Sounders Beat Reduced Atlante Side In Preseason Closed Game

In Seattle Sounders FC final road preseason game they overcame last minute stadium and opposition lineup adjustments to beat Atlante five to two. As the Rave Green return to Seattle their co-leading preseason scorers are Fredy Montero (two goals today, three on preseason) and David Estrada (one goal and assist today, three goals on preseason). The game was called at 85 minutes due to poor lighting.

Sigi Schmid's planned pattern leading into the CONCACAF Champions League saw a new partner for Montero at forward as Estrada started and went 74 minutes. Sammy Ochoa finished the rest of the shortened match. Due to a red card Alvaro Fernandez was replaced at half by Christian Sivebaek. All other substitutions were in the defensive core.

The Sounders move to 4-0-2 in preseason with their next match being the free one against Jaguares de Chiapas at CenturyLink Field on February 29th at 7 PM. The team will be taking donations for their charity partners for the match.

Schmid continues to be impressed with the play of David Estrada saying in the team press release;

I thought David did well. I thought he showed, he opened the game up for us, made a lot of runs in the corners. I thought he combined well with [Fredy] Montero. He scored a good goal. He was active, he was involved, he held the ball up for us. David's made big strides and I was very pleased with what he did today.

Recent trade acquisition Eddie Johnson did not play. Sigi Schmid's comments and match statistics follow;

Seattle Sounders FC 5 at Atlante FC 2 - February 22, 2012

Scoring Summary
SEA - David Estrada (Mauro Rosales) 12'
SEA - Fredy Montero 16'
ATL - 47'
SEA - Fredy Montero 55'
SEA - Christian Sivebaek (Mauro Rosales, David Estrada) 67'
SEA - Leo Gonzalez 71'
ATL - 80'


Seattle Sounders FC
Michael Gspurning, Adam Johansson (Zach Scott 74'), Jeff Parke (Pat Ianni 81'), Jhon Hurtado, Leo Gonzalez (Marc Burch 72'), Mauro Rosales, Osvaldo Alonso (Servando Carrasco 72'), Brad Evans, Alvaro Fernandez (Christian Sivebaek 46'), Fredy Montero, David Estrada (Sammy Ochoa 74')

Misconduct Summary
SEA - Mauro Rosales (caution) 42'
SEA - Alvaro Fernandez (ejection) 42'
ATL - (ejection) 42'
ATL - (caution) 54'

Weather
Sunny and 81-degrees

Quotes from Head Coach Sigi Schmid
(On the last second changes...) "We're disappointed because the agreement or understanding between ourselves and Atlante was one thing, and today everything sort of changed. From the field to who we were playing, etc. Our expectation is certainly that Jaguares de Chiapas is not going to do that, they're going to be professional, which we know they are. We're just disappointed that the opposition and the circumstances were not as we understood them."

(On how they handled the odd circumstances...) "With everything, our philosophy as a club has been, 'Okay, it is what it is, and now we're going to make the best of the situation.' We were going to go out and make the best of the situation, get our fitness in, play soccer. I thought we did a good job, it's just tough when you know you're better than the opposition. You lose that little bit of four, five percent of concentration sometimes. But overall, I thought our guys did a pretty good job."

(On David Estrada...) "I thought David did well. I thought he showed, he opened the game up for us, made a lot of runs in the corners. I thought he combined well with [Fredy] Montero. He scored a good goal. He was active, he was involved, he held the ball up for us. David's made big strides and I was very pleased with what he did today."

(On Fredy Montero...) "Obviously, he did well. He hit a great free kick, and the header he scored was one where he caught the goalkeeper off the line. It was a great header to the back post. Fredy is always going to get his best fitness by playing games-he loves to play. That's why we kept him on for 90 minutes. He worked and he was active. He showed underneath the way we expect him to, so I was pleased with the things he did. He had a couple good through-balls that set some people up...I was pleased with what Fredy did."

(On the team's fitness...) "It was alright fitness-wise. Again, due to the change in circumstances, we only played a 40-minute second half because there's no lights here. By the time we were informed that they wanted to kick off at four o'clock, we had already had our pre-game meal and a lot of stuff set, so it made difficult to change things. There were guys that got 85 minutes worth of fitness in today, so that's good."

(On what players stood out...) "Christian [Sivebaek] came in and did some decent things. I thought Sammy Ochoa did alright coming in, holding the ball up for us. Adam Johansson had a good spell, when he played I thought he played well...In the second half, they got a goal which we didn't deal well with-we didn't defend well on that particular goal...that sort of re-motivated us for a little bit. Then we got two goals right after that, bang-bang. Like I said, that little five percent edge comes off the game then, so you have to discount a little bit of the second half."

(On evaluating the team two weeks before the first game...) "We're trying to make it the best situation we can. We're hoping, obviously, to have a good crowd attend that game and watch our game next Wednesday, because I know the guys are looking forward to that. I think that'll help put that edge and that motivation there. I'm pleased where we are fitness-wise, pleased with some of the things we've done soccer-wise on the field. I think we've shown when we're supposed to score goals, we have scored goals. I'm just disappointed today that we gave up two because we've been doing a good job of not giving anything up. We have to get back to that next Wednesday."