Seattle Sounders 2 returned home tonight after a tough road trip hoping for a change in fortunes, but things went worse at Cheney Field than they could have imagined. The match started going bad in the 10th minute when S2 failed to close down Swope Park Rangers’ Felipe Hernandez. From about 25 yards out the midfielder took a clever first touch to pop the ball up to himself, he hit the ball on the half volley and Calle Brown was unable to stop the dipping shot that snuck inside his right post. Things would get much worst than a 1-0 defecit though.
In the 18th, Francisco Narbón beat Matheus Silva to a ball in the midfield. Unfortunately, Silva decided to go in for the ball with a tackle that was both late and high. Due to the force and angle of the tackle, Narbón’s cleats stayed firmly in the turf and his leg looked to bend halfway up his shin. After about five minutes of on-field treatment, Narbón was carted off the field and though there is no official word from the Sounders it looks likely to be a season-ending injury. The tackle originally went unpunished but after learning of the seriousness of the injury referee Joseph Dickerson eventually gave Silva a red card. Academy player Raul Miglietti replaced Narbón and the game continued.
In the 31st minute, Swope Park should have seen another red card when Sporting KC player Colton Storm choke slammed Academy player Gabe Threadgold to the ground but the referee let Storm off with only a yellow.
It took S2 awhile to recover from the horrific way they lost Narbón, but they began to threaten the Swope Park goal in first-half stoppage time. In first-half stoppage time, Threadgold cleverly headed a long cross back across goal and it looked like Jesse Daley would be able to volley it in from 6 yards out but a Swope Park player cleared the ball away in the nick of time. They almost evened it again late in the first-half stoppage when Denso Ulysse cleverly flicked a corner across the face of goal. David Estrada met it at the far post but he just couldn’t quite react quick enough and his header sailed over the top corner of the goal.
S2 picked up where they left off when they came out for the second half, applying a lot of pressure to the Swope Park goal. In the 48th minute, Estrada looked to have evened the score with a cheeky backheel but the AR ultimately judged him to be offside.
A man up and a goal down, S2 continued to press hard for the tying goal but the CB pairing of Rodrigue Ele and Miglietti just weren’t familiar enough with each other to keep things tight in the back and S2 were continually caught on the counter. In the 60th minute, Ele brought down Hadji Barry in the box and was rightly called for a PK. Luckily Brown was able to deny Barry’s kick from the spot to keep the deficit at one. The reprieve was painfully short lived.
In the 64th minute, Miglietti committed a soft foul outside of the box but the referee awarded Swope Park a PK anyways. This time Barry gave Brown no chance and ripped the PK into the top corner to make it 2-0. From there S2 threw everything forward in an attempt to salvage a result but, though they applied a lot of pressure, they were never able to connect on the final pass.
The 2-0 loss is disappointing but the injury to Narbón will have the biggest impact on the season. Hopefully he will be able to make a quick and full recovery.