VANCOUVER - Former Seattle Sounders great Fredy Montero scored two goals in the second half, pacing the Vancouver Whitecaps to a 2-1 victory over Seattle in Friday night’s Cascadia Cup clash between the sides at BC Place.
Substitute forward Will Bruin would pull one back for the Sounders just before the start of second-half stoppage time but the Whitecaps would hold on to seal the result, knocking Seattle to 1-2-3 on the season.
The brace for Montero came in his first match against his former side since he joined the Whitecaps on a one-year loan prior to the start of the 2017 season. The Colombian striker is Seattle’s all-time leading goal-scorer, with 47 goals across 119 appearances to his name during his tenure with the Sounders from 2009-2014.
Seattle had 57 percent of the possession in the first half and a pair of notable opportunities to take the lead but didn’t manage to capitalize on either one.
Clint Dempsey almost gave the Sounders the lead in spectacular fashion the 8th minute after he scorched a shot from distance that rifled past Whitecaps goalkeeper David Ousted and looked headed for the top corner of the net. But the shot would clang off the crossbar and Dempsey was denied the highlight reel goal.
Dempsey tested Ousted with another shot in the 51st minute but the longtime Whitecaps’ backstop laid out to making the diving save and the subsequent rebound attempt from midfielder Nicolas Lodeiro was blocked, keeping it 0-0.
The missed opportunities would prove fatal as Montero would break through for the hosts in the 65th minute after getting on the end of a pinpoint cross from Cristian Techera and heading it by Sounders ‘keeper Stefan Frei, staking Vancouver to the 1-0 lead.
Montero would then double the lead in the 80th, again using his head to finish a feed from defender Kendall Waston, to tally what would prove to be the decisive goal.
Seattle cut the lead in half late after Bruin cashed home a cross from Lodeiro, giving the Sounders a ray of hope that they could potentially salvage what would have been a dramatic draw. But the Whitecaps would to deny the Sounders in a wild final sequence of the match that saw Waston clear yet another shot from Dempsey off the line, allowing the 2-1 score to hold as the final.
The result staked the Whitecaps to an early three-point lead in the 2017 Cascadia Cup standings, with the next matchup between the teams coming again at BC Place on August 23. Seattle return to action on Sunday, April 23, with a road matchup against the LA Galaxy at the StubHub Center.
