June 4, 1997

Seattle:  Hudock; James, Watson, Jenkins; Stoddard, Gelvezon (Barton 69), Hoggan, Aunger; Enneking (D'Onofrio 46), Gailey (Sibiya 61), Adair.

San Jose:  Liner; Doyle, Draguicevich, Onalfo, Cruz; Kinnear, Medved, Urbanyi, Lewis; Sullivan (Martin 81), Baicher.

Cautions: Watson (S), Draguicevich (SJ), Lewis (SJ)

Shots: Seattle 9, San Jose 13
Saves: Hudock 6, Liner 3
Corners: Seattle 7, San Jose 3
Fouls: Seattle 18, San Jose 15
Offside: Seattle 4, San Jose 1

Attendance: 6601

Ron Stickney writes:

In an exhibition match born from the A-League/MLS agreement, the A-League Seattle Sounders played the MLS San Jose Clash to a scoreless draw and then beat the Clash in the Crapshootout.  A season high 6,601 fans attended the match, which was broadcast live on Fox Sports Northwest TV.  The match was quite enjoyable for a 0-0 tie, with both teams showing skill often on the attack, and nearly always on defense.  Seattle used a 3-4-3 lineup as in last match, while San Jose used 4-4-2.

5 minutes into the match, San Jose coach Laurie Calloway nearly saw his worst fear come true - injury to a starter in an exhibition match.  Defender John Doyle had to head a dangerous cross from Seattle's teenager Justin Stoddard over the end line.  On the ensuing corner kick, Doyle came flying into his goalkeeper Tom Liner just as Liner punched away the dangerous serve from David Hoggan.  Doyle crashed hard to the ground and stayed there in pain.  The match was stopped and after a few minutes Doyle picked himself up and made it clear he would continue play, much to the relief of Calloway I'm sure.

The first good shot came at 18' when Seattle forward Mike Gailey headed a short chip from Mike Enneking on goal from 15 yards, but Liner was home to grab the shot.

Istvan Urbanyi took San Jose's first threatening shot 4 minutes later, a 35 yard low shot from in front of the goal, forcing Dusty Hudock to dive and push it wide for a corner kick.  Eddie Lewis' corner kick was cleared, but the ball came back to Lewis, who crossed low across the goal mouth, just out of reach of both Hudock coming off his line and a
sliding Jeff Baicher.  At 34' Baicher's 25 yard shot was on goal but caught by Hudock.

At 36' rookie Sounder back Scott Jenkins ran onto a clearance of a Hoggan free kick and shot hard from 20 yards, but just missed the upper left corner.

San Jose put the frighteners on Seattle late in the first half.  At 43' Seattle forward Mike Enneking was under no pressure but passed the ball right to all alone Clash defender Arnold Cruz, whose 35 yarder just missed the far post.  At 45' Seattle nearly scored from another Hoggan corner kick, but Chugger Adair's close in header was deflected out by his marker.  From the next corner kick, San Jose launched a counter attack in injury time that ended with a 30 yard blast by Urbanyi, just barely over the bar.

To start the second half, Sounder newcomer Carmen D'Onofrio came on for Enneking at the forward position.  23 year old D'Onofrio recently played indoor for the NPSL Edmonton Drillers, finishing second in the voting for NPSL Rookie of the Year to ex-Sounder Jason Dunn.  Later in the second half we would see Sipho Sibiya of the Vancouver 86ers come on for Gailey and 1995 Sounder Kieran Barton (remember The Shot against Vissel Kobe?), who has been playing since '95 for the USISL Spokane Shadow, would come on for Paul Gelveson.  San Jose's only substitution would be Tim Martin for Chris Sullivan at 81'.

A minute into the second half, Gailey's one touch cross to the far post was chased down by Gelveson, who stretched to get some of the ball for a shot from 10 yards, but not enough of it to put it on goal.  A few minutes later D'Onofrio pushed a nice ball past the defense for Gailey, but a sliding Clash defender sent the ball over the end line just before
Gailey could shoot.

At 52' Hudock came 15 yards off his line to punch away a dangerous cross from Baicher.  Eddie Lewis saw his 25 yard free kick knocked down by Hudock, then grabbed.

From a Seattle counterattack, Gelvezon's 15 yard shot to the near post was caught by Liner.

At this point the skies opened up and poured down on the players for 15 minutes, then the rain stopped for the remainder of the match.

At 65' ex-Sounder Shawn Medved's threatening cross from the right corner was caught by a sliding Hudock.  The next minute Urbanyi took another fine shot, caught at the far post by Hudock, sliding again.  At 77' Stoddard tripped a Clash attacker just outside the corner of the penalty area, but Baicher's free kick was well wide.  In the final minute
substitute Tim Martin headed on goal from a long cross, but Hudock was there for the catch.  Hudock was definitely man of the match on this evening.  Hudock has now allowed one goal in the last 7 matches, and that goal was deflected by a Sounder defender.

I would have been satisfied to call it an evening at this point.  Both teams played well much of the match, both had a few good chances, and major mistakes were very rare for both sides.  Even the referees made very few questionable calls, catching, as Mark Coker pointed out, most of Doyle's fouls!  The honorable course of action would have been to let the teams walk off the pitch with a well played, albeit scoreless, draw.  But this is US pro soccer, so ...

Seattle won the CrapShootout 2-1:

San Jose                        Seattle
------------                    ------------
Medved     0 (hit crossbar)     Hoggan     0 (hand save)
Baicher    0 (wide left)        James      1
Martin     0 (wide right)       Adair      0 (body save)
Lewis      1                    Aunger     1
Kinnear    0 (wide right)