in a 2-0 triumph before 36,111 fans Sunday night at the Xbox Pitch of Qwest Field. The Montero goal in the 64th minute continued the rampaging pace of the Colombian Comet that earned him MLS Player of the Month honors for July.  Montero’s eighth goal of the campaign came following a long punt by goalkeeper Kasey Keller. With a Dynamo defender draped on his back, Montero chested the ball down, spun to his left, and drove a 15-yard effort past goalkeeper Tally Hall. In addition to securing a clean sheet for the evening, Keller achieved that goalkeeper rarity: an assist, on the Montero tally.  It marked the first ever in Sounders franchise history for a goalkeeper. Alvaro Fernandez has, for the second time in a row, come into a match in the second half and tallied an important goal.  Last week, he secured a Seattle aggregate win on points over Metapan on a muddy San Salvador field to earn a 1-1 tie and 2-1 overall triumph as the Sounders moved on to the next round of the ...

Will the Seattle Sounders’ Surge Continue?

Many skeptics had already written off the Seattle Sounders several weeks ago for the 2010 season, convinced that the team could never make the playoffs in its second season of MLS existence. Instead Coach Sigi Schmid’s team, bolstered by the return of some injured players along with foreign acquisitions Blaise Nkufo and Alvaro Fernandez, is now in comfortable playoff striking range as well as faring successfully in non-league competition. Seattle Sounders FC hopes to continue its current surge as the Rave Green returns from 3,000 miles away in San Salvador to the friendly confines of Qwest Field for a match against the Houston Dynamo. Seattle can further climb up the Western Conference of MLS when it hosts the Dynamo on Sunday night at 8 p.m. PT. Undefeated in its last four MLS matches and in seven games over all competitions, Sounders FC at a current 7-8-4 and 25 points has vaulted from seventh to fourth in the West, two points behind FC Dallas. Seattle has won three straight and has not lost in its last four MLS starts dating back to July 11. The seven-game unbeaten run of 5-0-2 in all competitions began with a 2-0 win over the L.A. Galaxy in a July ...

Schellas Hyndman, Kasey Keller Discuss Major League Soccer Parity

Schellas Hyndman and Kasey Keller, two accomplished people within the Major League Soccer fraternity, had interesting points to make recently about parity. When Hyndman met the media following a recent 1-1 tie that his FC Dallas team achieved in Seattle it was with the buoyant optimism one associates with a victory. The Dallas management was fortunate to see that there was a gigantic soccer legend within their city and made a successful move to sign Hyndman after he had posted an awesome 466-122-49 figure at Southern Methodist. If there is one thing that such an eye-popping college record reveals about Hyndman it is that he knows the ways to win.  He is currently being discussed as a serious Coach of the Year candidate in the MLS after leading the team upward from lesser accomplishments before he took over as coach  to a current glossy 6-2-9 mark. The nine tie record is interesting.  It reveals a shrewd knowledge of what it takes to achieve success in the MLS, as Hyndman revealed that night following the hard fought 1-1 draw with the Seattle Sounders. “This is a tough place to come in and get a win given the big crowd factor supporting the home team,” Hyndman acknowledged.  ...

Fredy Montero Named MLS Player Of Month For July

Dynamic Colombian striker Fredy Montero was on fire during July, and the MLS as well as the North American Soccer Reporters (NASR) recognized this, naming him Player of the Month on Wednesday. Montero, who was also named to the MLS All-Star team two years in a row, guided the Seattle Sounders to a surge in which the team climbed out of the Western Conference lower ranks to a position currently challenging for a playoff spot. During July, the speedy forward contributed two goals and three assists in five games, helping steer Seattle to a 3-1-1 record during that span. Montero's hot streak began with a 14th minute goal on July 11 that lifted the Sounders to a 1-1 draw against FC Dallas.  He had a surge of eight games in which he garnered either a goal or an assist.  This ended in early August on Tuesday, with a 1-1 draw in San Salvador against Metapan in CONCACAF competition.  Had the rain not have been so heavy and the ground so muddy, the speedy Montero would have had a better chance to extend his streak. On July 15, Montero supplied the assist on teammate Roger Levesque's 89th minute game-winning goal against D.C. United. The win was the first ...

Seattle Sounders Secure 1-1 Tie With Metapan But Win Aggregate

The steady, heavy rain failed to dampen Seattle Sounders' spirits as a hard fought 1-1 tie at San Salvador’s Estadio Cuscatlan Tuesday night against host Metapan translated into an overall win. It was a win because the U.S. and El Salvador teams were playing a two-game home and home series to see who advances to the second leg of the CONCACAF Champions League preliminary series. Last week in Seattle in the team’s first meeting of the series, the Sounders defeated Metapan 1-0 on a 40-yard blast by Fredy Montero. With the 1-1 draw Tuesday, the Sounders secured the winning 2-1 aggregate advantage on overall goals scored. On Tuesday and the week before, the deciding goals came after Seattle Coach Sigi Schmid made key second half substitutions. Montero had been inserted into action in the final third of the contest and scored seconds after entering the pitch. Tuesday night the new face on the Seattle roster, rangy Uruguayan Alvaro Fernandez, emerged as man of the hour with a nifty 10-yard header in the 73rd minute just nine minutes after entering the match. It marked the first score of Fernandez’ Sounders career. The score came on a superbly placed pass from defender James Riley, who provided great defense all evening ...

Seattle Sounders Visit El Salvador To Tackle Metapan

Coach Sigi Schmid and his Seattle Sounders have been traveling so far and often that premium frequent flyer miles would be a seemingly deserving reward. Seattle Sounders FC plays matches 3,000 miles apart this week. Sounders FC can clinch a place in the CONCACAF Champions League group stage with a win or draw at El Salvador's AD Isidro Metapán on Tuesday night at 7 p.m. PT in a match carried on the Fox Soccer Channel. Seattle then returns home to seek to continue its climb up the Western Conference of MLS when it hosts the Houston Dynamo on Sunday night at 8 p.m. PT. The Metapan match is a return engagement of the Seattle meeting last Wednesday won by the Sounders 1-0 on a 40-yard second half missile by striker Fredy Montero seconds after he came off the bench. In a postgame press conference, Metapan coach Edwin Portillo conceded that his club would face a daunting task the following week against a Sounder squad whose personnel impressed him.  Given the 1-0 loss, Portillo acknowledged that it would be tactically necessary to play more aggressively to compensate for the one goal to nil defeat. Portillo acknowledged that his strategic intention in the Seattle contest was to ...

Peter Vagenas Placed On Seattle Sounders Injured Reserve List

The Seattle Sounders FC announced Monday that midfielder Peter Vagenas has been placed on the disabled list. The reason is a right quadriceps strain. As a result of his injury Vagenas, 32, is required to miss six games. Included in that number was the San Jose Earthquakes match on July 31. Vagenas is eligible to return to MLS play for the September 9 match in Seattle against the Real Salt Lake. The 5-8, 163 pound Vagenas is in his tenth season in Major League Soccer. He played college soccer at UCLA. Vagenas has started all seven appearances in 2010 and has played a total of 542 minutes. Read more MLS news on BleacherReport.com

Steve Zakuani: From Africa To London To Seattle Sounders Stardom

A major reason why soccer has been called “the beautiful game” is its international dimension, the idea of bringing people together from various cultures and life experiences throughout the world. Steve Zakuani’s story falls into that dimension, a young man with international roots who followed his dream and is now one of the quickest and most productive strikers in Major League Soccer. The Seattle Sounders star was born in Kinshasa in what was then Zaire and is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. “We moved to London when I was 4,” Zakuani revealed following a Sounders training session. “It was 1992. London is so international and there are so many Africans there that I became friends with many of them, as did my family members. In fact, some of my first soccer games were with African friends in London.” Perhaps Zakuani was destined by the stars to become a soccer player. The family, after all, was based in North London. Steve grew up near White Hart Lane and the famous stadium that the Tottenham Spurs of England’s Premier League call home. As events emerged, however, Zakuani was destined to forge an important link with another famous North London club, that being Arsenal. Those roots ...

Fredy Montero Header Leads Seattle Past San Jose, 1-0

Fredy Montero continued his red hot streak Saturday night in a crucial MLS Western Conference showdown with an adroitly executed header to give visiting Seattle Sounders FC a 1-0 win over the San Jose Earthquakes before 10,351 at Buck Shaw Stadium in Santa Clara. The Montero goal, the only score of a fiercely contested defensive struggle, came in the 26th minute as the speedy Colombian striker took a cross from Sanna Nyassi in front of the goal and headed it past San Jose goalkeeper Jon Busch. The blazing streak of Montero continued with the game clincher against the Earthquakes.  He has been involved in a score through a goal or assist over eight consecutive MLS games with four goals and five assists.  On the season Montero has seven goals and eight assists. Montero’s scoring impetus carried into the international realm as well.  Last Wednesday at home against El Salvador’s Metapan in Champions League play Montero came off the bench in the second half to drill home a textbook perfect 40-yard missile to produce the only score of the game in another 1-0 Sounders success. Since Sana Nyassi has become a regular, he has also been productive in the assist capacity after using his speed ...