Nobody expected much from the Seattle Sounders in their match against league leaders FC Dallas on Wednesday—their opponents even fielded a weakened lineup as they rested some of their star players. But this match had everything: 5 unanswered goals for Seattle, two red cards, and nonstop action from the home team.
The first half started with a bang—the Sounders attacked FC Dallas in the first few minutes, and their first shot on goal looked like it was going to lead to a corner. But right after the ball went out of bounds, Ricardo Salazar showed his red card to Dallas defender Maynor Figueroa and awarded Seattle a penalty after Figueroa was judged to have blocked the shot with his hand. Clint Dempsey fired the penalty into the roof of the net to put Seattle up 1-0 after only 6 minutes.
The action didn’t stop there as an excellent ball over the top by Osvaldo Alonso was latched onto by Andreas Ivanschitz, who beat the defender and chipped it right over the keeper and into the goal. Only a few minutes later, Jordan Morris slipped in past the Dallas defense thanks to a beautiful through ball by Clint Dempsey. Morris left no doubt as he blasted the ball into the net for Seattle’s third in only 22 minutes.
There were no more goals in the half, but in the 33rd minute Clint Dempsey was shown a straight red card for putting his hands to the face of Dallas’ Juan Esteban Ortiz, who clearly made the most of Dempsey’s soft contact to his head. Ortiz was also shown a yellow, for reasons unclear.
Seattle came out in control again in the second half, but there was far less action than the first. That didn’t last long, as after 15 minutes Seattle scored yet again after a solid attacking move led to a long shot by Joevin Jones that deflected off a defender and past a helpless Chris Seitz.
Dallas brought in attacking substitutes, but the Sounders didn’t let up the pressure on goal. They found the net again in the 73rd thanks to a Cristian Roldan header off Andreas Ivanschitz’ deep free kick. Seattle nearly had more chances to close out the match, but the destruction ended at just 5-0 as the Sounders get their best result of the season.