2002 Jul 24

El Paso Patriots  0 - 1  Seattle Sounders (AET)
Dudley Field, El Paso, TX

Goals:
96' SEA - Ching (Nguyen)

El Paso: Jesse Llamas (Fredy Estrada 22'); Sidnei Dos Santos, Fabio Terra, Carlos Martinez (Matthew Stewart 68'), Eduardo Silva; Dominic Schell, Ahmed Figueroa (Paul Cabrera 87'), Jose Abarca, Federico Juarez; Daniel Frias, Omar Mora (Jose Lomeli 61').

Seattle: Preston Burpo; Scott Jenkins, Zach Scott, Ryan Edwards; Chad Brown, Andrew Gregor, Leighton O'Brien, Viet Nguyen, Jason Boyce (Greg Foisie 63'); Brian Ching, Darren Sawatzky (Danny Huet 75').

Match report from Patriots fan Duke Keith.

Match report from the El Paso Times' Bill Knight:

Sounder nets gift marker
Patriots lose in overtime

The ball was just sitting there. All it needed was some wrapping paper and a big bow and, for sure, it would have been Christmas in July for Seattle's Brian Ching.

The Sounder forward booted his gift easily into the goal, giving Seattle a 1-0 overtime victory and El Paso a stocking full of coal Wednesday night at Dudley Field.

The Patriots, now 7-8-6 on the season, dominated this match throughout -- raining soccer balls relentlessly at Sounder goalkeeper Preston Burpo. For the most part, Burpo responded with acrobatic saves. For all the others, he watched helplessly as Patriot shots banged off the crossbar, off the post or sailed just a few feet wide.

Finally, just six minutes into the first sudden-death period, Ching took a rebound and put it away ... along with the Patriots. The Sounders are now a sizzling 17-2 on the season, holding a death lock on first place in the A- League's Pacific Division. The Patriots fell to third.

"This was one of those games where you figure you're going to score any second," El Paso midfielder Dominic Schell said. "But it just didn't happen. We hit the post or we missed by a foot. They're a good team, and if you don't take advantage of those, they will get you. They had one chance and they scored. But I think this shows we are obviously good enough to be at the top of the league. Any other night, one of those goals would have gone in -- if not two or three."

Patriot coach Jesus Enriquez said, "We dominated. But that doesn't count, does it? You can dominate a whole game, but if you cannot finish you are not going to win. We had a lot of opportunities. Unfortunately, we couldn't score. On the one distraction we had, they scored on us. They have a good team. But I think we are better."

Statistics:
        El Paso  Seattle
Shots:     24         9
Saves:      4        11
Corners:   10         7
Fouls:     14        12
Offsides:   0         1

Misconduct:
11' SEA - Brown cautioned.
42' SEA - Brown cautioned and sent off for his second caution.
42' EP - Terra cautioned.
53' SEA - Edwards cautioned.
78' EP - Juarez cautioned.
82' EP - Terra sent off.

Referees: Jair Marrufo; Anthony Kelly, Andrew Gage; Sergio Vega.
Attendance: 2,271