• Sounders FC 2, Real Salt Lake 0 • Photo gallery
Building on an inaugural game that was appropriately full of firsts, Seattle Sounders FC started repeating itself Saturday: second game, second win, second shutout before a second sellout crowd. This time the Sounders knocked off Real Salt Lake, 2-0, at Qwest Field, moving to a perfect six points in the standings after two games.
“Obviously, we’re very pleased with a 2-0 win,” coach Sigi Schmid said. “… Three points are three points. You need to win games in different ways at different points of the season. Sometimes you win them solidly like we did (in the March 19 opener against New York), and sometimes you have to work a little bit.”
The game also featured one significant first: the Major League Soccer debut of former Arsenal star Freddie Ljungberg, who entered the game in the 61st minute after sitting out the opener while recovering from hip surgery.
In his 29 minutes, Ljungberg made some nice runs, shared some well-directed passes, and endured some tough tackles.
Afterward, he declared himself both happy and healthy.
“I felt great,” Ljungberg said. “It was nice to get back on the pitch. I got some nice touches on the ball and stuff and we won the game, so it was great.”
Schmid agreed with two-thirds of that assessment. He thought Ljungberg got some nice touches, and he was happy to have won the game. But there was no mistaking that Schmid considered the Sounders’ performance less than great.
Seattle controlled the early tempo and jumped ahead in the 17th minute on a goal by Nate Jaqua.
Jaqua has owned Salt Lake. In earlier stints with Houston and Los Angeles, Jaqua had scored five goals over his previous five games against RSL.
On Saturday, he made it six goals in six games, although teammate Steve Zakuani did most of the work.
Zakuani, the No. 1 overall pick in this season’s SuperDraft, juked past Salt Lake defender Tony Beltran and into the penalty area. Then he sent the ball across the box to Jaqua, who redirected it past goalkeeper Nick Rimando.
However, that goal set the stage for Schmid’s dissatisfaction, because he was not charmed with the way the Sounders played with their lead.
As the game churned on, Salt Lake began pushing forward, creating constant pressure and a number of scoring chances.
“It was certainly not a scintillating second half for us,” Schmid said. “(Salt Lake) pretty much kept us pinned in in our end of the field. They did a good job in terms of their work rate, and their effort was tremendous and their ball movement was very good.”
However, Kasey Keller bailed out the Sounders with five saves.
And then the game broke for good as Seattle forward Fredy Montero produced a bolt of lightning.
Over the first 76 minutes, the reigning MLS player of the week had been made to pay for his attention-grabbing league debut with two goals and an assist in the opener. The RSL defense took note and dumped Montero repeatedly – once headfirst into the electronic reader board along the touch line, and twice drawing yellow cards.
In the 77th minute, he made them pay. Taking a short pass from Osvaldo Alonso, Montero whistled a 28-yard rifle shot into the back of the net.
Minutes later, the crowd was singing “Ole’, ole’, ole’, ” and happily celebrating their 2-0-0 welcome to the league.
“I though the first goal we scored was a great goal, some great individual work by Steve Zakuani, and obviously a good finish by Nate,” Schmid said. “But the second goal, we knew over the course of the season that Fredy Montero was going to surprise a few goalkeepers with the way the ball moves when he hits it.”
As the clock wound down, RSL (0-1-0) sent into the game midfielder Rafael Cox, a Tacoma native and former Washington Husky.
The Sounders return to action Saturday with their first road game in franchise history, visiting Toronto FC.
Don Ruiz, 253-597-8808
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