August 24, 1996

Seattle Sounders  2 - 2  Vancouver 86ers
       (halftime  2 - 2)


Joey Leonetti (Jason Farrell)  (S)  17'
Jason Farrell (Jason Dunn)  (S)  22'
Dominic Mobilio (Mickey Ross)  (S)  35'
Dominic Mobilio (Martin Nash)  (S)  43'

Vancouver: Paul Dolan, Steve MacDonald, Ian Payne, Richie Sumner, Oliver Heald (46' Giuliano Oliveiro), Nico Berg, David Norman, Paul Dailly (75' Doug Muirhead), Martin Nash (82' Carl Valentine), Dominic Mobilio, Mickey Ross.

Cautions:
11' Vancouver: Heald (for tripping McCormick from behind)
16' Seattle: Webber (for tripping from behind)
28' Vancouver: Berg (for taking down McCormick)
68' Vancouver: Nash (for something he said after the referee broke up an altercation)
81' Seattle: Thompson (for a late charge on Dolan after Dolan had cleared a back pass)

Shots: Seattle 17, Vancouver 11.
Saves: Hahnemann 5, Dolan 6.
Offside: Seattle 1, Vancouver 3.
Fouls: Seattle 21, Vancouver 13.
Corner Kicks: Seattle 7, Vancouver 2.

Assistant coach Bernie James played sweeper in place of Neil Megson, who twisted his knee last game and injured his medial collateral ligament. Megson is expected to be out 3-6 weeks.

Vancouver's first threat came in the 2nd when Hahnemann had to push an attempted cross over the bar. Seattle passed well from the start, but their early attacks did not seriously threaten. Leonetti's cross was just over Jason Dunn's head at the near post. Farrell's 30-yard free kick was easily caught near the bar by keeper Paul Dolan. Farrell played a dangerous ball behind the defense, but Jason Dunn had just been hit hard and was still shaking off the effects, failing to make the run.

For the 86ers, Oliver Heald's 20-yarder was just wide left. Mickey Ross tried to volley a cross in close quarters, but his shot was not on goal.

At 28' Farrell got to a deflected ball near the goal line on the left side and chipped a cross over the crowd to the far post, where Leonetti, last week's A-League Player of the Week, skied to send a power header into the upper right corner and put Seattle up 1-0.

Five minutes later Seattle struck again. From a cleared corner kick, Dick McCormick blasted a shot up the middle that was blocked. James Dunn, forward for the corner kick, battled for the loose ball in front of the right post and rolled a pass to his brother, Jason, who shot from ten yards out from the left post. Ian Payne, manning the left post, cleared the ball from the goal line, preventing a Dunn (Dunn) goal, but we settled for a Jason (Jason) goal as Farrell blasted the rebound over Payne and into the top left corner from 15 yards away on the left side.

Seattle's defense could not hold the 2-0 lead. At 35' Ross received a cross that his marker, Billy Crook, had leaped to clear but had missed. With a bit of time, Ross drew Hahnemann to the near post, then crossed to the far post for an onrushing, and unmarked, Mobilio to tap in from 3 yards.

Mobilio struck again at 43' to level the score at 2-2. Heald's cross from the left touch line was redirected by Martin Nash in front of the goal and finished inside the far post by Mobilio, who had again run in unmarked.

After getting their butts chewed out at halftime by coach Megson, the Sounders pressed hard early in the second half and almost got several good chances, but Vancouver's defense held. 12 minutes into the second half Vancouver's Paul Dailly took the first shot of the half, a long shot up the middle that Hahnemann easily grabbed.

Niall Thompson replaced Jason Dunn at 58' and his fresh legs earned him a couple of shots from the left that just missed the far post. At 72' McCormick worked a nice wall pass with Thompson to go one-on-one with Dolan for what we thought would be the go-ahead goal, but when Dolan came out McCormick shot right into him. At 79' Farrell's shot from a free kick was blocked by Dolan.

Ross got Vancouver's last good attempt at 85', but his 15-yard header was caught by Hahnemann.

Seattle outshot Vancouver 10-5 in the second half, but could not find a tie-breaking goal, leaving the game drawn at 2-2 after 90 minutes and bringing on the shootout which is disliked by most fans, including yours truly.

Hahnemann blanked Vancouver in the shootout, saving four attempts after forcing the first shot wide. Only Farrell scored for Seattle to give the home team the shootout win:

Vancouver                       Seattle
------------                    ------------
Valentine  0 (wide left)        McCormick  0 (ball grabbed)
Mobilio    0 (leg save)         Farrell    1
Ross       0 (foot save)        Hoggan     0 (wide right)
Muirhead   0 (chest save)       Bialek     0 (foot save)
Norman     0 (hand save)