This is starting to feel less like preseason wishful thinking and more...real.
We beat the Argentinian side Estudiantes de la Plata 3-1 today (yesterday?) in Argentina, and their only goal was an own-goal!!
(Should I mention who it was? Own goals give me a ferocious pain in my maternal area and I generally just prefer to pretend they didn't happen. Although since it didn't have an effect on the game... Okay, it was Tyrone Marshall.)
(That's okay, Ty! Shake it off! Coulda happened to anybody!)
Estudiantes are currently a mid-table team, and I'm not seeing a lineup, so I have no idea how seriously they took this match. (Not that a lineup would help me all that much, except that I could run it by our resident Argie-American, Dave from the Red Bulls blog and he could clue me in.) Although one of the comments on the official blog says that this was only their C team, which... Well, what this means is that there are still a lot of question marks.
But still. Our boys -- who had never played together till a few weeks ago -- beat an Argentinian team! Regardless of the circumstances, that's a whole lot better than a loss.
Way to go, guys!
From the official blog. (Link is above. The article also includes a match summary. In a nutshell? Fredy Montero is a god.)
Scoring Summary
* EST-Own goal 20’
* SEA-Jaqua (Nyassi, Evans) 46’
* SEA-Montero (Jaqua) 54’
* SEA-Montero (Alonso) 58’Seattle Sounders FC Lineup (4-4-2)
Kasey Keller; Nathan Sturgis, Tyrone Marshall, Patrick Ianni, James Riley; Sebastien Le Toux, Brad Evans, Osvaldo Alonso, Sanna Nyassi; Nate Jaqua, Roger Levesque (Fredy Montero 36).
Also, the Seattle Times blog has some quotes from Sigi about the game. The part I found most interesting:
(On what he saw in the second half that he didn't see in the first) "What happened in the second half was Nate Jaqua stayed more in the middle of the field. He wasn't doing as much defensive chasing and work. Fredy, as well, stayed in the middle of the field. That's something we talked about at halftime because in the first half Roger (Levesque) and Nate were all over the place defensively. And when we won the ball it was tough for us to play in to anybody and hold the ball and we didn't have good shape offensively. So by them staying in the middle of the field, we had better shape offensively and when we won the ball we did a better job that way. We did a better job of making it more difficult for them, the No. 5 in midfield, to play balls forward. That helped us get the ball back quicker as well."