Lamar Neagle started the scoring off early on into the match in the fourth minute, tying for the claim of earliest goal scored in club history with both Steve Zakuani and Blaise Nkufo. Mike Fucito received the ball off of a quick throw in by Lamar Neagle, and touch the ball back to Neagle as he was holding off a defender. Neagle continued his run up the left side of the pitch, holding off the defensive efforts by Rich Balchan. As he reached the edge of the penalty area Neagle unleashed a shot that Columbus keeper Will Hesmer was able to get a piece of, but unfortunately not enough and it trickled over the goal line. In the fourteenth minute brilliant build-up play by the Sounders led to a hand ball situation, as Fucito maneuvered around Balchan and the ball came into contact with both of the defender's hands. The referee called a penalty without hesitation and Mauro Rosales stepped up to the spot and cooly buried it past a reaching Hesmer. The Sounders got on the board a third time in the twenty first minute through even more brilliant build-up play. Osvaldo Alonso made the pass to Rosales just outside the penalty area, who spotted the overlapping run by James Riley and slipped it to the right back, who sent in a beautiful cross that found Neagle waiting at the far post for a side-footed volley into the back of the net. The Sounders weren't even finished yet. In the forty first minute, Rosales received the ball in the penalty area and slipped over to Fucito who gathered up ball and fired it into the empty net from a tight angle for his first of the season and second of his MLS career.
With four goals being scored in the first half alone, you'd probably think that that was all the match had to offer. If you'd have thought that, you'd have been dead wrong. The second half saw another four goals, this time, however, the Crew finally joined in on the scoring. The Crew got their opportunity in the the fifty ninth minute on a penalty call on a dangerous challenge by Jhon Kennedy Hurtado on Emilio Renteria in the penalty area, on watching the replay however, Hurtado makes little to no physical contact with Renteria. Jeff Cunningham stepped up to the spot and made league history, taking the league lead in total number of goals scored by sending Kasey Keller the wrong direction and easily knocking the ball into the back of the net. That goal didn't go unanswered however, Lamar Neagle firing home an absolute blast in off the crossbar much like his game winning goal earlier in the season down at Rio Tinto against Real Salt Lake in the seventieth minute. The goal was his third of the match, marking the first time that a Sounder scored a hat trick in front of a home crowd. Columbus were able to notch another goal just three minutes later, through an absolutely fantastic free kick that found it's way through the wall and fizzed past Kasey Keller's fingertips by midfielder Josh Gardner. That goal only had meaning for a single minute, as the Sounders immediately shifted back into attack and a cross by Lamar Neagle forced an own goal by the goal scorer Gardner or else the ball would have fallen to the feet of Fucito who was lurking on the far post.
That own goal capped off the highest scoring and one of the most exciting matches in Sounders FC history. Next up the Sounders face FC Dallas once again in the semi-finals of the US Open Cup.
Notes
- In this match the Sounders scored three goals in the shortest amount of time in club history, in the space of just seventeen minutes.
- All three goals tied for quickest goal scored in Sounders club history were scored against the Columbus Crew
- The Sounders have only managed two hat tricks in their three year history, one last season by Blaise Nkufo and this afternoon's by Lamar Neagle. Both were against Columbus in four goal victories.
- Columbus was unable to score a goal in this afternoon's match during open play. Both goals came through dead ball situations.
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