SEATTLE - After a humbling four-game winless streak to start the season and a draw earned on prayer as much as prowess last weekend, the Seattle Sounders came into Saturday’s match with the Philadelphia Union with one mission.
Move out of the basement.
They did that and perhaps a bit more at CenturyLink Field, earning a 2-1 win over the visiting Philadelphia Union that extended their unbeaten streak to three games and offered some promise there could be more to come in the weeks ahead.
“The guys were hungry tonight to bang away some goals,” center back Brad Evans said. “Guys finding the ball in the right spot were the key tonight … we’re at home and we got to prove ourselves at home and step out. That’s the name of the game at home.”
The Sounders’ second straight home win boosted the team ahead of both Vancouver Whitecaps FC and the Houston Dynamo in the Western Conference standings, the first time all season the Sounders have been anywhere but last place.
The accolades largely went to veterans Chad Marshall and Andreas Ivanschitz as well as celebrated rookie Jordan Morris, who scored the cathartic first goal of his MLS career in the 71st minute in front of nearly 40,000 fans.
Marshall scored for the second straight game – he’s now the Sounders’ leading scorer in MLS play this season with two goals – and Ivanschitz picked up two assists, running his total to three over the Sounders’ unbeaten run in April.
Marshall’s two goals are half of his career high of four, matched twice while he played with the Columbus Crew SC in 2008 and 2009. Marshall and the Crew won the MLS Cup in 2008, when Marshall scored five goals across the regular season and playoffs.
“When he scored the first one [on April 10 against Houston] I told him, ‘Let’s get five this year,” said head coach Sigi Schmid, who coached Marshall in 2008 with the Crew. “That’s the same as when we won the Cup.”
The Sounders also generated a season-high 19 shots against the Union, who were knocked down to 10 men early in the second half after the second of two yellow cards to midfielder Roland Alberg. While Sounders players were keenly aware they had no means losing this one after building a 2-0 lead on a shorthanded Union side, there was also no mistaking another sigh of relief after their second straight win at home in the most comprehensive performance of the season.
“The unbeaten streak is good for us. We’re happy about that,” said Ivanschitz, who delivered the corner kick to Marshall’s head in the 41st minute before looping an assist over the top to Morris in the second half. “The way we started the game wasn’t good at all … but after the first 20 minutes we played good. And in the second half, the game opened for us, but we should have scored more goals today.”
The Sounders certainly had their chances, in no small part to some tweaks in the lineup that saw more speed and more potent counter attacks. Youngster Oalex Anderson earned his first career start in place of veteran Nelson Valdez and Morris and Ivanschitz nearly scored multiple times, a welcome sign that one of MLS’ most frustrating offensive groups was finally coming to life.
“We talked about getting behind the defense more, trying to use the speed that Jordan and Oalex provide for us,” Schmid said. “We wanted to exploit that. We thought they played a high line and we could get behind them … it was mainly trying to take advantage of our quality versus the quality they had.”
Anderson ultimately logged 62 minutes in his first start and while he failed to register a shot for just the second time in his five appearances this year, he flustered the Union back line and gave the Sounders a different look that paid dividends.
“I was scared,” Anderson said. “I was really scared. But everybody’s human at the end of the day, and it’s who wants it more. And I plan to go out there and do my best, play to the best of my ability. I’ll do the work and do whatever my teammates want me to do.”
The Sounders will return to action on the road at the Colorado Rapids on April 23.
“I still think we need to play better,” Evans said. “Ask anyone around this locker room and the play needs to get better, we need to get more fluid, we need to get more guys behind the ball … We’re defending well when we need to, but we can make it easier on ourselves.”
