2010 Aug 25 2010 Aug 25
Qwest Field, Seattle, WA
Goals:
41' MON: Neri Cardozo (Jesus Zavala)
58' MON: Aldo de Nigris (Neri Cardozo)
Seattle: Kasey Keller; Leo Gonzalez, Jeff Parke, Patrick Ianni, James Riley; Alvaro Fernandez (Roger Levesque 73'), Osvaldo Alonso, Nathan Sturgis (Mike Seamon 67'), Sanna Nyassi; Fredy Montero, Blaise Nkufo (Nate Jaqua 46'). Substitutes not used: Terry Boss, Taylor Graham, Tyson Wahl, David Estrada.
Monterrey: Jonathan Orozco; Sergio Perez, Jose Maria Basanta, Hiriam Mier, Miguel Morales, Ricardo Osorio; Neri Cardozo (Sergio Santana 70'), Jesus Zavala, Osvaldo Martinez (Luis Perez 81'); Dario Carreno, Aldo de Nigris (Humberto Suazo 75'). Substitutes not used: Juan de Dios Ibarra, Severo Meza, Pierre Ibarra, Duilio Davino.
Match report from Ron Stickney:
The Seattle Sounders dropped their first home match in the CONCACAF Champions League group round 0-2 to Mexico's Monterrey, the group favorite. As in the previous match, the Sounders had more chances but failed to finish them. A Sounders goal in the 90th minute was erased by an incorrect offside call.
The opening kickoff play found Nathan Sturgis open running up the middle and he shot, but a defender did well to step up and block it. The other central midfielder, Osvaldo Alonso, had his chance ten minutes later from a cleared corner kick but he rocketed it a few yards over the bar. A minute later Blaise Nkufo fired quickly from 25 after being gifted with a turnover and he missed high and wide.
After weathering the first 15 minutes, Monterrey were suddenly dangerous when a cross into the goal area was dealt with by a sliding Jeff Parke, who barely managed to clear it sideways for a corner. Then Aldo de Nigris sent another dangerous cross past the goal mouth and Dario Carreno's slide at the far post was a split second too late to reach it.
Midway in the half Seattle defenders had chances, Parke heading his team's third corner kick a yard over the bar and Leo Gonzalez hammering a shot two yards high from a cleared free kick.
41' MON: Cardozo (Zavala). On a nicely executed attack, de Nigris got the ball in the middle under pressure and sent a nice diagonal pass to Jesus Zavala on the right. Zavala chipped the ball towards goal. Kasey Keller came out and thought he could get the ball on the first bounce, but Neri Cardozo flashed in to head-flick it over Keller and inside the near post. 1-0 Monterrey.
Seattle brought Nate Jaqua on for Nkufo to open the second half. Jaqua soon put Sanna Nyassi in nicely on goal with a through pass. Nyassi got close to goal as goalkeeper Jonathan Orozco came out. Nyassi's shot cleared Orozco's stabbing foot but hit the post squarely. The rebound came back at Nyassi but he couldn't play it on goal.
Two minutes later a Seattle corner kick play ended with Alvaro Fernandez heading on goal to force the first save of the match. A minute later Patrick Ianni got his head on another Sturgis corner kick but couldn't reach enough of the ball.
At 55' Monterrey had their first good chance of the half when Sergio Perez crossed to Carreno for a header that went wide.
58' MON: de Nigris (Cardozo). Monterrey got their insurance goal when Cardozo chipped a ball into the penalty area for de Nigris' timed run that beat Seattle's offside trap. Close to goal, de Nigris shot hard over the collapsing Keller and into the near side. 2-0 Monterrey.
A minute later Osvaldo Martinez fired a rocket from distance and Keller played it over the bar with his fingertips.
Seattle filled the final half hour with scoring chances as Monterrey's defense bent but did not break. Jaqua headed a corner kick down and Orozco made a great save, with Fredy Montero nearly getting a chance at the rebound. Zaqua's next shot was deflected on goal by a defender and Orozco made a tough save. Montero's bender from 35 yards was aimed at the lower corner but Orozco dove for another fine save. Montero put Nyassi in on goal and this time he missed the target with only Orozco to beat.
At 83' Montero's cross in front of goal gave substitute Roger Levesque a diving header, but he hit it right at Orozco. At 86' substitute Mike Seamon worked a give and go with Jaqua for a shot up the middle from 15 yards and Orozco made his best save, stabbing out a foot to block it wide.
At 90' Seattle were robbed of a perfectly good goal by the referee crew. A free kick was taken with all Sounders onside. The ball deflected off a defender's head and went to the far post, where Montero's header was blocked by Orozco and Jaqua netted the rebound. Assistant referee Juan Francisco Zumba incorrectly flagged Montero offside and referee Joel Aguilar failed to wave down the flag.
Seattle's next CCL match will be in Costa Rica at Saprissa on Sep 14.
Statistics:
SEA MON
Shots: 17 7
Saves: 1 6
Corners: 12 5
Fouls: 15 15
Offsides: 3 8
Misconduct:
32' MON: Zavala cautioned for clocking Fernandez after the ball was gone
36' MAR: Cardozo cautioned for getting Nyassi from behind
52' SEA: Jaqua cautioned for a tactical foul
Referees: Joel Aguilar (El Salvador); William Torres, Juan Francisco Zumba; Jair Marrufo
Attendance: 22,513
Postmatch Quotes
Seattle Sounders FC
Head Coach Sigi Schmid
General comments: "I don't think we played that poorly. I thought we created some chances. In final passes, final through plays, they were more clinical than we were; they finished their chances well. Sanna would be making a lot of money right now if he could finish his chances. We had him in twice, we had Seamon in naked, we scored a good goal at the end. I don't know what the call was because Montero was not offsides, I just watched the replay, and neither was Jaqua because he was behind the ball. I don't know what the call was there. You'll have to ask the referees. It's what we do in the final thirds. Sometimes we get a little too small with our passing. We get too tight; we have to open it up a little bit. Overall, I thought in terms of moving the ball up the field, I thought we did a good job. I thought we created things. Certainly we don't have to hide."
On margin for error now: "It all depends on how the group goes. You have to see what the result is of the other games. You never know. It can sometimes be less or more, but obviously it's disappointing to lose at home, especially in game where we probably played well enough that we could have gotten more. It is what it is, so we have to accept the reality and deal with it."
On Monterrey's forwards: "For sure their forwards make a lot more money than our forwards do. The finishing is something that we work on all the time in training, but if guys clinically finish, they probably wouldn't be playing with our team right now. We had some good opportunities. Montero had a good shot and the goalkeeper made a good save. The goalkeeper kicked his leg out and made the save on Seamon's shot. Some days it goes like that. We'll continue to work on finishing, on shooting, on goals in tight, it's something that you practice all the time."
On Montero: "At times they collapsed around him fairly well and took away his time and space a little bit. I don't think we got enough movement to him where he can play the ball away quickly enough. It's a matter of whether he's taking an extra touch because he doesn't have the option or does he need to play it a bit sooner. They certainly collapsed around him and make it difficult for him to play. They did a good job that way."
On Monterrey's goals: "The second goal was one where I think it was close and he was on probably on, but I thought we made a mistake by trying to trap. We should have stayed with him. It's a little similar for the first goal where, even though the ball got deflected, you think it's going one way and you take a step that way and now you lose the guy by a step. We talked about it before the game to make sure you run with players and that you're honest and run with your guys. We were a step behind on the first one and stepped up to trap when we shouldn't have on the second one."
On substitutions: "Blaise and I and Nate had talked about it (split of playing time). We said that we would go Blaise 45 today and go Jaqua 45 today and try to stay active and fresh up front. We have a lot of games coming up. Chicago on Saturday and then Chivas and then we go to New England. Our next six games are all on turf, so we want to make sure guys get through that stretch."
Fredy Montero
On the way the team played tonight: "We all know that soccer is about who makes the goals and not who tries the most."
On not scoring: "We were very anxious. That anxiety got to us when trying to actually score. They got to us twice and scored."
On looking forward: "It's going to be very difficult but as soon as we can find our rhythm we will be able to convert some goals as visitors and that will allow us to get into the last round."
On the disallowed goal: "The ref saw that I was offside. I saw that the player from the other team actually had touched it with his head. But the ref saw what he saw."
Kasey Keller
On the match: "I think their movement was very good. They caught us off-guard a couple times and we didn't track with runners a couple times and we paid the price for it. At the same time, we created a ton of chances, scored a goal that wasn't offside that got called back, really had chances to put them under pressure at the end of the game and through a bad call and through our own mis-finishing we weren't able to do it. At the same time, I felt comfortable for the most part. I thought defensively we played pretty solid. Like I said, they were just trying to find that little gap and I think they were very fortunate on the first goal. It took a deflection, spun in, hell of a finish. I thought I had him. One of those, 'You're damned if you do, damned if you don't.' ... It was frustrating because I thought we could have gotten something out of this game."
On moving forward: "It's tough. We have got a lot of guys who it's their first chance in this kind of situation. Sometimes you need that little bit of luck. You need that ball to bounce the right way. We had the chances down at Marathón ... Today, same thing. We get an offside call that's not offside. Sometimes when you get that little bit of stuff going against you it's hard to pull yourself out of it. This game is over. We didn't come away with any injuries. I think guys are still pretty fresh and we have a huge game against Chicago on Saturday that would be a great time to bounce back and forget all about this game."
On Saturday's match against Chicago: "We are playing against a team that is hoping to make a run for the playoffs. We have put ourselves in that run and now we always said we had a great nine game streak unbeaten. We have now lost a couple in a row, granted in an interesting competition, away in Honduras and against, on paper, the best team in the group. Like I said, it's easy to just wipe that clean and go, 'OK, now we are back in MLS and now we get back to winning games like we have been for the past eight weeks.'"
Monterrey
Head Coach Victor Manuel
On his general impressions of the match: "It was a well disputed match from the start all the way til the end. In the beginning we had to adapt to the pitch. Little by little we adapted to the circumstances. We were able to capitalize on some good opportunities. We adapted better in the second half, made use of space the Sounders left for us."
On the Sounders offering more resistance than anticipated: "No doubt, the Sounders are a very good team. They are well organized and very strong. It was important to take the game serious or else we could have been hurt."
On the game plan for Monterrey: "The team took match with strong responsibility, the concentration was strong from the start all the way until the end. We adapted to the pitch and the crossing game the Sounders practice."
On the chances to advance to the next round: "I believe it was an important step, but nothing is in stone. We have to continue play seriously and to advance to the next round we have to play like we did tonight."
On being outshot by the Sounders: "The Sounders started pressing and with them playing at home they understand the pitch. We missed a few early opportunities and with some cases a few shots on goal. We know that in soccer it isn't always about how many shots one team takes but the quality of shots. It is not always about the possession but about the effectiveness.
On maintaining Fredy Montero: "Fredy Montero is a very important player. We have a very balanced team and our defense is very solid and adapted to the characteristics of the player."
