Seattle ends training camp undefeated with Fredy Montero, David Estrada and Mauro Rosales leading the way over Mexican side.
CANCUN, MEXICO - Despite a change of venue on Wednesday afternoon complicating matters, Sounders FC (4-0-2) defeated Atlante FC, 5-2, at the Atlante FC training field. On the day of the match, the venue was moved from Estadio Andres Quintana Roo to the Atlante training field. Fredy Montero led the way with a brace, while David Estrada continued his excellent play in the preseason with a goal and assist, and Mauro Rosales picked up two assists.
In the 12th minute, the Sounders got things going when Rosales tracked down a loose ball on the right side, sent a low cross into the box to Estrada, who finished past a defender and the keeper.
Just four minutes later in the 16th minute, Alvaro Fernandez headed a mis-cleared corner to the back post where Montero pushed a strong header into the opposite side-netting for the score.
Montero completed his brace on a free kick after Atlante was issued a yellow card in the 54th minute. From 25 yards out, Montero put a right-footed shot over the wall and bent it into the near post, putting Seattle up 3-1.
In the 67th minute, Rosales started a sequence with a low cross to the middle to Estrada, who back-heeled the ball in front of the goal to Christian Sivebaek, who smashed from the left side to the back post from eight yards out.
In the 71st minute, Leo Gonzalez stripped the ball from an Atlante player, brought it up into the box, and finished from 10 yards out to the far upper corner.
Montero and Estrada are now tied with a team-high three goals in the preseason.
Atlante got on the board in the 47th minute after a loose ball in the box by the endline was recovered by an Atlante player and shot inside the far post for a goal. They scored again in the 80th minute when a low free kick from 20 yards out deflected off the wall and past Michael Gspurning.
Seattle almost tacked one on in the 70th minute when Sivebaek flicked a ball over his defender to Rosales, whose shot was stopped by the keeper. Sivebaek one-timed the rebound with a jump kick, but again the Atlante keeper made the save.
Sounders FC remains unbeaten in the preseason. They have now scored multiple goals in their last four games and have scored at least once in all six games.
Mauro Rosales was issued a yellow card in the 42nd minute on a sliding challenge. Moments later, Alvaro Fernandez and an Atlante player were shown red cards. Fernandez was replaced by Sivebaek at the start of the second half.
The team returns to Seattle tomorrow night to resume training and prepare for the annual Community Shield match on Wednesday, February 29, where Sounders FC will host host Mexico's Jaguares de Chiapas on the Xbox Pitch at CenturyLink Field at 7 pm PT. The match is free admission with all donations benefiting the club's community partners.
Scoring Summary
SEA - David Estrada (Mauro Rosales) 12'
SEA - Fredy Montero 16'
ATL - 47'
SEA - Fredy Montero 55'
SEA - Christian Sivebaek (Mauro Rosales, David Estrada) 67'
SEA - Leo Gonzalez 71'
ATL - 80'
Seattle Sounders FC
Michael Gspurning, Adam Johansson (Zach Scott 74'), Jeff Parke (Pat Ianni 81'), Jhon Hurtado, Leo Gonzalez (Marc Burch 72'), Mauro Rosales, Osvaldo Alonso (Servando Carrasco 72'), Brad Evans, Alvaro Fernandez (Christian Sivebaek 46'), Fredy Montero, David Estrada (Sammy Ochoa 74')
Misconduct Summary
SEA - Mauro Rosales (caution) 42'
SEA - Alvaro Fernandez (ejection) 42'
ATL - (ejection) 42'
ATL - (caution) 54'
Weather
Sunny and 81-degrees
Quotes from Head Coach Sigi Schmid
(On the last second changes...) "We're disappointed because the agreement or understanding between ourselves and Atlante was one thing, and today everything sort of changed. From the field to who we were playing, etc. Our expectation is certainly that Jaguares de Chiapas is not going to do that, they're going to be professional, which we know they are. We're just disappointed that the opposition and the circumstances were not as we understood them."
(On how they handled the odd circumstances...) "With everything, our philosophy as a club has been, 'Okay, it is what it is, and now we're going to make the best of the situation.' We were going to go out and make the best of the situation, get our fitness in, play soccer. I thought we did a good job, it's just tough when you know you're better than the opposition. You lose that little bit of four, five percent of concentration sometimes. But overall, I thought our guys did a pretty good job."
(On David Estrada...) "I thought David did well. I thought he showed, he opened the game up for us, made a lot of runs in the corners. I thought he combined well with [Fredy] Montero. He scored a good goal. He was active, he was involved, he held the ball up for us. David's made big strides and I was very pleased with what he did today."
(On Fredy Montero...) "Obviously, he did well. He hit a great free kick, and the header he scored was one where he caught the goalkeeper off the line. It was a great header to the back post. Fredy is always going to get his best fitness by playing games-he loves to play. That's why we kept him on for 90 minutes. He worked and he was active. He showed underneath the way we expect him to, so I was pleased with the things he did. He had a couple good through-balls that set some people up...I was pleased with what Fredy did."
(On the team's fitness...) "It was alright fitness-wise. Again, due to the change in circumstances, we only played a 40-minute second half because there's no lights here. By the time we were informed that they wanted to kick off at four o'clock, we had already had our pre-game meal and a lot of stuff set, so it made difficult to change things. There were guys that got 85 minutes worth of fitness in today, so that's good."
(On what players stood out...) "Christian [Sivebaek] came in and did some decent things. I thought Sammy Ochoa did alright coming in, holding the ball up for us. Adam Johansson had a good spell, when he played I thought he played well...In the second half, they got a goal which we didn't deal well with-we didn't defend well on that particular goal...that sort of re-motivated us for a little bit. Then we got two goals right after that, bang-bang. Like I said, that little five percent edge comes off the game then, so you have to discount a little bit of the second half."
(On evaluating the team two weeks before the first game...) "We're trying to make it the best situation we can. We're hoping, obviously, to have a good crowd attend that game and watch our game next Wednesday, because I know the guys are looking forward to that. I think that'll help put that edge and that motivation there. I'm pleased where we are fitness-wise, pleased with some of the things we've done soccer-wise on the field. I think we've shown when we're supposed to score goals, we have scored goals. I'm just disappointed today that we gave up two because we've been doing a good job of not giving anything up. We have to get back to that next Wednesday."
