2002 May 11

Seattle Sounders  4 - 1  El Paso Patriots
Memorial Stadium, Seattle, WA

Goals:
13' SEA - Nguyen (Sawatzky)
43' SEA - Sawatzky (O'Brien)
45' SEA - Nguyen
59' SEA - O'Brien (PK)
88' EP - DaGama (PK)

Seattle: Preston Burpo; Kieran Barton, Scott Jenkins, Ryan Edwards (Alex Chirinos 74'); Nate Daligcon (Chad Brown 68'), Jason Farrell (Zach Kingsley 66'), Andrew Gregor, Viet Nguyen, Leighton O'Brien; Darren Sawatzky (David Hernandez 83'), Brian Ching (Kyle Smith 58').

El Paso: Jesse Llamas; Sidnei Dos Santos, Fabio Terra, Guillermo McFarlane; Renato DaGama, Federico Juarez (Jose Abarca 66'), Saul Quinones, Jose Lomeli, Eduardo Silva; Cesar Sosa (Benjamin Waldrum 58'), Dominic Schell.

Match report by Ron Stickney:

The Seattle Sounders continued their perfect record, now 3-0-0, with a convincing 4-1 victory over the El Paso Patriots. El Paso had not allowed a goal in their first three matches of the season. Viet Nguyen got his first start of the season for Seattle and scored the first and third goals in the first half, sandwiched around the match winner from Darren Sawatzky. The second half got a bit rough, with both goals coming from penalty kicks and referee Ricardo Valenzuela showing his yellow card six times and the red one twice. A total of ten cards were shown in the match, completely filling the allotted space on the official USL scoresheet.

First Half

El Paso nearly scored in the 4th minute when Saul Quinones' corner kick was headed sharply on goal by Renato DaGama 6 yards out from the near post. Goalkeeper Preston Burpo made a reaction save overhead to deflect the ball just over the bar for another corner.

Seattle's Jason Farrell came right back with a shot from the left touch line that forced the first save by Jesse Llamas.

13' Nguyen (Sawatzky). Farrell won the ball in the left corner and dropped to Sawatzky for a shot, blocked by a defender. Sawatzky was first to the rebound and fired again from a steep angle, and Llamas parried the ball away. The ball went to Nguyen, wide open past the far post with plenty of exposed goal and time to opt for accuracy rather than power, and he sent the ball low inside the near post. 1-0 Seattle.

For El Paso, Dominic Schell won a loose ball just outside the Seattle area, dribbled square to the top of the arc, and fired one a yard or two high.

In the 23rd a Seattle corner kick was shot on goal and rejected by the near post, and Sawatzky's put-back hit the crossbar, bounced down onto the goal line, and jumped out due to the backspin. Assistant referee Jeff Hosking ruled no goal, and the next 20 minutes saw nobody come close.

43' Sawatzky (O'Brien). Leighton O'Brien chipped a ball over the defense for Sawatzky, whose well-timed run beat an offside trap and left the El Paso back line standing flat-footed and praying to no avail for an offside flag from Hosking. Llamas came out from his line and was caught in no man's land, so Sawatzky chipped perfectly over the keeper and into the goal mouth. 2-0 Seattle.

A minute later Schell beat the offside trap and he and Burpo went after a ball that was dropping three yards inside Seattle's penalty area. Schell got there just before Burpo, but Burpo had the angles covered and blocked with his chest just before he and Schell collided. Schell stayed down for a couple of minutes, and it would not be the last time he and Burpo would collide.

45' Nguyen. In the second minute of added time Nguyen pounced on a terribly bad pass in El Paso's backfield, dribbled to the edge of the penalty area, and got Llamas to guess the wrong way, putting a low shot between the keeper and the far post. 3-0 Seattle.

Halftime: Seattle 3 - 0 El Paso

The second half turned into garbage time. After a pair of yellow cards to Sounders defenders, Seattle's Brian Ching was bloodied by an elbow under his right eye while contesting for an air ball. He was compensated with a free kick, but no card was given as it was unclear whether or not the elbow was intentional. Ching went to the locker room, replaced by Kyle Smith.

59' O'Brien (PK). Federico Juarez jumped into O'Brien and knocked him down as O'Brien was about to head an air ball served into the box. Referee Valenzuela gave a penalty kick, and O'Brien sent it perfectly to the lower left corner giving Llamas no chance. 4-0 Seattle.

The Patriots came back with a series of fine shots, the first a sideways volley by DaGama from the 18, with Burpo flying sideways to catch it at the near post. A 25-yard free kick by Quinones was close, just missing the lower far corner. DaGama ran through the Seattle defense to receive a pass and fire from 15 yards, just wide left.

In the 72nd Seattle substitute Zach Kingsley fired a low shot from a cleared corner kick, and Llamas dove forward for the save. Sawatzky netted a shot, but this time he was a foot offside and assistant referee Doug Pinski was in position to make the call.

Just after Hosking raised the flag for an offside by El Paso, and before Valenzuela saw the flag, Schell earned an unnecessary yellow card by knocking Barton down. It wouldn't be Schell's only yellow card this match.

88' DaGama (PK). Burpo jumped over an El Paso attacker trying to get to an air ball just inside the 18-yard line but couldn't get a clean play on the ball, making contact with the player before the ball and knocking the player down. DaGama sent the penalty kick low and left while Burpo dove the other way. 4-1 Seattle.

The 90th minute saw El Paso substitute Jose Abarca just miss the lower far corner with a 15-yarder from the left.

In the second and final added minute, an incident in Seattle's goal mouth led to a pair of red cards. A ball in the penalty area was headed way up and was dropping just in front of the bar. Burpo was well positioned and waiting to leap for the grab when Schell jumped sideways into Burpo. AR Hosking wiggled his flag and referee Valenzuela was raising his whistle to his mouth, but the upset goalkeeper threw Schell to the ground, where he lay for a couple of minutes. Burpo was sent off for the retaliation. When Schell finally picked himself up he was cautioned for the foul and sent off for his second yellow card. With Seattle having spent all five of their substitutions, backup goalkeeper Rich Cullen had to stay on the bench and Barton played keeper for the remaining seconds. Cullen may get the start next match.

Final: Seattle 4 - 1 El Paso

Statistics:
        Seattle  El Paso
Shots:     12       13
Saves:      5        4
Corners:    5        5
Fouls:     28       20
Offsides:   4        1

Misconduct:
22' EP - Juarez cautioned for a foul near the halfway line.
23' SEA - Farrell cautioned for a foul in the circle.
52' SEA - Barton cautioned for knocking an opponent down from behind.
52' SEA - Edwards cautioned for taunting after Barton's caution.
69' SEA - O'Brien cautioned for a foul near the circle.
84' EP - Schell cautioned for knocking Barton down unnecessarily after the AR had flagged El Paso offside.
86' EP - Abarca cautioned for persistent infringement.
90' SEA - Burpo sent off for throwing Schell to the ground after Schell had jumped into Burpo.
90' EP - After he got up, Schell was cautioned for jumping into Burpo and sent off for his second caution.

Referee: Ricardo Valenzuela; Jeff Hosking, Doug Pinski; Mike Fox.
Attendance: 1,805