2008 Sep 10

Seattle Sounders  1 - 2  Montreal Impact
Starfire Sports Complex, Tukwila, WA

Seattle: Chris Eylander; Taylor Graham, Danny Jackson, Kevin Sakuda, Zach Scott; Kenji Treschuk, Youssouf Kante, Josh Gardner (Sanna Nyassi 78'), Leighton O'Brien; Roger Levesque (Kevin Forrest 74'), Sébastien Le Toux. Substitutes not used: Ben Dragavon, Michael Rodríguez, Jason Cascio, John Fishbaugher, Andre Schmid.

Montreal: Andrew Weber; Adam Braz, Davy Uwimana, Stefano Pesoli, Alex Surprenant; Sandro Grande (Simon Gatti 51'), Antonio Ribeiro (Leonardo Di Lorenzo 78'), Pato Aguilera (Gason Gregory 90'), Joey Gjertsen (Felix Brillant 69'); Tony Donatelli, Severino Jefferson (Peter Byers 62'). Substitutes not used: Matt Jordan, David Testo.

Goals:
59' MON: Donatelli (Gjertsen)
62' SEA: Kante
69' MON: Ribeiro

Additional match reports: Sounders, Impact, Seattle Times, Seattle P-I, GOALSeattle.com, Prost Amerika, Seattle Soccer Show ratings.

Match report from Ron Stickney:

With the Seattle Sounders and the Montreal Impact adjacent in the standings and on the verge of qualifying for the playoffs, one might have expected a playoff intensity. Instead, the Sounders played poorly at home and gave up a 2-1 loss to the Impact. With the win, the Impact jumped ahead of the Sounders and qualified for the playoffs. Seattle were left looking up at Montreal and a point short of qualifying for the postseason with two matches left.

Montreal opened and closed the scoring, with goals from Tony Donatelli and Antonio Ribeiro. Youssouf Kante's goal brought the Sounders level at the time, but opportunities for another goal were wasted.

The first half was drudgery. The Sounders never managed a shot until added time just before intermission, when Taylor Graham headed Leighton O'Brien's free kick well over the top near corner. The Impact could only manage nonthreatening shots from distances ranging from 20 to 40 yards, and only Joey Gjertsen put a shot on goal, and it was an easy save for Chris Eylander.

Things livened up in the second half, as was to be expected with Montreal weary from their third match in six days and holding a long injury list. Seattle's Sébastien Le Toux won a ball in the penalty area early in the half and laid off a nice drop pass to Roger Levesque, but Levesque missed badly from close range and was left holding his head. Graham got another header from an O'Brien corner kick, but again failed to aim it under the bar. O'Brien worked a nice give and go with Josh Gardner, who rounded the corner on the left for a great drop cross to the corner of the goal area, but O'Brien wasted the chance wide and was left holding his head. At 58' O'Brien served to Levesque on a run up the middle, but his shot lacked pace and was an easy first save for Andrew Weber.

59' MON: Donatelli (Gjertsen). Against the run of play, Montreal's goal seemed too easy. Near the left corner, Gjertsen's feint fooled two Sounders defenders to set up the cross. At the far post, Donatelli was left unmarked to easily nod it in. 1-0 Montreal.

62' SEA: Kante. Seattle came back quickly. Weber came out for Gardner's outswinging cross, but it had too much bend and Weber could only get his fingertips on it. Kante's first shot was stopped by Alex Surprenant, but Kante collected the rebound goal side of Surprenant with a huge target to aim for. Weber could only get a slight touch on the ball as it found the back of the net. 1-1.

69' MON: Ribeiro. A poor sideways clearance attempt by Zach Scott put the ball in front of Ribeiro to the left side of goal. Ribeiro made no mistake with the gift, hitting the large target available to him. 2-1 Montreal.

Only one good chance was in the cards for each side in the remaining 20 minutes. For Montreal in the 87th, substitute Peter Byers fired inches wide from 20 yards after being gifted with a bad Seattle square pass in their own end. For Seattle at 90', Kevin Sakuda got a chance from 18 yards running in from the right but fired two yards over the top near corner.

In the end, the Sounders payed the price for a night of poor offense and poor defense.

Statistics:
          Seattle    Montreal
Shots:       11         9
Saves:        2         2
Corners:      3         3
Fouls:        8        10
Offsides:     0         1

Misconduct:
43' MON: Ribeiro cautioned
90' MON: Braz cautioned
90' SEA: Graham cautioned

Referees: Alejandro Mariscal; Jeff Hosking, Jeremy Hanson; Scott Lawrence

Attendance: 2,539