2005 Jun 3

Richmond Kickers  0 - 0  Seattle Sounders
University of Richmond Stadium, Richmond, VA

Richmond: Ronnie Pascale; Matt Bobo, Kevin Knight (Matt Pauls 82'), Mathew O'Toole (Kevin Jeffrey 61'), Peter Luzak; Tim Brown, Richie Williams (Jeff Hare 82'), Mike Burke, Chris Carrieri (McColm Cephas 80'); Sascha Gorres, Matthew Delicāte.

Seattle: Preston Burpo; Taylor Graham, Ryan Edwards, Zach Scott (Scott Jenkins 73'), Billy Sleeth; Kevin Sakuda, CJ Klaas, Jake Sagare (Brett Whitfield 60'), Ben Somoza (Franklin Chacon 76'); Roger Levesque, Welton.

Goals:
77' SEA - Edwards (Klaas)
81' SEA - Welton (Klaas)


Additional match reports: Kickers, Mid-Atlantic Soccer Report, Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Match report from the Sounders:

C.J. Klaas set up both goals and Preston Burpo registered another shutout as the Seattle Sounders defeated the Richmond Kickers, 2-0, Friday at the University of Richmond Stadium.

For their first road game of the 2005 season the Sounders decided to press the issue against the league's top team. In the 16th minute C.J. Klaas sent a free kick off the top of the cross bar from 25 yards. Kevin Sakuda's right footed liner from 17 yards was knocked down, and then cradled by Richmond goalkeeper Ronnie Pascale in the 29th minute.

Then, in stoppage time in the first half Billy Sleeth sent a header wide of the left post from 12 yards up. Meanwhile Sounders 'keeper Burpo continued to keep a clean sheet. He came up with big stops against the Kickers in the 31st minute, diving out off his line to stop an attempted cross from 8-yards.

Richmond ended the first half with just nine players on the field thanks to some late injuries to two of their players. Those two players returned for the start of the second half and with it came a much more physical Kickers squad. But that physical play led to two yellow cards against midfielder Tim Brown and that led to the automatic red card ejection in 54th minute.

Playing up a man the Sounders went back on the offensive. In the 77th minute they cashed in off a corner kick. C.J. Klaas lined the ball out of the left corner towards the top of the six-yard box. Defender Ryan Edwards moved in on the ball and went up in the air and headed it past Pascale for his first goal of the season.

Seattle did not let up. As Richmond pushed forward looking for the equalizer, Welton stole the ball on the Sounder side of midfield. He dribbled up to midfield then pushed it down the left side for Klaas. Klaas took the ball inside the 18-yard box, drawing two defenders with him. He then crossed back to Welton who used his right foot to flick the cross from Klaas out of the air and past Pascale in the 81st minute.

Burpo ended the game with four saves and now has gone 450 minutes to start the season without allowing an opponent to score.

Statistics:
          Richmond  Seattle
Shots:      11        13
Saves:       8         4
Corners:     3         6
Fouls:      14        12
Offsides:    2         4

Misconduct:
52' RIC - Brown cautioned
54' RIC - Brown cautioned and sent off for his second caution
56' RIC - R Williams cautioned
63' SEA - Edmonds cautioned

Referees: Jeff Gontarek; Andrew Chapin, Ben Jones; Chris Miller

Attendance: 2,411