2006 Jul 8

Friendly:
Seattle Sounders  0 - 2  Club America
Qwest Field, Seattle, WA

Seattle: Chris Eylander; Noah Merl (Gabe Sturm 70'), Seyi Abolaji (Ben Somoza 56'), Jake Besagno (Nate Boyden 84'); Kevin Sakuda, Leighton O'Brien, Andrew Gregor, Santa Maria Rivera (Jake Sagare 59'), Roger Levesque; Jamal Sutton (Craig Tomlinson 56'), Cam Weaver. Substitutes not used: Jimmy Ward, Jason Farrell.

America: Armando Navarrete; Diego Cervantes, Ismael Rodríguez, Óscar Rojas (Alejandro Argüello 87'), Ricardo Rojas (Luis Villegas 87'); Ignacio Torres (Omar Tena 89'), Germán Villa, Alvin Mendoza, Juan Carlos Mosqueda (Carlos Infante 46'); Claudio López (Fernando Julien 81'), Matias Vuoso (Victor Jose Aguado 85'). Substitutes not used: Alberto Becerra, Marco Antonio Gómez.

Goals:
53' CA: López (PK)
81' CA: López (Villa)

Additional match reports: Sounders, Seattle Times, BBC Sport, South Wales Echo, South Wales Echo, South Wales Echo.

Match report by Ron Stickney:

Club America Aguilas only needed ten men to beat the Seattle Sounders 2-0 in a friendly at Qwest Field. The score was nil-nil when Alvin Mendoza was sent off for a senseless red card midway in the first half. But the short-handed visitors beat the Sounders 2-0 in the second half with a pair of goals from Argentinian Claudio López.

The match was the first match of the preseason for Club America.

First Half

Seattle came out with an ambitious 3-5-2 lineup, and there was inexperience across the back line with two rookies and a sophomore as defenders, Noah Merl sweeping, and a rookie in goal, Chris Eylander.

The first good chance came in the 11th minute for Seattle when Kevin Sakuda went on a run up the middle that turned into a two-on-one break, but the lone defender managed to intercept Sakuda's attempted pass to his open teammate.

America's Ismael Rodríguez took the first shot of the match in the same minute, a 30-yard attempt that Eylander watched 2 yards over the bar. The first good shot came in the 15th when Matias Vuoso headed a corner kick a yard wide of an open lower far corner. Vuoso soon got another chance from a through ball that he caught up with at the bye line, but the shot from a steep angle bounced easily to Eylander for the first save of the match.

For Seattle in the 21st, a quickly taken free kick to the far post gave Cam Weaver a header from 15 yards, but a defender blocked it halfway to goal.

The Sounders got what should have been a good break in the 25th when Mendoza was sent off for kicking Andrew Gregor in the leg well after Gregor sent the ball. Just a minute earlier Mendoza had drawn a yellow card for failing to give ten yards on a Sounders free kick. The foul on Gregor probably didn't deserve a straight red, but it certainly deserved a yellow-red, which would have had the same effect on the match.

The Sounders just couldn't seem to take advantage of the man advantage. The next shots came from America's López 12 minutes after the red card. A López shot from 20 yards was on goal, but Eylander was well-positioned for the save. Two minutes later López was sprung up the middle alone, but he touched the ball too far ahead and Eylander came off his line to gobble it up.

Seattle finally had a good chance in the 42nd when Weaver headed down Gregor's long free kick to give jake Besagno a shot from 10 yards, but the shot went right to goalkeeper Armando Navarrete.

At the whistle, America had outshot Seattle 9-2 in spite of playing with ten men half of the half.

Halftime: Seattle 0-0 America

The second half opened with Seattle's tall forward Weaver beating goalkeeper Navarrete in the air, heading a cross to the 6-yard line towards the far post, but a defender cleared the leftovers before Weaver could arrive to finish. Then in the 49th minute Mexican-born Santa Maria Rivera took Seattle's best shot of the night from the left edge of the penalty area, a turn-and-shoot that had eyes for the top far corner, but Navarrete backpedaled to one-hand it wide for a corner kick, his best save on the way to the shutout. In the 51st Jamal Sutton tried from the top right corner of the penalty area but sent it yards over the top far corner.

53' López (PK). Against the run of play, a long ball to the front line found Matias Vuoso open. Eylander came out 15 yards from his line for the through ball but failed to get it, and slid into Vuoso, who dramatized the contact and drew the penalty kick. On the PK, López blasted it straight up the middle with Eylander diving left. 1-0 America.

America nearly had another in the 64th when Vuoso was sprung up the middle. He played it left of the charging Eylander, but when Vuoso reached the ball a defender was on the line, and Eylander recovered in time to block the shot from 8 yards left of goal. 5 minutes later Vuoso fed López for a 15-yard shot from the right, but he skied it.

Seattle Substitute Ben Somoza's long throw-ins created a couple of chances for Seattle. In the 73rd, the throw-in was passed to an open Roger Levesque, whose shot went under Navarrete but was cleared off the line by a waiting Diego Cervantes. Two minutes later another Somoza throw-in bounced through to Levesque for a shot, but it went well wide. In the 77th Leighton O'Brien sent a hard pass forward for substitute Craig Tomlinson, who did well to trap it for a turn and shoot that just missed the top far corner. Then in the 79th Weaver netted the ball but was whistled for a seemingly minor bump on the defender to get open.

81' López (Villa). A long diagonal pass from Germán Villa found López open on the left, and he beat Eylander with a shot to the far post. 2-0 America.

America's last good chance came from substitute Carlos Infante in the 86th with a hard shot from the 18 that Eylander saved overhead.

Seattle seemed to finally have a goal in the 87th minute when Tomlinson took a through ball at the left corner and dropped a diagonal pass to substitute Jake Sagare, who found an open path into the penalty area and bent a nice shot around Navarrete and inside the far post, but alas, the ball had gone over the bye line and been played back in by Tomlinson, and the assistant referee was standing at the corner flag with his flag pointing in the same direction.

Final: Seattle 0-2 America

Statistics:
           Seattle   America
Shots:        9        13
Saves:        5         2
Corners:      3         2
Fouls:       27        13
Offsides:     4         5

Misconduct:
24' SEA: Besagno cautioned for a tactical foul at the halfway line
25' CA: Mendoza cautioned for failing to give 10 yards on a free kick
26' CA: Mendoza sent off for kicking Gregor in the leg well after Gregor had sent the ball
27' CA: Vuoso cautioned, probably for what he said after Mendoza was sent off
35' SEA: Abolaji cautioned for tripping at the bye line
39' SEA: Levesque cautioned for kicking the ball away before an America free kick
52' SEA: Eylander cautioned for tripping when he missed the ball and slid into an attacker
89' CA: Villegas sent off for what seemed to be a routine tactical foul on Tomlinson

Referees: Jeramon Hernandez; Scott Lawrence, Manuel Soledad; Shahram Pourazari

Attendance: 10,002