Sounders edge DC United: Highlights, stats, quotes

Ding, dong the streak is dead. Ding, dong the streak is dead.

After losing three straight MLS matches, four overall, Seattle Sounders FC clearly had an issue with finding offense. So they looked everyone looks, right back. Tyrone Mears' goal finished off ten-man D.C. United after the Rave Green dominated in every predictive measure, but were held scoreless until the 88th minute.

The Sounders dominated possession from beginning to end, and that wasn't just because of the Espindola red card. See this chart from MLSSoccer.

MATCH SUMMARY

Seattle Sounders FC 1 - D.C. United 0

Friday, July 3, 2015

Venue: Xbox Pitch at CenturyLink Field

Referee: Silviu Petrescu

Assistants: Mike Rottersman

Fourth Official: Marco Arruda

Attendance: 40,410

Weather: Sunny and 84 Degrees

SCORING SUMMARY

SEA - Tyrone Mears 88'

MISCONDUCT SUMMARY

SEA - Zach Scott (caution) 13'
D.C. - Fabian Espindola (ejection) 27'
D.C. - Conor Doyle (caution) 58'
SEA - Osvaldo Alonso (caution) 78'
D.C. - Perry Kitchen (caution) 78'
SEA - Lamar Neagle (caution) 90'+ 1'

LINEUPS & STATS

Seattle Sounders FC - Stefan Frei (Troy Perkins 45'+1'); Tyrone Mears, Chad Marshall, Zach Scott - captain, Dylan Remick; Cristian Roldan, Osvaldo Alonso, Gonzalo Pineda, Thomás (Andy Craven 78'), Lamar Neagle; Chad Barrett (Darwin Jones 85')

Substitutes not used: Micheal Azira, Leo Gonzalez, Jimmy Ockford, Andy Rose

Total shots: 16 (Lamar Neagle, 4)

Shots on goal: 5 (Thomás, 2)

Fouls: 13 (Osvaldo Alonso, 3)

Offside: 4 (Chad Barrett, 4)

Corner-kicks: 4 (Gonzalo Pineda, 3)

Saves: 2 (Frei/Perkins, 1)

D.C. United - Andrew Dykstra; Chris Korb, Steve Birnbaum, Bobby Boswell - captain, Taylor Kemp; Nick DeLeon, Davy Arnaud, Perry Kitchen, Chris Rolfe; Fabian Espindola, Luis Silva (Conor Doyle 5') (Miguel Aguilar 89')

Substitutes not used: Travis Worra, Jairo Arrieta, Facundo Coria, Marcus Halsti, Kofi Opare

Total shots: 10 (Nick DeLeon, 3)

Shots on goal: 2 (DeLeon, Rolfe, 1)

Fouls: 14 (Conor Doyle, 5)

Offside: None

Corner-kicks: 3 (Taylor Kemp, 2)

Saves: 4 (Andrew Dykstra, 4)

POST-MATCH QUOTES: SOUNDERS FC 1 - D.C. UNITED 0

FRIDAY, JULY 3, 2014

SOUNDERS FC HEAD COACH SIGI SCHMID

Opening statement:

"Obviously, to get out of a slump, or the funk we were in a little bit, sometimes just a couple of things need to break for you. It seems like it's a struggle, and it was a little bit of that tonight. I thought we came out aggressively early on in the game. I thought when the numbers were even early in the game we were the better side. I thought we went after them. At that point, when they received the red card, I think we relaxed a little bit and took our foot off the gas pedal, and we needed to keep pushing, which we tried to do when we came out in the second half. We were a little bit fortunate on a couple of shots off the post...but we also had opportunities where it could have resulted in a goal."

On Stefan Frei's injury:

"It is a left shoulder sprain. We will say how he responds in the next few days. It's always a tough situation when your reserve goalkeeper goes into the game. I thought Troy [Perkins] did well, especially when you don't play a lot of games."

On Tyrone Mears' goal:

"He's hit a few like that at practice, he actually struck it really well. I think he said he did it for the Queen, I am not sure."

On the performance of Thomàs:

"We wanted him to get forward a little bit more which he did tonight. That was something we talked about during the week - to have confidence moving forward as we thought we could do that...I thought he hit some good crosses, I thought the runs could be better at times. Now we have the first time in a long time to have a week to train, so that will come along."

On Osvaldo Alonso's return:

"It was good. Obviously we played him more minutes than we wanted to play him. We talked about that at halftime, ‘Look, we need to make a goalkeeper sub, so I probably need you to go 90 minutes.' We needed him to sit a little more in the second half - not to wander as much as he did in the first half because if he did that in the second half he would eventually run out of gas. I thought he did a good job in managing his minutes."

SOUNDERS FC DEFENDER TYRONE MEARS

On scoring his first goal:

"Yeah I usually get one a season. No I think it was a good performance by us you know. Four losses on the run, so it was really difficult, we're low on confidence and missing a lot of players. But the coach, Sigi said tonight the excuses have got to stop. We're missing important players. Obviously, there's young guys coming into the team, but it was a time to stand up and be counted. We're still in a good position, we're looking at probably another six weeks til those guys come back, and we've got to stay around there and we know we'll finish the season strong with them."

On playing a man up:

"Yeah, I think they worked really hard, you can see why they're top of their division. They're on a honest team and they worked really hard and made it difficult for us. But we had to keep believing, we knew that we only needed one chance. You know I thought it was really good defensively tonight. That's what our seasons been built on: being good at the back and keeping clean sheets. In the last four games we've been all over the place. So we've worked in the week on keeping a good shape, and obviously taking our chances. It's something we can build on now."

On getting the three points at home after a losing streak

"We came into the dressing room before the game and we all said, ‘Tonight is where we get a result'. We can't think about going a goal down or not playing well. We had to get a result, whatever it took. If we had to play ugly we were gonna do that it was about coming off the pitch with the result."

SOUNDERS FC GOALKEEPER TROY PERKINS

On staying match-fit:

"I was able to play the Open Cup, and the S2 game a couple weeks back. We train every day the same way, so it was good stepping in there."

On the difference in mentality between starting and coming off the bench

"I actually treat it the same way. I prepare myself the same way, I train myself the same way, because you never know. You can see ittonight, you never know. The simplest thing can go wrong and you gotta be a good pro."

On Tyrone Mears performance tonight

"I think all year long he's been a solid contributor to this team. He's filled a major hole that was left after last season here. He provides a lot of calmness, you know? He's never wound up, and he's never over exuberant. He's scored goals like that in training every day. So to see him do on the field and get his first goal was great."

SOUNDERS FC FORWARD CHAD BARRETT

On needing such a great strike to break through

"You know, sometimes you need a strike like that. You need a ball to go off your face. I'd take the worldly [strike] any day. That was a great ball. Tyrone had some great serves with his right foot, so he was feeling it today, you could tell. And as the ball comes up, I stood up because you could see he had the perfect one. I think I heard Andy [Rose] shout, ‘For England!' right before he hit. But it was perfect, you know. He hit it just as good as Steven Gerrard could have hit it. You know, outside of the foot, curling upper-v, still rising into the night. It's probably goal of the week, that was beautiful. "

On explaining the difference in shots between this week and last

"The rest, you know. Getting Ozzie back, getting as close to healthy as we can. I think the training staff have done an unbelievable job to get the guys back. We've had a lot of guys with little strains here and there that you had to watch. The coaches did well in who they put on the field tonight. I thought we had a good formation. I thought we had a lot of good chances. You know, we showed a lot of good promise. I thought we played better in the first 30 [minutes] before they got the red card. You know, then they kind of bunkered in. We weren't patient enough at the end of the first half and we actually gave them some chances. We did that again in the second half. So there's a lot of things that we can take away that we have to work on. Overall it's just kind of great to go into a two day break with a win, finally."

On Osvaldo Alonso's influence returning to the lineup

"You know, it's huge. Ozzie's our commander. It was like when I used to come here and play against Zach Scott. You know, he's one of the toughest defenders in the league. He's just a guy you don't want to play because you know he's gonna hit you. You know he's gonna play, and he's got such unbelievable ability that, you know, he's just a really important piece for us to make it deep into the playoffs and win stuff. We need him."

D.C. UNITED HEAD COACH BEN OLSEN

On how proud he is of his team despite the late goal:

"I'm as proud as I've been in awhile. The effort they put, the way they looked out for each other out there, but in the end, it takes a wonder strike from them to get all three points. Saying that, we go down and tie it. The referee needs to learn how to hold his whistle a little bit longer and wait for advantage. Several times in the game, he decided to make the call and he doesn't see the play out. One time we're in a breakaway and the other time we score a goal. That's what referees need to do. You can always come back. In the end, we deserve something out of this."

On the Fabian Espindola red card:

"I haven't seen it yet. I won't comment on it."

On Luis Silva's early injury:

"I thought [Conor] Doyle came in and did a great job. In the end, that wasn't a factor."

On goalkeeper Andrew Dykstra's performance:

"It was great. In our minds, he's a capable starter in this league and a very good goalkeeper. We have a lot of faith in him and I thoughttonight he handled the box very well. He made some key saves and there's nothing he can do about the goal. It's a great strike. Give [Tyrone] Mears credit. He took it well and it was going to take something like that to beat us tonight the way they were defending and looking after each other."

D.C. UNITED GOALKEEPER ANDREW DYKSTRA

On his performance tonight:

"It's a tough game and it is one I am just trying to have as much consistency as I can. I am trying to make easy plays easier and slow things down to make the game calm and give the guys breaks. I am proud of the way we played and the way I played."

On making saves and keeping his team in the game:

"Yes. I am happy and I am happy with the way I played but I am sad with the way we lost. It was an unfortunate way to end the game...Everything is a little hard to digest right now because the end was so crazy and just ended so strange."

On the goal:

"I did see it. It kinda came through two defenders. It was rising at the same time. It was a great strike. You can not take away anything from that. All it takes is one opportunity. We almost had the same thing going the other way. Good finish."

D.C. UNITED MIDFIELDER NICK DELEON

On his opportunity in the last minute:

"It was a really good opportunity. Frankly I should have done better. I should have put it on target. It hit the cross bar but that is not good enough. Unfortunately I didn't put it in."

On playing a man down:

"I think we did pretty well. We wanted to just get back into a good defensive shape and make them break us down. It was a hell of a goal by Mears to finish. Otherwise I think we did a pretty good job of limiting there chances. It took an amazing goal to beat us so touché to them."