I spent a nice couple of hours tonight watching Seattle Sounders and Houston Dynamo on Fox Soccer Channel, and I was very entertained. It was a fun match to watch, but frustrating in ways too.
First off, I tend to prefer Fox Soccer's MLS coverage to ESPN's, but I haven't been a huge fan of Kyle Martino in the booth. Maybe that's just because I'm partial to listening to Christopher Sullivan, and let's face it, Soccer Talk Live was a huge bomb, though I don't think that was Kyle's fault. To be fair, the only part of that program that I liked was the first five minutes, where Martino actually talked about soccer. He obviously knows the game, and hopefully he'll sound a little more comfortable in the booth.
Now to the match. Houston dodged a bullet early on when Freeman grabbed Seattle's Erick Friberg as he headed for goal. Freeman was the last man, and he looked to be impeding a goal scoring chance, but he only received a yellow card. I thought Seattle had a case for a red. Anyway, it didn't slow Sounders down much, as they spent most of the first half camped in the Houston end, testing Houston keeper Tally Hall quite often, but Hall held his ground. In fact, Seattle squandered several chances, launching more than one ill-advised long bomb shot toward Hall's goal. They just looked desperate.
Things got more desperate for Sounders in the 42nd minute as Houston's Geoff Cameron bounced in a shot past Keller to put the Dynamo in front 0-1. It was totally against the run of play, and one of only a couple decent Houston chances in the first half. It really silenced that famous Sounders crowd. After the goal, Houston grasped some confidence and kept their 1 goal lead into half time.
Coming out in the second half, Houston tried to get more possession, something they had hardly any of in the first half. They didn't have a ton of success though, as Seattle got closer and closer to their first goal of the season. That finally came off of a corner in the 80th minute as an unmarked Zakuani finally put a ball past Hall into the back of the net. That followed a controversial call in the 74th minute when Seattle's Leonardo Gonzalez went down in the penalty area, and despite the plea for a PK from the Seattle faithful, he received a yellow card for diving. That will be a talking point going forward.
Seattle kept the pressure up for the rest of the match, but Houston managed to hang on and salvage a point on the road. Zakuani was awarded man of the match for the equalizer, but the way Tally Hall played in goal for Houston, he was my man of the match.
For Houston, they certainly played hard enough to earn the point, and despite the fact that they didn't play overly well, I'm sure they'll be satisfied coming out of Seattle with a point. Plus, in the Eastern Conference, their road will be a little easier. Hall was great in goal, but the defense in front of him really struggled at times, especially in the first half, where they had a couple frightening give aways. Offensively, it seems like everything had to run through Brad Davis, and Seattle did a great job limiting his touches.
For Seattle, well they finally got a goal. Their first in three matches. Sure, opening against Galaxy and Red Bulls isn't easy, but if this team is going to fulfill the praise that the MLS media often heaps on them, they need to be better. Montero blasting away at the goal from 30 yards out isn't going to get them anywhere, and one can see that they're going to have problems against teams with stronger defenses. Bottom line for them is this: They've gotten only 1 point from their first three matches, two of them at home, and the Western Conference is going to be real tough to climb up.
Tomorrow night I'll be attending the RSL vs. LA Galaxy match at the RioT. So I'll be posting some personal observations and maybe some pics afteward. I'd like to try and tweet from the match, but Rio Tinto doesn't have Wifi so it's hard to get the tweets out.
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