Seattle Keeps Salsa Offense Silent : Soccer: The Sounders win, 1-0, as the expected goal rush turns into a defensive struggle.
The top four goal-scorers in the American Professional Soccer League took the field at Titan Stadium on Sunday night, but it turned into a defensive duel instead.
The Seattle Sounders handed the Salsa its first loss in five matches at home, 1-0. The victory solidified Seattle’s hold on first place with 96 points and dropped the Salsa into third with three games left in the regular season. Seattle is 11-6; the Salsa is 9-8.
Montreal moved into second place with 83 points. The Salsa now has 81.
Jason Dunn scored the match’s only goal in the 44th minute on an assist from his brother, James. The Salsa’s one-two punch of Paulinho and Paul Wright were shut out, as was the Sounders’ Chance Fry. Wright had two shots on goal and Paulinho one. Fry had none.
“There was a lot of hype coming in about the scorers, but those kinds of things never seem to materialize the way you think they will,” Salsa General Manager Rick Davis said. “When you get down to it, it was a solid effort defensively by both teams. Seattle did a good job of keeping our top two goal-scorers at bay all night.”
Davis was disappointed his team couldn’t capitalize on its five scoring chances.
“We had a couple of good chances in the first half, but when we did strike the ball well, it was getting blocked,” Davis said. “And it was just one of those nights when we didn’t play that well.”
Paulinho, the APSL scoring leader with 23 points, gave the credit to an aggressive Sounder defense. “I had very little space to move around,” he said. “Seattle is a team that marks very close, and I just didn’t have the kind of space I need to work. They play hard, and they mark hard.”
Salsa goalkeeper Mike Littman called Dunn’s goal, his ninth of the season, “a good, clean one.”
“We had our shots, too, but we just couldn’t get them in tonight,” Littman said. “I guess that’s soccer. I still think we’re two equal teams. I still don’t think they’re superior to us. They just got their goal tonight and we didn’t get any.”
The Seattle victory gave the Sounders a 2-1 advantage in the three matches between the two teams this season. Each team had won earlier games at home.
Jason Dunn felt the victory would be a big boost to his team the remainder of the way.
“It feels good to come in here and win one this way,” Dunn said. “We needed it with them as close as they were to us.”
It was a disappointing loss to Davis. “If we could have gotten a win it would have made us pretty even,” he said. “Seattle winds up getting seven points tonight and we don’t get any. It makes it a lot tougher for us now.”
Hugo Perez, the U.S. World Cup midfielder who signed Friday to play the remainder of the 1994 season with the Salsa, did not play against Seattle but is expected to play Saturday against Vancouver.
Perez is on loan to the Salsa from the U.S. Soccer Federation. He is a 10-year veteran of the national team. He was U.S. Soccer’s male athlete of the year in 1991.
Davis said he is confident Perez will strengthen the Salsa the remainder of the season and into the playoffs if the Salsa qualifies as one of the top four teams.
“He gives us a lot of experience and can complement our other top goal-scorers,” he said.
Salsa Notes
Salsa defender Jeff Agoos played for the U.S. national team in its match against England on Wednesday at London’s Wembley Stadium. England won, 2-0. It was the first match for the U.S. team since the World Cup. Agoos missed the team’s home match last Sunday against Toronto, but was back for Sunday night’s match against Seattle. Agoos played several seasons for the national team before signing with the Salsa for the 1994 APSL season.
