2003 Jun 28

El Paso Patriots  0 - 2  Seattle Sounders
Sun Bowl, El Paso, TX

Goals:
15' SEA - Scott (Gregor)
54' SEA - Sakuda

El Paso: Scott Alexander; Sidnei dos Santos, Hamlet Diaz, Carlos Martinez; Laurenco Andrade (Jose Abarca 77'), Pablo Cabrera, David de la Torre (Enrique Cervantes 57'), Ahmed Figueroa (Javier Carrazco 55'), Omar Mora (Junro Narita 17'); Mike Griego, Tim Pierce (Victor Arreola 63').

Seattle: Rich Cullen; Danny Jackson, Zach Scott, Kevin Sakuda, Scott Jenkins; Jason Farrell, Andrew Gregor, Alex Bengard, Viet Nguyen (Chad Brown 73'); Marco Velez (Herculez Gomez 63'), Kyle Smith.

Match report from the Seattle Sounders:

Seattle's defenders got offensive and the Sounders blanked the El Paso Patriots, 2-0, Saturday at the Sun Bowl in El Paso.

Two weeks ago the teams played to a scoreless draw through 110 minutes. Seattle took care of that early in the second meeting.

The Sounders, with 25 points in 13 matches, came out attacking, creating four corner kick opportunities in the first 15 minutes of play. On the fourth corner kick midfielder Andrew Gregor lined the ball from the left corner and defender Zach Scott headed the ball in from the top of the six yard box. The goal is the first of the season for Scott, who gave himself an early birthday present. The Haiku, Hawaii native celebrates his 23rd birthday Wednesday.

The story was the same to start the second half. The Sounders were awarded three more corners in the first ten minutes of the half. As a result, the ball was in front of the Patriots goal. Sounders defender Kevin Sakuda picked up a loose ball 25 yards out and dribbled to the top of the penalty box. From 16 yards out he chipped the ball over Patriots keeper Scott Alexander, just under the crossbar, at the right post. Like Scott in the first half, Sakuda's goal was his first of the season.

Most  of the second half was played with a thunderstorm lighting up the sky northwest of the Sun Bowl. But no rain fell and the match continued without interruption.

El Paso, with 20 points in 15 matches and in second place in the A-League's Midwest Division, underwent a coaching change earlier in the week. Head coach Fernando Gutierrez left the team to attend to family business back in Mexico.  Assistant coach Jesus "Chuy" Enriquez replaced him on the Patriot's bench.
    
The Sounders travel to the upper Midwest for two games over the 4th of July weekend. They play at Minnesota Friday then visit Milwaukee Saturday. The Sounders return home Wednesday, July 9th to play host to the Calgary Storm at Seahawks Stadium.

Statistics:
         El Paso   Seattle
Shots:      11        10
Saves:       2         2
Corners:     1        11
Fouls:      11        16
Offsides:    3         4

Misconduct:
none

Referees: Darren Engers; Michael Brow, Jeff Kattawar; Gibby Widner.
Attendance: 575