Seattle Pitch - Seattle v. Vancouver

July 27, 1996

Seattle Sounders 0-1 Vancouver 86ers

Oliviero  (V)  88'

Seattle: Hahnemann, Webber (Daligcon 78'), Morrill, Megson, Crook, James Dunn, McCormick (Veatch 46'), Farrell, Leonetti (Jason Dunn 46'), Bialek, Thompson
Vancouver: Dolan, Berg, MacDonald, Payne, Sumner, Heald, Norman, Dasovic, Oliviero, Ross, Nash

Cautions: Morrill (34), Webber (34); Nash (80).

From Mark Coker:
Once again, for lack of a finisher, we are shutout. Chewy saved our bacon more than a few times--he had a good match. I've got to believe that the heat is on Megson. If this team is committed to winning, and not just getting a player and a coach for one low price, they're going to need to make some serious changes. I'm not looking forward to playing San Jose in the Open Cup--our cupboard is bare and we're susceptible to any team with a little bit of organization and passion. Vancouver had that--we didn't. They were winning the air balls (even against Webber) and the 50-50 balls. So much so that you'd think _they_ play on the fakegrass.

Those who impressed: Hahnemann
Those who didn't: Thompson

These were three points we desperately needed with a four match road trip coming up. I saw Alan Hinton in the car park after the match. All I could say was "Come back--we need you!"

A match report from Mike Ligot:
Scoring:
1. Vancouver, Oliviero (Ross), 87'
(beat Daligcon for long diagonal through ball, fired low shot past diving Hahnemann)

Unofficial Statistics:
Shots: Vancouver 5 + 10 = 15, Seattle 9 + 7 = 16
Saves: Vancouver 3 + 3 = 6, Seattle 2 + 6 = 8
Corners: Vancouver 4 + 2 = 6, Seattle 4 + 2 = 6
Offsides: Vancouver 0 + 1 = 1, Seattle 1 + 1 = 2
Fouls: Vancouver 3 + 6 = 9, Seattle 2 + 6 = 8
Weather: sunny, 85 F at kickoff; breezy, 75 F at end
Attendance: unannounced, probably the usual 3,000 (I remember two years ago these teams packed 11,000 into a SRO Memorial, and then there were the old Whitecap-Sounder NASL matches that cleared 30,000 -- this rivalry should be drawing a LOT better than three grand)
Referee: Saga-Denang (sp?) (Finally, an A-League referee who let them play! He called the fewest fouls I can remember ever at a Sounder game.)

-- This was a typical Giuliano Oliviero game. He was virtually invisible for 89 minutes, and then puts away his only chance. Go figure.

-- Seattle was trying everything to boost its offense. They just signed midfielder Greg Veatch (NPSL's Kansas City Attack), they started Jason Farrell at forward, they even substituted a midfielder (Nate Daligcon) for a defender (Wade Webber) to get a bigger offensive push. However, the bigger Webber probably would have stopped the through ball to Oliviero that Daligcon couldn't stop, and that cost Seattle the game.