Match Twenty

Vancouver
August 19, 1995

SEATTLE 2 - 3 VANCOUVER

Aunger  (V)   '15
Oliviero  (V) '20
Kinnear  (S)  '35
Kinnear  (S)  '38
Oliviero  (V) '80

Attendance: 7,634

The old chemistry is just not there. The line up is in flux and that's a confidence killer. I'm going to post two match reports. One from Ron Stickney who I met at the game, and one from Ken Butler who listened to the match on the radio up in Vancouver.

From: Ron Stickney:
Seattle: #1 Marcus Hahnemann, #19 James Dunn, #2 Wade Webber, #4 Neil Megson, #6 Billy Crook, #20 Marco Rizi, #17 Brian Haynes, #26 David Hoggan (75 #21 Shawn Medved), #24 Dominic Kinnear, #13 Jason Farrell (75 #14 Jason Dunn), #10 Peter Hattrup.
Vancouver: #1 Shepherd, #26 Watson, #16 Doug McKinty, #19 Todd Rattee, #5 Steve MacDonald, #7 Paul Dailly, #6 Jeff Aunger, #17 Giuliano Oliviero, #20 Marty Nash (79 #21 Valentine), #14 Rob Reed (86 #11 ?), #8 Garret Kusch (73 #? Sibiya).

Notes:

Well, the Sounders managed to lose two straight at home this week. Tonight coach Alan Hinton started Peter Hattrup and Jason Farrell as forwards - they usually play as midfielders. The recently acquired midfielders Dominic Kinnear and Brian Haynes played the whole game, with Kinnear heading in both Sounders goals and coming close to a hat trick just before halftime.

Vancouver's rookie Giuliano Oliviero, featured in the current (August 21) issue of Soccer America, pounced on a couple of sitters and aimed his shots well to score the last two goals for the visitors.

14th minute - Out near the center circle, Vancouver's Jeff Aunger spotted goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann off his line, so Aunger sent in a 45-yard shot that went over Hahnemann and under the crossbar. This was the longest goal I've seen this year. Score 0-1.

20th minute - Two opposing players got to a cross simultaneously and the ball was knocked weakly away from goal. Oliviero ran onto the near-sitter and shot it just inside the right post. Score 0-2.

35th minute - James Dunn's throw-in from the right side was sharply headed in on the first bounce by Dominic Kinnear for his first goal as a Sounder. Score 1-2.

38th minute - Peter Hattrup juked two Vancouver defenders and crossed the ball to Kinnear, who again headed it sharply in. Kinnear just missed a hat trick when he headed just wide right four minutes later. Score at halftime 2-2.

61st minute - Garret Kusch got the only yellow card of the match when he slammed into Hahnemann after the keeper caught the ball and was still airborne.

81st minute - I can't remember which 86er shot from close in on the left, but Hahnemann dove and deflected the ball and it settled eight yards out from the right post. Hahnemann was on the ground and the Sounders near the goal line seemed to be leaning the wrong way. Oliviero had time to run in from ten yards away and shoot in the game winner. Final score 2-3.

From: Ken Butler
No, I wasn't there. But I did listen to it on the radio, and, having never written a report based on a radio broadcast before, thought I'd give it a try....

Seattle: Hahnemann; Crook, Megson, Webber, James Dunn; Kinnear, Rizi, Hoggan (Heale 74), Haynes; Hattrup, Farrell (Jason Dunn 74).
Vancouver: Shepherd; Watson, McKinty, Rattee, Macdonald; Dailly, Aunger, Oliviero, Nash (Valentine 78); Reed (Sumner 86), Kusch (Mobilio 71). Yellow card: Kusch 60 (going in too hard on keeper).

The 86ers had not seen much success on Memorial Stadium's plastic in the past -- I remember seeing them go down 3-0 there last season, with at least two of the goals resulting from an inability to deal with crosses -- and this visit showed no signs of being any easier. The visitors saw more of the ball in the first five minutes, but then the home Sounders started to look dangerous (*sound* dangerous :-) ): first, Kinnear, who was destined for a big night, controlled a clearance and fired a shot just high, and then a Hattrup cross to the near post was fumbled out for a corner by Shepherd when he might have fumbled it into the net. But the 86ers came right back, and from a Nash throw-in towards Kusch, Oliviero put a header into the side netting. Then the visitors stunned the crowd: after a Kusch knockdown, Aunger took the ball fully 40 yards out, saw Hahnemann off his line, and had a go -- straight over the keeper's head and into the net! Exactly the start the 86ers had been hoping for, and they started to gain in confidence as the background noise on the broadcast diminished considerably. Then, five minutes after taking the lead, they added to it. Dailly's cross from the right was aimed towards Watson, who couldn't control, but the rebound fell to Oliviero, who continued his impressive scoring rate with a tidy finish.

The Sounders came right back, as one would expect. Haynes had a shot saved right after the goal, and later Dunn got past Nash before shooting wide. Suddenly it was one-way traffic the other way, and new signing Kinnear made his mark on the game with two quick goals, first heading in a long throw, and then finishing off a cross. (My description of the second goal is scanty because the play-by-play man was *reading a commercial* while it was happening, and not paying attention to the game. To be fair, he called a good game generally, and this was the fault of the station rather than him, but it was very annoying nonetheless. I do not plan to visit the car dealership that denied me a proper description of the goal.) Suddenly it was 2-2, the crowd was right back in the game, and the Sounders were in the mood for more, while the 86ers were happy to survive until the break, waiting for a chance to talk about the holes that seemed to be appearing in the defence.

No doubt some ideas were exchanged in the interval, because in the second half, while the Sounders continued to carry the play, their forwards were being more carefully marked, and the good chances were fewer as a result. However, chances at the 86er end there still were. Hattrup showed good control, beat Rattee and forced a good save out of Shepherd, and later Farrell and Kinnear almost fashioned a 2-on-1, but the move ended with the shot going wide. Then a dangerous cross by Kinnear eluded Farrell.

In the middle 20 minutes of the second half, the game quietened down considerably, as the 86ers worked their way back into the game, and much of the play consisted of scrapping for the ball in midfield. Kusch had worked hard up front for little reward, and he was replaced by Mobilio, who got another twenty minutes of action, and coach Valentine brought himself on, hoping to have his usual steadying effect on the team, to make sure of taking home at least one point. The Sounders likewise made changes, bringing the experienced Heale and the speedy but recently-injured Jason Dunn into the game. As it was, within three minutes of Valentine's appearance, the 86ers went back in front. A Dailly cross from the right found Reed, who got a goalward header that Hahnemann saved, but the rebound fell right to Oliviero, who grabbed his second goal of the night. The 86ers had rarely got forward in the second half, but they had defended solidly since half-time, and so the goal was not so much against the run of play as it might appear. Any thoughts of just hanging on for the win were swiftly dispelled as Jason Dunn got off a shot that was well saved by Shepherd, and a spell of Seattle pressure finally ended with a shot wide by Crook after Haynes' cross. But that was all, and at the final whistle, the 86ers had come away with a hard-fought win that strengthens their hold on 3rd place, and {begin rant} would give them a shot at 2nd-place Seattle if the Sounders hadn't won so many crapshootouts {end rant}.

As if three games in four nights wasn't quite enough to be going on with, the 86ers are in action again on Wednesday at home to Colorado, and then travel to Denver for the Friday night return game. (Oh, and the 86ers end the season with a home-and-home against -- the Sounders!)