Sounders earn crucial victory over FC Dallas

It was far from easy, and certainly demanded a superb performance by the Sounders' back line, but the Sounders are leaving Pizza Hut Park tonight with all three points and sole claim for the second place spot overall in the MLS. The story of the match, past the herculean effort that the Sounders back line put in to preserve the shut out, was the defensive error by Dallas defender Ugo Ihemulo that gifted the Sounders the match's lone goal. In the fifteenth minute Lamar Neagle received the ball in the attacking half of the field, he makes an attempted pass to Fredy Montero that Ihemulo breaks up but the ball bounced straight into Montero's path who proceeded forward with it, laid it of to Mauro Rosales who was making a parallel run down the right side of the field who fired it into goal past a reaching Kevin Hartman from about eighteen yards out. Afterwards the game was essentially commanded by FC Dallas, who ended up with a whopping  twenty five shots. The key, however, is that only four of those shots were actually on frame and threatening to sneak their way in. Seeing how much pressure that FC Dallas placed upon the Sounders for the remainder of the match, it's miraculous that the Sounders were able to keep a clean sheet. It may not be so miraculous considering the effort put in by the Sounders' back line, Jeff Parke a constant presence in the box blocking shot after shot, and Kasey Keller, who made a key double save right at the death. It may not have been by any means pretty, but this is by far the Sounders' biggest victory so far this season.

Notes

• This is the second time that the Sounders won a match when being outplayed by a team that was down a man.
• Once the final whistle was blown, this match had a grand total of forty one fouls. Seems that the ref blew the whistle at almost any sign of physical contact.
• Real Salt Lake, who fell 3-2 at the hands of the Houston Dynamo last night, have now last four out of their last five matches.
• Galaxy newcomer Robbie Keane had quite the debut, scoring the Galaxy's first goal of the night. The Galaxy went on to win 2-0 over the San Jose Earthquakes.
• Speaking of fantastic debuts, Juan Pablo Angel, who was moved over to Chivas from the Galaxy to make room for new DP Keane, coincidentally scored Chivas' first goal of the night as well
• New York is clearly trying their hardest to tie Chicago's record number of ties, recording their fourteenth last night in a 2-2 draw against the new England Revolution.