Up until last night the Sounders Women schedule had, thanks to some combination of luck and thoughtful planning, not overlapped the Sounders schedule. But it was particularly bad luck that the first match that coincided with a match at CenturyLink was one of the most important of the season. It was extra bad luck that it also coincided with the national team players traveling back from Sweden. Still, the official attendance was 3500, which keeps the team tops in North American women's soccer.
The visiting team was the 2008 and 2009 W-League champion Pali Blues, who despite not having any US national team players had won every match so far in their W-League season, netting 21 points from 7 games. And they didn't take long last night to prove they aren't slowing down any time soon. They scored their first goal in the 5th minute and their second in the 7th, then held on for the 2-0 win, giving them 24 points in 8 matches.
The Sounders are well back at 16 points despite just the 1 loss. The good news for them is that if the W-League playoffs progress as they have in years past, the top two teams in the West will advance to the playoffs, so they just need to hold off the Colorado teams and Santa Clarita to make the postseason.