A Glorious Night In Vancouver

After conceding the match's first goal early in the first half, the Sounders stormed back to ultimately claim a 3-1 victory over their Cascadia rival the Vancouver Whitecaps, reclaiming the Cascadia Cup in the process.

The Whitecaps got the scoring started first, as they did earlier in the season when they visited Century Link Field. Eric Hassli played an excellent ball through to Chumiento, who played the ball across the mouth of the goal to a wide open Camilo Sanvenzo who easily hammered the ball into the back of the net. That goal wouldn't stand for too long, however. The Sounders got their opprtunity to even things up only eleven minutes later on a penalty awarded thanks to a hand ball Alvaro Fernandez forced on Jay Demerit after some brilliant build-up by Montero. Brad Evans stepped up to the spot and easily sent Joe Cannon the wrong direction and hammered the ball home.

The Sounders burst out of the gate at the start of the second half, Lamar Neagle firing a curling shot up over Cannon in the forty seventh minute but was denied by woodwork. The Sounders finally and permanently grabbed the lead in the sixty third minute, Demerit sending a clearance straight into the feet of Montero, who fired a curling effort past Cannon and into the far corner of the goal. Montero extended the Sounders' lead just four minutes later, receiving a pass from Brad Evans and blasting a shot that deflected off of Demerit's foot and over Cannon into the goal. Afterwards, Neagle and second half sub Sammy Ochoa came incredibly close to further increasing the lead, both striking the post. The Whitecaps continued to press forward and look dangerous but ultimately found no way to reduce the Sounders' lead.

Lately Mauro Rosales has been the one pulling all of the strings in the Sounders' offense, but watching tonight's match it's clear that his absence isn't a crippling blow for the Sounders (much the same as with Zakuani and White). The Sounders are a truly deep team, to manage to lose three major goal-scorers and playmakers and feel very little ill-effects of their absence.

Notes

• Demerit was involved in every single goal, conceding the penalty, clearing the ball to Montero on the second, and deflecting the ball in on the third. Rough night.
• To cap off the fantastic victory, a handful of the Timbers Army had travelled all the way up to Vancouver to hand the Cascadia Cup over to the eagerly awaiting Sounders Supporters.