Through the first 30 matches of the season, the LA Galaxy have scored six more goals than the 57 netted by Sounders FC. But few could argue that another team has managed more spectacular goals this year than the Sounders, as Seattle has had a player win the AT&T MLS Goal of the Week honors seven times. This week, both Lamar Neagle and Obafemi Martins are finalists for the award.
Part of that can be credited to the open attacking style Seattle aims to play. And with forwards like Martins and Clint Dempsey leading the charge, others have benefited from their creativity in the attacking third.
“We’re a team that is an entertaining team and a fun team to watch. I think our fans like that part of us,” Sounders FC Head Coach Sigi Schmid said. “As a result, when you’ve got individually talented players and a team that’s willing to attack with numbers, you’re going to get good goals.”
The first came in Week 6, when Dempsey took a long-range free kick and blasted it in off the crossbar for his fourth goal in two matches. Later in that game at FC Dallas, he added another goal on his way to earning MLS Player of the Month honors in April.
Over the next two weeks, Martins took the mantle, claiming Goal of the Week honors for his running chip shot to beat Chivas USA in Week 7 and for turning his defender inside out before scoring a right-footed goal against the Colorado Rapids the following week. He would add another stunner in Week 11 with a no-look floater on a first-time flick to beat Jon Busch and the San Jose Earthquakes at CenturyLink Field.
In Week 24, it was Martins again nabbing the vote, commencing a charge of Sounders goals that would win in three out of the next four weeks. He eluded five Portland defenders, including three at the top of the box, to get to one-on-one with Donovan Ricketts, lifting it over the defending MLS Goalkeeper of the Year to power Seattle to victory. The following week, Dempsey finished a Marco Pappa corner kick with a volley, flying through the air to hit a side-winding shot to beat Colorado.
Then in Week 27, Neagle added his own goal to the highlight reel, blasting a left-footed shot from distance into the top corner to beat Real Salt Lake’s Nick Rimando. It was a mirror image of a goal he scored at Rio Tinto Stadium in 2011.
Neagle did it again this week with a long-range shot against FC Dallas, and Martins followed it up with a right-footed rocket of his own against Chivas USA.
“Once goals start going in, then everybody wants a little bit more,” Neagle said. “It’s kind of contagious and other guys want to get in on it and it kind of snowballs.”
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