The Seattle Sounders improved to 2-0-0 since the MLS season restarted with a 3-1 win over Los Angeles FC on Sunday. It was the Sounders’ first game at CenturyLink Field in nearly six months and they got a performance to remember, with Raúl Ruidíaz scoring from 30 yards out and Jordan Morris scoring two goals 59 seconds apart to power the win. The Sounders now sit in second place, two points behind Sporting KC but having a game in hand.
MATCH SUMMARY
Seattle Sounders FC 3 - Los Angeles FC 1
Sunday, August 30, 2020
Venue: CenturyLink Field
Referee: Kevin Stott
Assistants: Andrew Bigelow, Jeremy Hanson
Fourth Official: Timothy Ford
VAR: Edvin Jurisevic
Attendance: Closed Door
Weather: 70 degrees and cloudy
SCORING SUMMARY
SEA - Raúl Ruidíaz 11’
SEA - Jordan Morris (Nicolás Lodeiro) 48’
SEA - Jordan Morris (João Paulo) 49’
LAFC - Diego Rossi (Jose Cifuentes, Bradley Wright-Phillips) 60’
MISCONDUCT SUMMARY
SEA - Kelvin Leerdam (caution) 28’
LAFC - Mark-Anthony Kaye (caution) 42’
SEA - Shane O’Neill (caution) 64’
LAFC - Latif Blessing (caution) 70’
LINEUPS & STATS
Seattle Sounders FC - Stefan Frei; Kelvin Leerdam, Yeimar Gómez Andrade, Shane O’Neill, Joevin Jones (Nouhou 72’); João Paulo (Jordy Delem 78’), Gustav Svensson, Cristian Roldan, Nicolás Lodeiro (Alex Roldan 78’), Jordan Morris (Xavier Arreaga 86’); Raúl Ruidíaz (Will Bruin HT)
Substitutes not used: Stefan Cleveland, Miguel Ibarra, Handwalla Bwana, Josh Atencio
Total shots: 10 (Morris, 3)
Shots on goal: 3 (Morris, 2)
Fouls: 13 (Five players, 2)
Offside: 2 (C. Roldan/Ruidíaz, 1)
Corner-kicks: 4 (Lodeiro, 3)
Saves: 3 (Frei, 3)
Los Angeles FC - Kenneth Vermeer; Tristan Blackmon (Adrien Perez 66’), Danilo Silva (Dejan Jakovic 39’), Eddie Segura, Diego Palacios; Latif Blessing, Jose Cifuentes, Mark-Anthony Kaye (Francisco Ginella 77’); Brian Rodriguez (Christian Torres 79’), Bradley Wright-Phillips (Danny Musovski 77’), Diego Rossi
Substitutes not used: Pablo Sisniega, Jordan Harvey, Mohamed El-Munir; Bryce Duke
Total shots: 10 (Rossi, 3)
Shots on goal: 4 (Rossi, 2)
Fouls: 7 (Kaye, 2)
Offside: 1 (Rodriguez, 1)
Corner-kicks: 8 (Cifuentes/Rodriguez, 4)
Saves: 0
Team quotes
SOUNDERS FC HEAD COACH BRIAN SCHMETZER – LINK TO SOUNDBYTES
On Sounders FC’s defensive effort:
“By this time we know how LAFC likes to play. Obviously, they were missing some pretty big pieces tonight, but they do like to find those little pockets of space in between the lines and that’s something that we did work on defensively. Making sure we did keep good shape and always defend inside out, that’s something that we try to message to the group. I think they did it tonight.”
SOUNDERS FC FORWARD JORDAN MORRIS – LINK TO SOUNDBYTES
On how playing long balls in affected the game:
“I think putting them under pressure I think they press really high and last time we didn’t really do a great job of playing out of that press and I think today we did a better job and I think sometimes you know, it’s not always pretty but it’s effective when you play the ball over their press you’re going to create some chances. That was the focus today.”
SOUNDERS FC MIDFIELDER CRISTIAN ROLDAN – LINK TO SOUNDBYTES
On what was different from this result compared to the MLS is Back Tournament result:
“Obviously when you play at home there’s going to be a sense of urgency you know with the energy that’s sparked when we play at CenturyLink. When we are on the same page and playing direct and doing the difficult running, the running that sometimes doesn’t get rewarded, it’s effective because you create space for others. Today when I thought we were on the same page when the balance playing short and trying playing through them versus playing over them into space, so I think that was effective tonight and obviously when you score a goal and then you get on top of them and then score another one it deflates them. I thought that was the case tonight a lot like when we played in LA for the Western Conference Final.”