2003 Apr 19

Preseason:
Seattle Sounders  1 - 4  Vancouver Whitecaps
Civic Stadium, Bellingham, WA

Goals:
14' SEA - Nguyen (O'Brien)
44' VAN - King (Shannon)
65' VAN - Kindel (Gbeke)
87' VAN - Jordan (Kindel)
89' VAN - Gbeke (Jordan)

Seattle Starters: Preston Burpo; Danny Jackson, Scott Jenkins, Kevin Sakuda; Sean Henderson, Leighton O'Brien, Andrew Gregor, Viet Nguyen, Sean Michael Callahan; Jason Farrell, Kyle Smith. Substitutes who played: Alex Bengard, Darren Sawatzky, Ben Somoza, Greg Foisie, Matt Hulen.

Vancouver Starters: Alex Marques; Nick Dasovic, Nico Craveiro, Kevan Cameron; Tiarnan King, Oliver Heald, Steve Kindel, Alfredo Valente; Niall Thompson, Charles Gbeke, Musa Shannon. Substitutes who played: Craig Robson, Jason Jordan, Alex Haddow.

Match report by Ron Stickney:

The Seattle Sounders met the Vancouver Whitecaps halfway in Bellingham for a preseason match. The Sounders scored early, but couldn't find net again. The Whitecaps scored four, the last two in the closing minutes as Seattle were pushing up looking for a goal. The match was unusual in that two Whitecaps forwards (Niall Thompson and Musa Shannon) were sent off in the middle of the match, but Sounders coach Brian Schmetzer let Vancouver send in a substitute for each red card to keep the Whitecaps at full strength.

The Sounders had a few newcomers in the starting lineup. Danny Jackson played sweeper, Kevin Sakuda was right back, and Sean Michael Callahan was outside mid along with Viet Nguyen. Kyle Smith and Jason Farrell started up top. The Whitecaps started newcomers Musa Shannon and Charles Gbeke up top.

Callahan was impressive out of the starting gate, taking three good shots in the first ten minutes, and he was unlucky to not get a goal.

14' Nguyen (O'Brien). The first corner kick of the match was taken from the left side by Leighton O'Brien and curled to the far edge of the goal area, where Nguyen hammered the ball with great velocity across the goal mouth behind goalkeeper Alex Marques. The ball appeared to hit the far post, rebound into Marques' behind, and carom into the back of the net.

44' King (Shannon). Shannon backheeled a pass from the right corner for Tiarnan King, who chipped a long ball that bent over goalkeeper Preston Burpo and caught the base of the far post, bouncing in for a goal.

Alex Bengard entered for Seattle at the break and had a couple of early chances from 10 yards on the left, but missed the target with both.

65' Kindel (Gbeke). A long ball was sent in the air from Vancouver's half to the spot, where Charles Gbeke won the battle in the air and dropped the ball to a wide open Steve Kindel in the arc. Kindel blasted a powerful shot straight over the top of Burpo's head for the go-ahead goal.

87' Jordan (Kindel). Gbeke took a pass in the penalty area and fed it to Kindel deep on the left. Kindel sent a low cross through the goal area past Burpo and Jason Jordan beat his marker to the ball for an easy tap in.

89' Gbeke (Jordan). With Seattle pushing up on offense, they got caught 2 v 1 on a counterattack. Jordan drew the defender to the left and rolled a cross to Gbeke at the top of the arc. With no defender pressuring, Gbeke calmly put a low ball past Burpo and into the net.

Statistics:
        Seattle  Vancouver
Shots:     18       10
Saves:      2        7
Corners:    4        1
Fouls:     10       13
Offsides:   3        3

Misconduct:
34' VAN - Shannon cautioned for diving in the wall before a free kick.
36' SEA - O'Brien cautioned for his role in a pushing match.
38' VAN - Thompson sent off for taking Callahan down with excessive force.
48' VAN - Shannon cautioned for throwing an elbow and sent off for his second caution.
58' VAN - Haddow cautioned.

Referees: Sandy Hunt; Eric Knudsen, Josh Wilkins.
Attendance: about 1,500