Sounders - 2, Union - 0
W00t.
Despite standing in various degrees of rain for two hours, (well, 2+ with the pre-game festivities...interpretive dance, to open a professional soccer season, really? Really? *sigh*) we had an excellent time. A good match well-played overall. I'm not sure all the fouls we saw were card-worthy (though the guy who got ejected had it coming), and I'm sure some of the things we saw deserved a whistle, but as a whole, I can't complain about the officiating.
Perhaps the best illustration of this came when Freddie took a hit to his kidney in the 23rd minute. He went down and stayed there, clearly hurt, while play continued. The second that Seattle lost the advantage*, the referee stopped play and chased down the hitter. Salazar couldn't get the yellow card out fast enough. It was exactly the right way to call the game, and I find that I'm incredibly pleased to have seen it.
I'm also (largely) pleased with what I saw from the Union. They need more time together to gel as a squad, but they had a solid, dangerous attacking unit and a quiet but powerful midfield. They lacked some coordination in the backfield, but for the most part, their other players transition from offense to defense so well that it rarely presented a tremendous problem for them. We got them on the back foot, and having one of their players tossed for accumulated fouls sealed the deal.
Our goals came as a result of well-worked plays and good timing, the sort of thing we saw attempted so often last season that fell just short of success. Although, truth to tell, Montero was kinda behind the defense for his goal. As long as we're being honest, Le Toux might have been onside for his goal, so likely the game should have been 2-1 or 3-1, but whatever. I'm not going to quibble about it. I go for the games, and the win is a nice bonus.
Anyway, an evening well spent. Now I'm for bed.
*Advantage, from the Wikipedia soccer article: "Rather than stopping play, the referee may allow play to continue if doing so will benefit the team against which an offence has been committed. This is known as "playing an advantage". The referee may "call back" play and penalise the original offence if the anticipated advantage does not ensue within a short period, typically taken to be four to five seconds. Even if an offence is not penalised due to advantage being played, the offender may still be sanctioned for misconduct at the next stoppage of play."
Despite standing in various degrees of rain for two hours, (well, 2+ with the pre-game festivities...interpretive dance, to open a professional soccer season, really? Really? *sigh*) we had an excellent time. A good match well-played overall. I'm not sure all the fouls we saw were card-worthy (though the guy who got ejected had it coming), and I'm sure some of the things we saw deserved a whistle, but as a whole, I can't complain about the officiating.
Perhaps the best illustration of this came when Freddie took a hit to his kidney in the 23rd minute. He went down and stayed there, clearly hurt, while play continued. The second that Seattle lost the advantage*, the referee stopped play and chased down the hitter. Salazar couldn't get the yellow card out fast enough. It was exactly the right way to call the game, and I find that I'm incredibly pleased to have seen it.
I'm also (largely) pleased with what I saw from the Union. They need more time together to gel as a squad, but they had a solid, dangerous attacking unit and a quiet but powerful midfield. They lacked some coordination in the backfield, but for the most part, their other players transition from offense to defense so well that it rarely presented a tremendous problem for them. We got them on the back foot, and having one of their players tossed for accumulated fouls sealed the deal.
Our goals came as a result of well-worked plays and good timing, the sort of thing we saw attempted so often last season that fell just short of success. Although, truth to tell, Montero was kinda behind the defense for his goal. As long as we're being honest, Le Toux might have been onside for his goal, so likely the game should have been 2-1 or 3-1, but whatever. I'm not going to quibble about it. I go for the games, and the win is a nice bonus.
Anyway, an evening well spent. Now I'm for bed.
*Advantage, from the Wikipedia soccer article: "Rather than stopping play, the referee may allow play to continue if doing so will benefit the team against which an offence has been committed. This is known as "playing an advantage". The referee may "call back" play and penalise the original offence if the anticipated advantage does not ensue within a short period, typically taken to be four to five seconds. Even if an offence is not penalised due to advantage being played, the offender may still be sanctioned for misconduct at the next stoppage of play."