2011 Mar 6

Vancouver reserves best Seattle reserves in Cascadia Summit preseason match

Cascade Summit preseason match:
Seattle Sounders FC  2 - 3  Vancouver Whitecaps
Starfire Stadium, Tukwila, WA

Goals:
6' VAN: Omar Salgado
12' VAN: Russell Teibert
45' SEA: Roger Levesque (Patrick Ianni, Zach Scott)
47' VAN: Camilo Sanvezzo
77' SEA: Miguel Montaņo (Roger Levesque, David Estrada)

Seattle: Terry Boss; Zach Scott, Taylor Graham (David Estrada 45'), Patrick Ianni, Tyson Wahl; Roger Levesque, Servando Carrasco, Erik Friberg (Osvaldo Alonso 76'), Michael Tetteh (Steve Zakuani 76'); Mike Fucito (Lamar Neagle 40'), O'Brian White (Miguel Montaņo 61').
Substitutes not used: Bryan Meredith, Josh Ford, Jeff Parke, Leo Gonzalez, James Riley, Alvaro Fernandez, Pat Noonan.

Vancouver: Jay Nolly (Joe Cannon 45'); Wes Knight (Jonathan Leathers 61'), Greg Janicki, Michael Boxall, Bilal Duckett; Nizar Khalfan (Cornelius Stewart 61'), Gershon Koffie, Alexandre Morfaw (Terry Dunfield 64'), Russell Teibert (Jeb Brovsky 83'); Omar Salgado (Atiba Harris 86'), Camilo Sanvezzo (Long Tan 66').
Substitutes not used: Philippe Davies, Blake Wagner, Bedri Gashi, Kevin Harmse.


Match report from Ron Stickney:

The Seattle Sounders FC lost again in a Cascadia Summit preseason match, gifting the Vancouver Whitecaps with three goals. Taking advantage for Vancouver were Omar Salgado, Russell Teibert, and Camilo Sanvezzo. Seattle came back with goals from Roger Levesque and Miguel Montaņo, but couldn't find a third.

6' VAN: Salgado. Seattle looked good for the first five minutes, but then Taylor Graham badly misplayed a ball, spilling it for Salgado, who claimed the ball and took it into the penalty area before beating Terry Boss with the shot. It was the first shot of the match. 1-0 Vancouver.

12' VAN: Teibert. Teibert was attempting a cross from the left side. Boss dive for it and fumbled it badly, redirecting it into the net. 2-0 Vancouver.

Seattle finally started generating some chances beginning with Michael Tetteh's shot up the middle that bent the wrong way. Erik Friberg's free kick was served nicely to captain Zach Scott at the far post, but his header went right at goalkeeper Jay Nolly and a Vancouver defender put the leftovers out for a corner kick.

A minute later Vancouver had an equally promising chance from a free kick to the far post, and captain Greg Janicki's header flashed just wide. The next chance was Salgado's after he muscled past Graham near goal and fired wide of the far post. Then Sanvezzo's 25-yard blast was saved by a collapsing Boss.

It was bad luck for Seattle at 33' when Mike Fucito pulled up limping after he took off after a pass up the touch line. He might be injured for a substantial period.

45' SEA: Levesque (Ianni, Scott). Seattle got on the board on a corner kick in the final minute of the first half. Friberg's service to the far post was headed back in front of goal by Scott. Patrick Ianni got up to head the ball down to Levesque's feet. Levesque was in the middle of the goal area with his back to goal. He turned on the ball and sent a low shot in. 2-1 Vancouver.

47' VAN: Sanvezzo. Salgado was sprung on the left from a well-timed run. Boss came way out of his penalty area with no hope of getting to the ball first -- a big mistake. Salgado chipped a shot over Boss towards goal. Ianni got there to head the ball back up the middle, but it went right to Sanvezzo, who made his shot with Boss still out of the picture. 3-1 Vancouver.

Seattle soon had plenty of chances. David Estrada, who had entered at halftime, was wide open in the penalty area for a chance, but he skied the unpressured shot. Ianni stole a ball in the middle and advanced to fire a rocket from 30 yards that hit the crossbar squarely. After a scramble from a throw-in play, Levesque fed O'Brian White in the area for a half volley that second-half goalkeeper Joe Cannon saved.

At 67' Levesque nearly scored on a header but Cannon made a great save, and Levesque and Scott collapsed after banging heads on the play.

At 76' Osvaldo Alonso and Steve Zakuani replaced Friberg and Tetteh, livening up Seattle's offense.

77' SEA: Montaņo (Levesque, Estrada). With Levesque playing as the right back in the second half, he was fed by Estrada on an overlap run towards goal. Levesque sent a pass to the center of the 6-yard line, where Montaņo got to it first and finished the goal. 3-2 Vancouver.

Vancouver's defense held strong the remaining 13 minutes plus six, as Seattle did not manage another good scoring opportunity.

Statistics:
          SEA  VAN
Shots:     16    8
Saves:      3    6
Corners:   14    1
Fouls:      8   15
Offsides:   1    4

Misconduct:
10' SEA: Graham cautioned for shirt grabbing
18' VAN: Khalfan cautioned for dissent after being called offside
81' VAN: Cannon cautioned for delay

Referees: Dave Gantar; Darren Clark, Cameron Blair; Drew Fischer

Attendance: 3,100


Postmatch Quotes

Seattle Sounders FC

Adrian Hanauer - General Manager

General thoughts on the summit: "I thought it was a great event as a first effort. Certainly we'll talk about whether it becomes an annual event. We'll obviously do a little debrief this week, but the fans had fun, no real incidents, some good soccer, some good interaction. I thought it went well."

So were you able to sleep well?: "For the off-the-field part, I was able sleep just fine. The on-the-field part still has my stomach in knots, as it would if we had won all these games."

On the summit rotating: "Yeah, I think the initial discussions are based on moving it around from location to location. Again, that's really premature. I've talked with Merritt Paulson a little bit at some of these games about turning this into a cool annual event, but we're far from having it set up that way yet."

Your on-the-field assessment of the weekend?: "Yeah, it was a tough weekend for us obviously. I'm sure Sigi said the same thing, when we gift four goals in two games you're going to have a heck of a time winning soccer games. We need to tighten that up, and we certainly need to, on the other side of the field, we've got things to figure out as well. It may not feel that way right now, but I think we're headed in the right direction, but sometimes the results don't reflect the direction you're headed. Obviously, I've said this before, the proof will be in the pudding as we start the regular season. And just like we said last year when things weren't going well, we said we'd figure it out and we did. We have too many good players and too good of a coaching staff not to get it figured out."

Do you think have difficult decisions to make?: "There's some tough decisions ahead of us. And certainly there are tough decisions getting us to the beginning of the season, and clearly if we can't get it sorted out sooner rather than later there are going to be some more tough decisions around the corner."

Where are you at with the roster in terms of signed players?: "I think we're at 27. We can go up to 30. There's still some maneuvering that we have to do. but it's close. There's not going to be an overhaul before opening day."

Who isn't signed that's still here?: "Well, players that are unsigned right now are the two college goalkeepers that are in camp. Rosales, who has been here with us. Miguel Montaņo doesn't have a contract right now."

What's the status of Rosales?: "We're talking with Mauro and we would like to sign him. We're hopeful that we can get that sorted out, but it'll take a bit. Hopefully this week we can come to some resolution."

Did this weekend's losses feel different against rivals?: "Not to me. It felt like a disappointing weekend of results. Honestly. For us, I know that the rivalry is going to be huge, and it's great. But for us, once it all gets started, three points is three points, a point is a point, a loss is a loss. So, disappointing either way."

Does the weekend raise questions about the group or are you confident in it?: "For sure, we're confident in the group."

Can it be both? Can you be confident but now have more questions?: "Absolutely. And I think that's right. We have a big group, so it raises questions within the group. There are guys who played very well tonight who maybe moved themselves up, whether that's into a starting position or certainly getting closer. And there are players on Friday who maybe didn't play as well. But that's constant, whether you're winning or losing. We'd be raising questions if we had gone through this weekend and outscored teams 5-0, we'd be going through the same process. Certainly it's way more fun to win than to lose, but it's a constant process."

Sigi Schmid - Head Coach

On opportunities: "There were opportunities we needed to capitalize on, and if you guys wait 10 minutes until after the interview, I'll have gifts for everybody since we're handing out gifts to everybody as a team right now. It's disappointing when you give up the goals that we gave up, because I don't think they were goals that were earned to a certain extent. Not to take anything from what Vancouver is doing or their play. Then obviously we had a couple where goalkeepers made good saves on -- the save that Cannon made in the second half, Nolly made one in the first half, we hit the post on one. It's like I said before, maybe we're getting all of this out of our system before the season starts, because it is cyclical. It all ends up evening out at the end of the day, so if we're having a bad run now, we'll have a good run at some other time."

On Levesque's play: Roger did well. He had a goal and an assist tonight. You always know what you get when he steps on the field -- he gives you everything he has and he wears his heart on his sleeve. He gave that to us, and at the point where we made it 3-2, our thought our chances of making it 3-3 were much greater than of going down 4-2. We definitely pushed and we had some opportunities, but again we fell short."

Any update on Fucito?: "When you have an injury like that, he's got a pull of the abductor I think, so you really don't know until the next day. You've got to go about 24 hours and see how much it bleeds or how much it swells, then we'll know the extent of the injury, but we don't think he's torn it or anything like that."

On playing Zakuani and Alonso on one day's rest: "Well (Vancouver) had some guys who played 24 hours after playing a game, so that's not an issue. Those guys could come in. We're still trying to build fitness, we're trying to be smart and not get guys injured, but it was a situation where I thought Tetteh was pretty much done and I thought Friberg had expended a lot of energy as well, so we just wanted to get some fresh legs on."

Any impressions of Salgado?: "He's a good player. He finished his goal well. Again, like I said it was a gift from us but he took advantage of it and buried it. I think he's a talented player. He has a bright future. I've always felt that."

Were the gifts given up out of the ordinary from those guys, according to what you've seen in training?: "It's not something we've seen a lot in training. Obviously Taylor has been a lot more consistent in training that that. Maybe it was just he was out with the injury. Maybe he just hasn't had enough game time or whatever, but it was a bad decision. Goalkeeping wise, Terry Boss has got to do better on the second and third, and Kasey had to do better on the first Friday night. That's something where I know they work hard in training, they make great saves in training. It's one of those things where you just sit there and shake your head. What are you going to do? You continue to train, you continue to work hard. You could get rid of some players or trade some players, but at this stage, I believe in the group we have, I think the group we have sitting in the locker room is a good group, it's a talented group, and I think it's a group that's capable of playing good soccer. Right now we haven't shown it. We've made some woeful mistakes, I think they'll be the first ones to admit that, but they need to step out the next time and show that our belief in the group is warranted."

What did you think of Friberg?: "I thought it was good. His energy is good. He covers a lot of ground. He gets to different parts of the field. I thought Erik played well."

Was this an embarrassing weekend for you?: "No, it's a motivating weekend. It's not embarrassing. Embarrassing would mean that we're going to stick our tail between our legs and we're looking to hide and run away. We're not looking to hide and run away from anything. So if anything it serves as motivation for the next time we play them. So it's a very motivating weekend. It's motivating for us as a staff to continue to get after it and work hard, and it should be very motivating to the players."

Are you concerned with the position you're in?: "Our concern is we still need to get more goals from our forwards. The only forward that scored today was Montaņo. That's something that we still have to show we can do in games on a consistent basis."

Zach Scott

On opportunities: "It was a good play obviously. Friberg and I made contact and I knew exactly what he was looking for. It's something he had done in practice before. I kind of made that peeling off run. It's just one of those things, we've said it all weekend, the opportunities are there, we're just not putting them away. That was just one of those that I should have capitalized on, regardless of being a defender or not you have to finish those chances."

Same feeling about the weekend?: "No, because it's getting to the point where it's turning into an excuse, and that's not what we want it to be. I make no excuses for the way I play. I'll own up to anything that happens on the field and I know every single guy in there will as well. We've just got to turn that corner, period. The biggest thing is being ready for March 15. March 9 is another good opportunity to basically wipe the slate clean, you know? Then again be prepared for March 15. That's the main thing."

What happened on the first goal?: "I guess you could say that about every goal today, not just the first one. Just gifted opportunities. We handed them three gift-wrapped presents and they tucked them away. That's something that we're working hard to create our own chances and not putting those away, and handing teams goals as well, it's frustrating in that sense. Every single player is going to say, 'Hey, that was my fault,' and own up. We're going to get after it tomorrow and be prepared for March 15. That's all that matter at this point."

What about Salgado gave the defense issues?: "I don't know if it's anything specific. He times his runs really well, which is always hard as he's passing in between two defenders. It's tough knowing who has him or not. In that sense I think both of the opportunities where he got in behind us were just well-timed runs. Maybe the back four hadn't played as much as we should've together and then not being sure who marked him."

Is he faster than he appears to be?: "I don't think he's any special speed-wise. I just think his anticipation was pretty good today and that's something we need to clean up ourselves."

On giving up goals early in halves: "It's something we said in our team huddle before we started that half, 'Let's not give up a goal to get in the game again.' We were down two goals in the first half before we even started really stringing it together. It's the same thing in the second half. We gave up one before we really put our foot down and started to get after them as well. It's frustrating."

Time to fix it?: "Absolutely. It's turning into something. We keep saying, 'There's time. We're going to turn the corner. We're going to start putting it away.' But as it gets closer to March 15 it's a little more pressure, but I think everybody in there is ready for it."

Vancouver Whitecaps

Teitur Thordarson - Head Coach

General comments: "They made two mistakes and we managed to score on those but at the same time I think we made some mistakes that gave them a goal so maybe it's quite equal in that way. I think we were good today. I think we played well. We had two players that had played in MLS before."

On Salgado: "He's going to become a good player. He was good all the time. He got a little bit tired in the end, but he was good."

How important was it to score three goals?: "It's always important. Goals change games. That's just how it is and I'm just delighted we managed to score some because in all the games we've been playing in preseason we've created lots of chances. We haven't always managed to score but we've created chances and today we scored some goals and I'm very happy because that gives the team a little more confidence...I have a lot of tough decisions to make because I have a good squad and I was delighted to see the guys play well because that's the best thing they can do to earn a place in the team."