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The Seattle Sounders came to Dick’s Sporting Goods Park and snapped the Colorado Rapids’ 3-game unbeaten streak tonight.
The Sounders started the game pressing hard to get that first goal, and 19 minutes in, Will Bruin put his team up 1-0 after an unfortunate bounce off Shkelzen Gashi. No one stepped to Bruin and he kicked it past Tim Howard.
The Rapids had a couple flashes of doing something, but nothing landed until the ball came into the middle and Dominique Badji sent it out wide to Edgar Castillo. Castillo dribbled in the 18 and then played it in to a diving Sam Nicholson. Nicholson headed the ball past Stefan Frei to tie it up 1-1 in the 41st minute.
Yannick Boli picked up a yellow card at the very end of the first half, and it was reviewed as a potential red. It stuck as a yellow, but he was subbed out for Jack McBean at the beginning of the first half.
Ten minutes into the second half, Edgar Castillo went down and was subbed off for Joe Mason. Castillo walked off, so it seems as though it was more precautionary than anything else. And, you know, because Mason is good enough to be starting anyway.
Then, in what should have been a routine clearance, Howard passed the ball straight up the middle to Gashi. An oncoming Sounder knocked him down, took the ball, did some things, and — because most of the Rapids defense had already started moving up the field — this happened:
It doesn’t appear that everyone knew the game plan there.
The Rapids had a great chance in the 82nd minute on a breakaway. McBean sent the ball through 1... 2... 3... guys right to Gashi and Frei came up with a massive save to keep his team on top.
After that, there were some fouls and a handful of yellows and then five minutes of stoppage time. The Burgundy Boys built up some momentum a couple of times, but when the final whistle blew, it ended 2-1.
Seattle went into this game with the lowest goals for in the league (13). They had two shots on goal and two goals. Tim Howard had zero saves.