Seattle Sounders 3 - 1 Vancouver 86ers 
Marysville-Pilchuk High School, Marysville, WA
Preseason Friendly

1 SEA: Russell
17 SEA: Russell
55 VAN: Thesenvitz (Sherman)
84 SEA: Russell (Nguyen)

SEA: Preston Burpo (Peter Van de Ven 32, Bill May 60); Bernie James (Jason Annicchero 45), Craig Waibel, Randy Mann; Neil Megson (George Singh 45), Scott Jenkins, Kieran Barton, Troya Cowell (Justin Stoddard 45); Ian Russell, Viet Nguyen, Erik Storkson (Ricci Greenwood 45).

VAN: Jason Bekar (Craig Parmenter 70); Carl Valentine (Patrick Dickinson 60), Geordie Lyall (Cody Barker Greene 65), Tom Hardy (Matt Shepherd 67); Spencer Coppin, Jeff Skinner, Stan Thesenvitz (Rob Csabai 65), Adrian Yeung (Ali Kashfia 45), Niall Thompson; Simon Vickers (Ian Sherman 45), Jason Jordan.
 

In his first preseason match, Ian Russell was sharp with his finishing and came away with a hat trick. Russell scored all of the Seattle Sounders goals while Seattle University’s Stan Thesenvitz scored one for the Vancouver 86ers. Sounders fans got their first look at recently signed midfielder Troya Cowell, who impressed with some nice possession passes. Other new (this match) players trying out for the Sounders were ex-Sounder Kieran Barton and ex-SPU forward Ricci Greenwood.
 
First Half

The opening minute saw 86er back Geordie Lyall cough up the ball in front of the Vancouver bench when lightly pressured by Russell, and it was off to the races for Russell. With a back from the opposite side of the pitch closing in on him, Russell shot from 20 yards. Goalkeeper Jason Bekar got both hands on the ball near his head, but the shot had some bend to it and squirted through Bekar’s hands and into the goal. Bekar, who shut out the Sounders with some fine saves a week earlier, was not happy to have let that one in. Seattle 1 – 0 Vancouver.

Six minutes later Viet Nguyen juked his marker and tested Bekar with a similar shot from the same place, but this time Bekar made the save.

Niall Thompson took Vancouver's first shot at 13 minutes, a free kick from 25 yards up the middle. Thompson had scored from a free kick against the Sounders a week earlier, but tonight his free kicks usually hit the wall.

A Seattle free kick in the 17th led to a goal. The free kick was headed away from goal by Thompson, but Russell first-timed a low 20-yard shot back up the middle and past Bekar. Seattle 2 – 0 Vancouver.

A minute later Vancouver had their first good chance when Jason Jordan beat goalkeeper Preston Burpo to a through ball on the left side and crossed the ball to the far post. Spencer Coppin headed a shot on goal, but Burpo recovered just in time to grab the ball at the bar. Burpo ended up over the goal line, but he kept the ball out of the goal.

The next minute Russell earned his first shot at a hat trick when he shot from 15 yards with only Bekar to beat, but Bekar made a nice one-handed save. Russell gathered the rebound on the right side and crossed to Neil Megson who was on a near-post run, but Megson's header was just over the bar. Kieran Barton sent in a hard shot to the near post from 30 yards, but Bekar slid down and deflected the ball out for a corner kick.

Midway in the half Vancouver nearly got on the board when a Seattle defender headed the ball towards his own goal. Burpo backpedaled and did well to grab the ball at the bar, again ending up with his body over the goal line and the ball held out of the goal.

As in the previous two matches, Megson split the 90 minutes equally between three goalkeepers. Peter Van de Ven came on for the middle third, with Bill May playing the final third.

Megson got his second good chance at a goal when Nguyen took the ball deep into the penalty area on the right and rolled a 45-degree drop for Megson to run onto, but Megson slid his shot just wide of the near post.

In the final minute of the first half Vancouver rookie Simon Vickers beat Van de Ven to a high cross and headed a nice shot at the goal line, but Scott Jenkins raced in and cleared the shot off the line.

Seattle outshot Vancouver 12-3 in the first half, putting every shot except Megson's pair on goal.
 
Halftime: Seattle 2 - 0 Vancouver

Seattle changed four players at the half and Vancouver changed two, and this seemed to change the tide. Vancouver looked better at the start of the half, and indeed netted the next goal at 55'. Thompson sent a ball forward to the arc, targeting substitute Ian Sherman. Sherman, with his back to goal, layed off a short drop and Stan Thesenvitz ran onto it and curled a shot around a defender and inside the far post. Thesenvitz, from Seattle University, had set up the match winner the previous week. Seattle 2 - 1 Vancouver.

For Seattle, Nguyen broke through on the left and crossed for Greenwood, who slipped and fell while trying for a header. This turned out to be an effective dummy play, as Barton was following up and blasted a volley on goal that Bekar did well to knock away.

Vancouver came close to leveling the score. First Coppin's long shot from the left touch line had to be pushed over the bar by May. Then substitute Rob Csabai's 25-yard low shot up the middle went just wide of the left post.

Nguyen broke loose one more time to set up the final goal in the 84th. He dribbled past two defenders and entered the penalty area on the right, drawing substitute goalkeeper Craig Parmenter. Instead of shooting, Nguyen rolled a sweet diagonal pass to his left and into the path of Russell, who scored before Parmenter could recover. Seattle 3 – 1 Vancouver.

Statistics
Shots: SEA 17, VAN 9
Saves: SEA 5, VAN 10
Corners: SEA 4, VAN 4
Fouls: SEA 21, VAN 12
Offside: SEA 2, VAN 0

Misconduct:
63 Singh (SEA) cautioned for a tackle from behind
 
Referee: Kevin Boisen
Attendance: 1,623