New York Red Bulls Steal One from Seattle Sounders

If you just looked at the stat sheet after the match, you would have thought that the Seattle Sounders FC won by two or three goals, and that the New York Red Bulls were a frustrated squad committing 22 fouls in the match.

New York’s Macoumba Kandji was left unmarked in the center of the penalty area and placed a perfect shot off the underside of the crossbar to help his team sneak out of Qwest Field with a 1-0 win.

Sounders FC took 17 shots and could not find the inside of the net once in a match. Seattle led in all of the statistical categories at the end of the match which brought a sense of frustration to the team after the match.

“It's frustrating, we're all extremely frustrated but I don't think you can fault the guys' effort,” said goalkeeper Kasey Keller after the match.

No one is questioning the effort of the men in green, but there were a total of 34 free kicks and corner kicks in the match, and with just the run of play there should have been a goal scored.

“We had a ton of corners, we had a ton of free kicks, we need to be more effective on those things so that's something we've got to make sure we go to the training ground and make sure we become more effective on that,” Sounders FC coach Sigi Schmid commented. “I'm not displeased with our effort, I'm not displeased with our ability to get forward, but I am displeased with our ability to finish."

Sounders FC should expect physical matches on most match days, and it does not get any easier making their shortest trip of the season to MLS Cup champs Real Salt Lake.

Real Salt Lake played Seattle physical in the last campaign, and with the failures on set pieces Saturday night, you can expect RSL to have the same game plan as the Union and Red Bulls have opened with this season against the Rave Green squad.