Goals
Seattle: 13' Somoza (Callahan), 26' Melo (PK)
Edmonton: 39' Bosch (Frazer)
Coronation Field, Edmonton, 23 C, Light Wind, Clear
Attendance (not announced): approximately 650 (my estimate)
Edmonton: Stankov; Devlin, Hart, Kassaye (Kaushal, 45'); Vignjevic, Fraser, Bosch (Rago ?'), Munoz, Dhaliwal; Drummond (Akok approx 70'), Sipho Sibya (Ibo, approx 70)
Seattle: Burpo; Velez, Jackson, Edwards, Sakuda; Callahan, Sleeth, Bolanos, Somoza; Levesque, Melo ( I did not get the substitutions, as not all were announced, the sound system was really bad, and the players names on the jerseys were so small; but, there were a full 4 subs)
A beautiful night for a game. Great field, but prominently sloped from the center for drainage. High School football field, max seating for probably 1,500. Wood benches on one concrete grandstand on west side. Night lights turned on in second half, though not necessary (will allow for later kickoffs,unlike Foote Field grass field). The scoreboard broke down just after start of second half. Very intimate and friendly crowd.
Seattle played very crisply, 4-4-2 formation, very defensive throughout, but had best chances and better possession. Played shortball for the most part, attacks up center the norm. Did not show tiredness from playing the night before in Calgary in first half, was showing it in second half when they basically sat back in defensive shell, always 4 in the back at least. They played very physically, and were able to get away with a lot of fouls. They were able to win a majority of the balls by intimidation, as they were not fearful of discipline by the referees. Their GK Burpo and defense both played very well. They had a large number of players on the bench. As dirty as they were, Seattle probably deserved to win, as they were crisp and managed to fulfill their tough, defensive, short-ball control and possession game plan.
Edmonton played like they were rusty, there was probably too much time off. They were also missing some key players. At times they looked like they were playing 3-5-2, sometimes 5-3-2. they are lacking in both strikers and defense, so they use a lot of midfielders. Gordon Chin was missing because of the 5 card accumulation rule (not enforced until the last monthly USL meeting!), and his spark was really missing, Vignjevic did not have his usual excellent game as he really missed his central forward midfield partner. De Silva was missing as well, apparently still nursing a concussion. Chins' center attack midield position was taken by Eric Munoz, who had a good second half but was often inconsistent. The attack seemed to mainly be long-ball, they were only effective when they attacked up the wings, especially the right wing with Fraser (which unfortunately they did all too rarely). They were continually frustrated by the chippy Seattle play. Ibo (still somewhat injured from the Toronto match) and Akok (who was apparently still ill) did not start, but came on as substitutes well into the second half. EFC had very good speed and movement on the wings at times. Had Edmonton scored on a surprise attack by Fraser and Sibiya at 6', when Sibya's shot hit the right post, it would have been a different match. Some of the audience felt strongly that the ball actually crossed the goal line after hitting the post.
Edmonton played an unusual formation, probably due to lack of players and player strength. They seemed to sit back through much of the game, depending on long balls to the two forwards. Midfielder Drummond started as a forward with Sibiya. The other unusual strategy by Ongaro was to mainly keep the two midfiled wingers (Fraser on right and Dhaliwal on left) back with the defensive line, with occasional forays up the wing on attack. In my opinion, Fraser needs to be used on attack on the wing more. Dhaliwal was often stranded off by himself. He did show sparkles of brilliance in ball handling and moving the ball up, but it is obvious that his team mates have little faith in him, especially on his passing abilities. Dhaliwal has good fitness though, and he has not been substituted in the last three home matches. The other midfielders were interchanging their positions often, which was impressive.
On defense, Hart took Ibo's place as the center defense, until replaced by Ibo at the end. he was not engaged in the attack as much as he had been in previous matches, which is unfortunate, especially because he could have sparked things on attack in the last 20 minutes had he been a little bit more adventurous up front.
The referee, some whitebread dyed-blond jobbie from the usual stable of questionable USL officials, was really, really awful. How many of the USL officials are Canadian? He was quite biased on behalf of the Sounders, one has to wonder how badly the USL wants to have the playoffs in Seahawk stadium instead of Milwaukee. The linesmen were good for the most part on the offside, but were invisible for anything else. The referee continually allowed major defensive infringemnts on the few free kicks he gave to EFC. He ruined what was otherwise a pleasant evening of football.
The first goal at 13' by Somoza was from a free kick cross from the left side by Callahan that sailed over the box to the right side to an unmarked Samosa on the right edge of the box. Stankov could not really be faulted, it was a perfect example of EFC defensive breakdown from opposition attack.
The second sounder goal came at the 26', a penalty kick by Melo. The penalty kick was called when a Sounder attacker fell over the EFC GK who had perhaps unnecessarily ran over to the right side of the goal near touch. A very questionable call, and not at all like the GK and other defense interference at the other end that could have been called for PK's. Stankov nearly stopped it, he blocked a shot to the left that bounced of his hands up to the cross-bar, falling just inside the line.
The goal by EFC at 39' was as a result of a beautiful run down the right by Fraser, and a cross to Bosch from just inside the center of the 18-yard box, crisply shot directly in upon receipt. Unfortunately, most of EFC's attack was down the congested center.
