Electric Night in Seattle

After last weeks devastating loss of Steve Zakuani and the loss of O'Brian White earlier this week the Sounders were heading into tonight's match with their two leading scorers absent. That proved to make little difference as the Sounders steamrolled Toronto FC in a 3-0 victory. The scoring started in the ninth minute, Brad Evans crossing the ball into the box where Alvaro Fernandez was waiting at the far post to head it in past TFC keeper Stefan Frei. Following soon after in the eleventh minute the fans showed their appreciation for Steve Zakuani in a touching tribute, holding up cards bearing his number 11 and chanting his name for the full minute. The Sounders continued to pummel Toronto and after several missed opportunities found the back of the net for a second time in the fifty second minute. After a dispossession in the mid-field, Montero released Evans down the right and he fired it home for his second of the season. It didn't stop there for Evans, in the seventy fourth minute Toronto got called for a hand ball of a Sounders corner. Evans stepped up to the spot and converted the penalty. With tonight's victory the Sounders have now extended their unbeaten streak to six games. Definitely the way to pay their tribute to Zakuani isn't it?

Elsewhere around the league:

• Chivas USA finally seem to have found their footing getting their second win in a row, netting three goals to earn a 3-0 win over the new England Revolution. 

• Portland continue to dominate with their home field advantage, edging past the unbeaten Real Salt Lake with a 1-0 victory.

Devastating Night in Colorado

The Sounders played against last season's cup champ the Colorado Rapids tonight, and despite the fact that they picked up a 1-0 win the night couldn't have gone worse for them. It only took three minutes for things to go south. Zakuani had regained possession and was in the process of dribbling the ball up-field when  Colorado midfielder Brian Mullen committed an utterly reckless and unforgivable two-footed slide tackle, audibly snapping Zakuani's leg. Suffice to say Mullen got served a straight red and I hope to never see or hear of him setting foot on the pitch again until Zakuani has made a full recovery. Though nothing could make up for the earlier atrocity and subsequent loss of Zakuani, things looked up for the Sounders sixteen minutes later as they took full advantage of being a man up. O'Brian White linked up with Mauro Rosales who slid the ball over to Montero who slipped it past Colorado keeper Matt Pickens for the match's lone goal. Past those first twenty minutes the game quieted down and there was no notable action until the final whistle.

Here's to hoping Zakuani makes a full and quick recovery.

Red Bulls topple DC 4-0

It looks like last week's 3-0 win against San Jose proved to be a much-needed catalyst for New York's goal production, which is as of tonight has broken loose and started flooding forth. The scoring started in the twelfth minute when defender Jan Solli crossed the ball to a completely un-marked Thierry Henry who headed it home past DC keeper Bill Hamed. Henry netted his second of the match and third in two just over half an hour later assisted once again by Solli as he fights off a defender and the ball gets rolled into the box and Henry pounces on it. New York quieted down as the second half began, content to simply sit back and absorb pressure from DC. The scoring far from ended. Roughly forty minutes after Henry's second DC gets caught pressing too far forward leaving plenty of space and too few defenders for Joel Limpere, who takes complete advantage of the situation and puts back his first of the season. Just a few minutes earlier Juan Agudelo got subbed on in place Luke Rodgers and he made his presence known deep into stoppage time with an incredible goal. For a third time Solli crosses the ball into the box, and tussling between two defenders Agudelo gets creative. He takes one touch to pop the ball into the air, and then takes another to volley it in. An absolutely stunning goal to top off an incredible match for the Red Bulls.

Chicago Fire Tumble and Red Bulls Break Through

With their first few games it was looking like the Chicago Fire were off to a pretty decent start to the season. Not anymore. Having picked up three straight losses, sending them plummeting to the bottom of the table in the East, it looks that they're steadily losing their grasp. They're fall began in Seattle losing 2-1, continued in Portland's explosive home opener falling 4-2 despite an inspired late comeback, and recently at home against one of the leagues best the LA Galaxy once again by as scoreline of 2-1. Looking at the scores and highlights it certainly seems that they're making a habit of rallying and making a comeback, but unfortunately it all means nothing if their defense is bad enough to allow those goals in the first place.

In brighter news, the New York Red Bull have finally broken through their scoring struggles. In the first four games of the season forwards Thierry Henry and Juan Agudelo failed to make an impact scoring only two goals only one of those two coming from a forward. This weekend's past game against San Jose Luke Rodgers was started in place of Agudelo and immediately made a splash, scoring in second and fifteenth minutes. Thierry Henry joined in and finally broke his dry spell late in the game in the eighty seventh minute heading in a cross courtesy of Rodgers. I look forward to see how the Red Bull moves forward after this victory...I'd certainly say continue starting Rodgers in place of young star Agudelo.

The Streak Continues

Though not quite as satisfying as a win, like last week's against Chicago, today the Sounders left PPL park with an end result of a draw that felt nearly as good after conceding off of a free kick half an hour in and making up for it early into stoppage time at the end of the second half. An incredible downpour of rain and steady wind made for terrible field conditions and fairly rough match as a result. The Sounders lacked any real sort of attacking edge until very late in the game, not having made an attempt on goal until around the seventy seventh minute but the introduction of Fredy Montero and Alvaro Fernandez made all the difference. In the first minute of stoppage time Rosales sent the ball into the box off of a free kick, which came off of Jaqua's head and landed at Montero's feet. After a pass back and forth with Zakuani, Montero bought enough space to send the ball back into traffic where Fernandez glanced a header down to skip off of the grass and off the post and in. Having been sent onto the bench in favor of Erik Friberg, with this goal Fernandez certainly makes a case for rejoining the starting eleven, don't you think?

Wild Night in Portland

Heading into their home opener, Portland had been running on a fairly dry streak getting two losses and a tie in their first three games. Watching tonights match you wouldn't know that they were struggling, ultimately netting four goals to Chicago's two to come out on top.

The game was action packed from beginning to end. Portland should've gotten on the board in the eleventh minute on a corner kick sourced goal by Kenny Cooper that was ruled out because apparently the ball had gone out of play, but they soon made up for that in the twenty ninth minute thanks to a great ball through to Jorge Perlaza. Anthony Wallace then added another only minutes later off of a fantastic volley through traffic that Sean Johnson could do nothing about. The scoring resumed almost immediately after the second half begun, Perlaza adding another to Portland's tally off of a blunder by Johnson. Chicago begun to claw their way back thanks to an own goal by Portland's Eric Brunner and a shot by Pappa to was just deflected in by keeper Jake Gleeson as he was trying to knock it out, but it ultimately proved to no avail as amidst chaos in Chicago's box in the eighty fourth minute defender Dasan Robinson accidently knocks the ball inro his own net.

While I'm naturally opposed to the Timbers because I'm a Sounders fan, I can't help but acknowledge that it's great for them to get their first win of the season. Especially a home.

A couple interesting facts worth noting: The Chicago Fire handed both the Sounders and the Timbers their first win of the season, the 4-2 scoreline of tonights match exactly matches that of the Vancouver Whitecaps home opener a couple weeks ago.

Whitecaps Debacle

I had a lot of respect for the Vancouver Whitecaps due to their so far fantastic performance in MLS, but I've got to say this single act of utter stupidity by their french striker Eric Hassli degrades that respect a little. To set things up, in the closing minutes of the first half midfielder Gershon Koffie gets served a straight red in a collision with a New England Revolution player because his arm and elbow struck the Revolution player straight on in the face. Hassli then gets subbed on coming into the second half. I don't know the exact detail, but he picks up a first yellow in the forty ninth minute. He then goes on to score in the fifty sixth minute and in the process of celebrating he removes his jersey which results in a second yellow, thus a red and ejection. Oh, and get this: this is his second red card only four games into the season.

Not a very bright one, is he?

And as it turns out, that was just the beginning of the match descending into farce. In the seventy fourth minute Revolution player AJ Soares, in an attempt to shutdown an attack by the Whitecaps makes a late challenge for the ball that sends Atiba Harris sprawling. Certainly it was a foul, or even yellow card, worthy play but from a close-up replay a straight red is definitely on the extreme side. It definitely seems that ref Toledo has either acquired a taste for the red card or is simply finding an opportunity to even things up for Vancouver.

Then, finally, to add insult to injury, the Revolution score three minutes deep into stoppage time to bring the final result level at 1-1. In all honesty, though, I would have been dumbfounded had the Whitecaps held onto their lead after going two men down.

Album Review in Brief - Attack of the Wolf King

Though a little late, I thought that I'd start transferring some of my pre-blog album reviews here. So,  without further ado:

[5/5]

After showing an impressive amount of improvement with 2008's Dreamer, Haste the Day make an incredibly noteworthy return with Attack Of The Wolf King. Despite undergoing even further line-up changes (losing the Chaulk brothers, drummer Devin and guitarist and vocalist Brennan), they've only improved. New guitarists Dave Krysl and Scotty Whelan prove their worth with impressive technicality and meaty breakdowns and bassist (and notably only original member remaining) Mike Murphy picks up on the clean vocals, proving to be a little higher than Brennan, but just as good if a little reminiscent of the cleans on Pressure the Hinges. Really noteworthy is the flow of the album throughout. With a few exceptions, each songs flows right on into the next, and while this proves to only emphasize how brief the album is, the transitions in many cases work to excellent effect. Key example, the transition from Merit for Sadness to The Un-Manifest. The quick swap from the closing breakdown of Merit for Sadness to the chaos and discord of the intro of The Un-Manifest is what I can only describe as absolutely amazing.

While there is no changing the fact that Haste the Day is no longer the same band as they were with Jimmy Ryan, there is no denying the strives and improvements that they have made with this latest effort.

Top Picks: Wake Up The Sun, The Un-Manifest, The Place Where Most Deny, Crush Resistance

Album Review - Downtown Battle Mountain II

Over the last couple of years Dance Gavin Dance has undergone several line up changes, at one point leaving only Will Swan and Matt Mingus as the last remaining original members. With Downtown Battle Mountain II it's as if no line-up changes ever-happened, with the exception of the absence of guitarist Sean O'Sullivan. With all these recent line up changes DGD's sound has gone through some considerable changes, evolving largely thanks to Kurt Travis and Will Swan's impressive guitar skill. Now with Travis kicked out and Johnny Craig back you would probably assume that they reverted to their sound as of the original Downtown Battle Mountain. While in a sense they have, thanks to the absence of O'Sullivan Will Swan takes on responsibility for all guitars and for the large part maintains the musical developments of the past two albums and really takes the opportunity to shine.

The main topic of discussion of Downtown Battle Mountain II is that of the vocals. Vocals-wise Happiness found a complete shift for the band, with Travis doing clean vocals and Swan taking on the screaming vocals in Jon Mess's absence. They both performed up to par, proving that they both have what it takes to fill the rather big shoes left behind by both Craig and Mess. Now, as discussed earlier, Craig and Mess are back and they're both just as fantastic if not better (largely in Mess's case) as they were in the original Downtown Battle Mountain. Again and again Johnny Craig has proven himself as an amazing vocalist, and Downtown Battle Mountain II is no different. The most notable highlights of his performance are found in the likes of Purple Reign, Blue Dream, and Elder Goose. While he is an amazing vocalist, Craig doesn't exactly prove himself as a lyricist. Paling in comparison to those of Travis, the main content of his lyrics are of girls, sex and drinking. If you are at all familiar with mainstream music you'll know that those are fairly common and cliche topics, and I expect much more out of a band as extraordinary and of as high a caliber as DGD. Then there is Jon Mess. He is one of the more unique screams that I've heard and he further proves himself here with a marked improvement to his screaming. They're both stronger and shriller, taking a more commanding role throughout the album. Mess writes his own lyrics and they're incredibly strange and completely random as always.

In terms of instrumentals Downtown Battle Mountain II strikes me essentially as a continuation Happiness. To an extent hey are reminiscent of those of the original DBM, but they have taken the experience and growth that they've acquired (they mostly being Will Swan and Matt Mingus) from the past two albums with Kurt Travis and applied it well. Thanks to Will Swan assuming duty for both guitar positions, he is allowed to really shine and show off his skill. I can pinpoint no specific songs that really standout, Swan always delivers his technical and funky guitar work and his performance is really strong and consistent throughout. When it comes to drums Matt Mingus performs fantastically, bringing a high level of skill as has come to be the expectation that fits in perfectly with Will Swan's technical guitar-work.

Though initially hesitant at the spurning of Travis and the re-acceptance of Craig, I couldn't be more happy with how Downtown Battle Mountain has turned out. I may even stray as far as to suggest that this has the potential to rank as my all-time favorite DGD album.

Gaining Momentum

The Sounders had a relatively slow start to their season, one that has caused a lot of concern among fans. Their first two matches resulted in losses, although they displayed plenty of promise by keeping on the pressure against two of the best teams in the league (although they were a little overwhelmed when it came to possession against the Red Bulls). Things changed with last weeks match against Houston. Although they went down one late in the second half from a goal by Geoff Cameron off of a ricochet from a free kick by brad Davis (don't quote me on that), they kept on pressing and attacking at Houston and finally broke through in the eightieth minute through Zakuani off of a corner served by Erik Friberg. This breakthrough certainly proved to be the catalyst they needed, as they were able to put a few more back in tonight's game against San Jose. The Sounders got the early lead through Evans off of a cross into the box by Mauro Rosales. San jose responded though fifteen minutes later as Dawkins slid one past Keller. The Sounders regained the lead just before the end of the half from a diving header by O'Brien White at the end of a Zakuani cross. Sadly the Sounders weren't able to either keep or add to that lead, as San Jose brought things back on level terms through a shot from distance by the recently subbed on Stephenson. While the tonights game did end on another tie, great things are clearly on the horizon for the Sounders. As has been stated, once one goal is scored many more will follow and that certainly seems to be proving true. I think that this is the start of a build of momentum and soon a winning streak.