SEATTLE—Prior to the Seattle Sounders’ derby matchup with the Vancouver Whitecaps at CenturyLink Field on Saturday, Sounders midfielder Nicolas Lodeiro shared a pregame prediction with teammate Jordan Morris.
“I told him before the game that he was going to score a goal,” Lodeiro said afterward.
That premonition would prove correct.
Lodeiro found Morris for a diving header past Whitecaps goalkeeper David Ousted in the 81st minute, sending the Sounders to a massive 1-0 victory over their Cascadia Cup foes.
The goal for Morris, his 10th of the season, also marked his fifth game-winner of 2016, vaulting the first-year forward past Cyle Larin (Orlando City) and Damani Ralph (Chicago) for the previous MLS rookie record of four.
“Jordan just has to keep finding his way,” said Sounders interim head coach Brian Schmetzer. “He’s such a hard-working kid that things will go right for him. He has so many good starting points with his size, his speed, his athleticism. He’s going to be successful.
“We still have six games left. He can get more. We’re expecting him to get more.”
Saturday’s victory could prove crucial for the Sounders as they try to use those six games to claw their way into the Western Conference red-line. The win moved Seattle to 10-13-5 and 35 points on the season, vaulting them over both Vancouver and the San Jose Earthquakes into seventh place in the West.
“We needed to get a win today. That was the only acceptable result,” said goalkeeper Stefan Frei. “If we would have tied or lost, it wouldn’t have been it for us mathematically, but it would have been a huge blow to our confidence. At home, we have to win our games for the remainder of the season.”
The performance was also notable for Seattle from a defensive perspective.
After failing to shut out an opponent since a 5-0 thrashing of FC Dallas back on July 13, the Sounders narrowly kept the Whitecaps off the scoresheet on Saturday – thanks in part to some heroic goalkeeping from Frei and a strong showing from recently-returned center back Roman Torres.
“[The defense] was awesome,” Morris said. “Every game they do great. Stef obviously came up huge and Roman and Chad [Marshall] did well to shut out their guys, and [fullbacks Joevin Jones and Tyrone Mears] did great going forward as well. To get the shutout was great.”
