Sounders Header August 11, 1996

New York Fever 0 - 1 Seattle Sounders 
    (halftime  0 - 0)


Leonetti  (S)  81'
by Seattle PI via Mark Coker:
The Seattle Sounders broke a three-game losing streak as Joey Leonetti scored his third goal of the season in the 81st minute, leading the Sounders past the New York Fever 1-0 at Barrett Stadium.

The win was the Sounders' first since a 3-0 thrashing of Colorado July 20 in Seattle. With the win, Seattle (10-10, 24 points) moves into a tie for third place in the league table with idle Vancouver. Seattle increased its lead over New York to six points for the fourth and final A-League playoff spot, with seven games to play.

On the scoring play, Seattle's Dick McCormick carefully split the Fever defense after making a hard 16-yard run. He passed to Leonetti, who chipped over the outstretched arms of Fever goalkeeper Khalil Azmi. The chip, from just outside the 18-yard box, was Leonetti's second goal against New York this season. The assist was McCormick's first this year.

Sounder goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann registered his eighth shutout of the season.

"I am very relieved by this result," said Sounders player-coach Neil Megson, who substituted 18-year-old rookie wunderkind Justin Stoddard for himself in the 52nd minute. "We've been playing too damn hard to keep coming up short."

Each of the first two matches between Seattle and New York had gone to shootouts, with Seattle losing the first at New York and winning the second in Seattle on July 5.

The New York match concludes a grueling 10-day road trip for Seattle. The Sounders lost to Rochester in regulation on Aug. 3, had their Aug. 7 match at Atlanta postponed by a soon-to-be-announced ownership change, and lost to Montreal in a shootout Friday night.

The Sounders return to Memorial Stadium on Wednesday to face Rochester at 7:05 pm.

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