TORONTO – Seattle Sounders FC’s encouraging start in Major League Soccer upgraded to a historic one Saturday.
Playing the first road game in club history, the Sounders scored early and late in the first half, and then let their defense handle things the rest of the way for a 2-0 win over Toronto FC at BMO Field.
“We’re obviously pleased,” coach Sigi Schmid said. “It’s our first road win in the club’s history, and we’re proud that we got another shutout. I can’t say enough about our defensive effort, our willingness to throw bodies in front of shots and do whatever it takes to stop people from scoring. This is a tough place to play.”
The win pushed the Sounders to 3-0-0 on the season, the best record in the league and the best start by an MLS expansion team.
Seattle hasn’t allowed a goal over the first 270 minutes of its history, which marks the longest any MLS team has played before allowing a first goal. The previous record was 255 minutes, set in 1998 by Chicago – which went on to win the MLS Cup.
Kasey Keller has been in goal for every minute of what is now the second-longest shutout streak by a goalkeeper to start an MLS season, trailing Ronald Waterreus’ 375 minutes in 2007 for the New York Red Bulls.
“We know we’re going to concede a goal, and we’re going to lose some games,” Keller said. “But while we have guys fighting to stop teams from scoring for 90 minutes, then we’re going to have a good chance of doing that quite often.”
Seattle’s goals had their own historic tints.
English Premier League-import Freddie Ljungberg scored his first MLS goal in the 15th minute on a give-and-go with Nate Jaqua through the middle of the Toronto defense; and rookie Steve Zakuani got his first professional goal in the 45th minute, finishing as a loose ball trickled through the penalty area.
“I told Freddie before the game, ‘Look, don’t forget, one of our best qualities always has been getting behind defenses,’ ” Schmid said. “And obviously he got behind them for that first goal. Zakuani was Johnny-on-the-spot, you know, when the shot got blocked and he didn’t hesitate to put it away quickly.”
The Sounders had opened the season with home victories over New York and Real Salt Lake. But they expected a tougher test in their first road game, especially with leading scorer Fredy Montero back in Seattle.
Toronto, however, did little to impress its sellout crowd of 20,658 that braved cold and windy conditions to attend the team’s home opener.
It was the first loss of the season for Toronto (1-1-1), which beat Kansas City two weeks ago, before tying Columbus last weekend.
“I thought it was a disgrace,” Toronto coach John Carver said. “I’m not going to make any excuses: I think we lost the game to the better side. I thought they adapted to the conditions far better than we did. It just shows you when there’s a gale-force wind you can still play football, and hats off to Sigi’s mob they did that.”
The Sounders return to action at 7:30 p.m. Saturday when the Kansas City Wizards visit Qwest Field.
blogs.thenewstribune.com/soccer
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