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There were no late game heroics for Seattle Sounders FC. Instead it was the energy of Dom Dwyer who rescued a single point for Sporting Kansas City. The 1-1 result is a decent road point, but also a failure to take advantage of a KC lineup that lacked any sort of threat.
Obafemi Martins opened the scoring in the first half. Set free on a probing long ball from Gonzalo Pineda Martins used his strength to muscle off a Sporting defender and finished well. It was a rare bright spot from Oba and Clint. The two squandered passes and shots regularly. In the second half Clint Dempsey was in on goal and twice failed to score.
Seemingly comfortable with the 1-nil lead Sounders slowed their pace down, allowing KC to get the ball to Dwyer who slammed it past Frei. Dwyer would continue to threaten to take a full three points, but Frei stopped the late Kansas City surge.
Seattle's struggles defending set-pieces only resulted in Frei saves. There were times that Sporting exploited fouls, but the keeper was in place to stop their shots.
The single point leaves the Sounders in danger from a red line surge, but at this time they would host a home playoff game.
Observations
- Frei is amazing
- Seattle wasted a perfect opportunity to position themselves for the Supporters' Shield. Vermes practically handed them the result with the lineup and only lackadaisical performances from Martins and Dempsey allowed KC to get the point.
- Sounders are now in single-game-a-week mode. Sunday, Sunday, Sunday means that Sigi Schmid shouldn't need to worry about fitness or resting for CCL.
- Teams are attacking Fisher's side. It's the weakest area defensively in the likely XI's to end the year. Help from the LCB and CMs will be key to controlling service.