Fredy Montero Is Heating Up

On Wednesday, May 2nd, the Seattle Sounders’ 24-year-old Colombian striker did this to seal a 2-0 win against Los Angeles:

One week later, against FC Dallas, Montero came on after halftime and punched in two goals in a three-minute span to lead the Sounders to a 2-0 win, their fifth consecutive victory this season.

Highlights here:

The Pacific Northwest club is off to a 7-1-1 start, most of it accomplished without Montero in high gear (the blast against LA was his first goal of the season), and with Eddie Johnson still working to find his footing and match fitness.

They’re both showing progress now—Johnson has two goals in four starts—and if they continue along that path, Seattle fans can start feeling pretty good about that February dice-roll of a trade that sent attackers Lamar Neagle and Mike Fucito to Montreal in exchange for Johnson, in hopes that the former (and future?) U.S. international  could form a potent partnership with Montero.

It’s been a busy stretch of games for Seattle (the Dallas tilt was their fourth match in 12 days), and their next two matches will be telling, not only for the Sounders but also for the Western Conference pecking order: the Sounders host 7-3-1 Real Salt Lake on Saturday (10:00 p.m. ET, MLSLive, DirectKick), then travel the following Saturday to take on  5-2-2 Vancouver.

MLS Had Itself Quite an Entertaining Wednesday

There was a highlight-filled, eight-goal thriller in San Jose, another goal for EJ and a 35-yard golazo from Fredy Montero in Seattle, and a solid bounce-back in New England.

First, the San Jose–DC United carnival of soccer fun, which went to the Quakes 5-3, and included Dwayne De Rosario’s curling one-timer, his spectacular bicycle kick that was saved—even more spectacularly—by Jon Busch, his devastating late assist to Hamdi Salihi, and Daniel Woolard’s diving header.

That was just from the losing team. The winners got two goals apiece from Big Bird, aka Steven Lenhart, and league scoring leader Chris Wondolowski; some slick work from speedy winger Marvin Chavez, and a sweet passing sequence in the DC box to set up Wondo’s first goal.

Enjoy:

In Seattle, the Sounders blanked a second-choice Los Angeles side 2-0 behind Fredy Montero’s magical 48th-minute strike.

Take a look:

In Foxboro, the up-and-down Revolution rediscovered their goal-scoring touch to rally from a 1-0 deficit and defeat Colorado 2-1 behind a pair of fine goals from Saer Sene and first-time starter Fernando Cardenas.

Highlights:

Not a bad night. The league will try to top it when this round of play resumes on Friday night, with Chivas USA taking on Chicago. Week 9 continues through the weekend, with seven games on Saturday and one on Sunday.

CCL: Rough Night for MLS Favorites as Galaxy, Sounders Crash Out

Having crossed “win an MLS Cup” off their to-do list this past fall, David Beckham, Landon Donovan, Robbie Keane and the LA Galaxy turned their focus to the CONCACAF Champions League as the 2012 season approached.

Winning that competition would be an MLS first and constitute the next frontier for a club with lofty aspirations. A CCL crown would raise the international profile of the franchise and put the Galaxy in the FIFA Club World Cup, where LA could compete against some of the biggest sides in the world.

Last night, those visions of greater glory evaporated in the air of the Home Depot Center as Toronto FC, a team that has never qualified for the MLS playoffs in five years of existence, eliminated the Galaxy with a 2-1 victory. The win, behind goals from Ryan Johnson and Nick Soolsma, sealed a 4-3 aggregate triumph for the Reds and made them the first Canadian side ever to reach the semifinals of the CCL.

Johnson opened the scoring just after the half-hour mark, beating rookie Galaxy defender Tommy Myer to Soolsma’s cross at the far post and heading the ball back across Josh Saunders’ goal and into the side netting.

Los Angeles replied ten minutes into the second half when Toronto defender Ty Harden turned Donovan’s cross, which was bound for an onrushing Keane, into his own net. But Toronto found the winner in the 67th minute, when Johnson beat Myer again, on the left flank, and crossed for Soolsma at the top of the six-yard box.

Keane failed to finish two clear second-half chances to tie the game.

Toronto will face Mexican side Santos Laguna in the two-leg semifinal on March 28 and April 4.

•••

Santos Laguna entered their second leg against Seattle trailing 2-1 on aggregate, but made quick work of erasing that deficit in the 90-degree confines of Estadio Corona. The hosts bagged two goals in the first 10 minutes of the second leg to take a 3-2 aggregate lead.

When Seattle’s Fredy Montero found Alvaro Fernandez at the back post to make it 2-1 (and 3-3 on aggregate) it looked like we were in for a sizzling second half.

We were, except that it was all one-way traffic. Former Sounder and 2010 U.S. World Cup veteran Herculez Gomez scored for the hosts five minutes after the break, and added a second in the 68th minute to blow the game open. Gomez has seven goals in his last five games.

Santos would add two more as Seattle pushed forward to try make up the aggregate deficit. When the final whistle blew, it was 6-1 Santos and 7-3 in the aggregate.

CCL: Seattle Downs Santos Laguna 2-1, But More Importantly What Did You Think of Those Kits?

At first glance, we were somewhere between on the fence and not-in-favor-of, but now, after watching these highlights we are warming up to the Sounders’ teal-and-neon-yellow new unis.

Maybe it was the brisk, one-touch play the home side used to defeat Santos Lagunas in the first leg of their CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinal on Wednesday night. That may have cast the potentially garish kits in a better light.

In any event, judge for yourself in the recap from the Sounders’ website below, which shows UCLA alum David Estrada nodding home the first Seattle goal off a terrific chip over the top from Fredy Montero, and then, moments after 2010 U.S. World Cup veteran (and former Seattle Sounder) Herculez Gomez equalized for the visitors, Brad Evans heading in the winner from Mauro Rosales’s cross.

See here:

The teams meet for the second leg in Mexico—historically a difficult place for MLS sides to play—next Wednesday, March 14 (8:00 p.m. ET, Fox Soccer).

Keller, Rosales, Win Goalkeeper, Newcomer of the Year Awards

Yesterday it was the LA Galaxy, today it was Seattle Sounders FC: the Pacific Northwest club became the second team in a row to take in two of Major League Soccer’s year-end awards on the same day.

Sounders FC backstop Kasey Keller and midfielder Mauro Rosales were named Goalkeeper and Newcomer of the Year, respectively, in voting by players, coaches, club administrators, and media members.

Keller, who retired at the end of the season, dropping the curtain on one of the best careers in U.S. soccer history, led MLS with a save percentage of 76.0 this year, while producing nine shutouts.

He helped the Sounders to the league’s second-best regular-season record (18-7-9) and to a third straight U.S. Open Cup championship.

Keller edged Philadelphia’s Faryd Mondragon and FC Dallas’s Kevin Hartman in the balloting.  (And we were happy to see Chivas USA’s Dan Kennedy sneak into the vote.)

Rosales, whose league-minimum salary of $42,000 made him the bargain of the year—if not the history of the league—led Seattle with 13 assists this season (in just 22 starts). The Argentine winger also scored five goals, and almost certainly would have had more of both if knee injuries hadn’t caused him to miss games in September and October.

Seattle might have had a longer playoff run, too, if not for Rosales’s October MCL injury, which was a re-injury of a knock he took late in the Sounders’ 3-0 win over DC United on Sept 17^th.

Rosales defeated New York’s Luke Rodgers and Vancouver’s Eric Hassli in the vote.

While Keller will not be back next season, Rosales certainly will—at a much, much higher salary, of course.

And Seattle fans are probably salivating at the prospect of Rosales and a hopefully healthy Steve Zakuani manning their wings next season.

Sounders FC Comes ThisClose to Miracle Rally

Even though they lost two players to injury in the first 20 minutes of the game, Seattle’s plan for rallying from a 3-0 aggregate deficit was on track against Real Salt Lake late in the second leg of their Western Conference semifinal last night at CenturyLink Field.

Sixty minutes in, they had scored two goals, and had the game exactly where they wanted it: They were up 2-0, piling on the pressure, and seemingly on the brink of getting the goal that would tie the aggregate score at three and force the series into extra time.

Lamar Neagle scored the second goal (Osvaldo Alonso got the first, from the penalty spot) and he came close to getting the third on several occasions during the home team’s furious push down the stretch.

They ultimately fell short, losing the series 3-2 on aggregate, and sending legendary U.S. goalkeeper Kasey Keller to his retirement a little earlier than he’d expected.

Click here to watch the highlights.

And here for Keller’s thoughts at the end of his 21-year career:

At Livestrong Sporting Park, Kansas City downed an injury-depleted Colorado side 2-0 to win their Eastern Conference semifinal 4-0 and advance to the conference final, which they will host, against either Philadelphia or Houston, on Sunday.

For more on both games, see here.

Seattle’s Pregame Viewing Material

Trailing Real Salt Lake 3-0 heading into tonight’s Western Conference semifinal second leg (1o:00 ET, ESPN2), Seattle Sounders FC will need an extraordinary result to advance.

Coach Sigi Schmid told MLS’s Matt Doyle that he’s been talking to his players about famous recent comebacks, such as Liverpool’s three-goal blitzkrieg of a rally against AC Milan in the 2005 Champions League final.

Oddly, though, Schmid says he hasn’t talked to his team about the greatest comeback in MLS history, one that he was involved in, albeit on the wrong side.

In second leg of the 2003 Western Conference semis, Schmid’s LA Galaxy held a 2-0 lead over Landon Donovan, Jeff Agoos, and the San Jose Earthquakes. They quickly increased that to 4-0 on aggregate, scoring two goals in the first 13 minutes of the second leg.

Curtains for LD and Co., right? Unbelievably, no: Agoos and Donovan each scored before halftime, and San Jose added two more—including a 90th-minute (180th, really) equalizer by Chris Roner–to force extra time. Quakes striker Rodrigo Faria completed the sensational rally with a goal six minutes into the extra session.

Here are the (grainy) highlights:

There’s another reason Schmid’s men may want to take their cue from the 2003 Quakes. After completing the historic comeback, San Jose went on to win the MLS Cup that year.

Seattle’s task will be made more difficult by the absence of Mauro Rosales, the team leader in assists (13), who was ruled out today because of a knee strain. But it’s not impossible—as Schmid knows better than most.

THREE-ATTLE!

That’s the headline on the Seattle Sounders FC website this morning after the club made history last night, beating the Chicago Fire 2-0 to win a third straight US Open Cup final in front of a record crowd of 35,650 at CenturyLink Field.

Fredy Montero buried the rebound of a Jeff Parke header to put the home team up 1-0 in the 79th minute, and Osvaldo Alonso iced it late with a brilliant solo run.

Take a look at the highlights and postgame comments:

With the win, Seattle joins New York Greek-Americans (1967-69) as the only teams to win three consecutive USOC trophies—and we’re 99.9% sure they’re the only team ever to win it each year in their first three years of existence as a club.

The victory also ensures that veteran goalkeeper and future first-ballot Hall of Famer Kasey Keller, who is retiring at the end of the season, will go out with at least one trophy.

How Many MLS Teams Can We Get In the CCL Quarterfinals?

After last night’s action, we’ve got one in and four still alive. The league is not likely to place five clubs in the eight-team knockout stage, but three is a genuine possibility. Let’s take a look.

• Seattle Sounders FC got two goals from the normally defensive-minded Osvaldo Alonso to tie Comunicaciones 2-2 in Guatemala City last night and clinch a spot in the CCL quarters.

The 25-year-old Cuban midfielder twice pulled his side level, hitting a bouncing volley off a goalmouth scramble just before halftime to make it 1-1, and punching in another in similar circumstances with one minute to play for the crucial final scoreline.

Highlights and postgame comments here:

The Sounders are in first place in Group D with a 3-1-1 record and can finish no worse than second place, regardless of what happens in their group-stage finale against Monterrey (3-2-0) next month.

The result is another highlight in what’s shaping up to be an excellent season for the Pacific Northwest side. The Sounders are headed to the MLS playoffs and have the second-best record in the league (15-6-9); they’ve reached the final of the US Open Cup—where they’ll be looking for their third straight title on Oct 4—and they’re in the CCL knockout stage.

Not bad for a club in just its third year of existence.

• Toronto FC hosted UNAM Pumas last night, less than two weeks after the Mexican side had thrashed them 4-0, and just three days after MLS club Chivas USA blanked the Reds 3-0. To make matters worse, Toronto was missing three players, including Torsten Frings, due to suspension, and could not afford a loss if it was to keep its hopes of advancing alive.

It was close, and the Reds could twice thank the posts for keeping them in it, but Toronto hung on for a 1-1 tie against a reserve-heavy Pumas side.

Peri Marosevic took a nice layoff from Danny Koevermans to put Toronto up 1-0 in the 36th minute, and Marco Palacios tied it up for the visitors six minutes after the break.

Behold Pumas’s Diego De Buen rattling the upright from 30 yards in the highlights below:

Pumas now leads Group C with a 2-1-2 record and eight points while Toronto (2-2-1) is tied with FC Dallas for second with seven points.

• Dallas plays at Panamanian side Tauro FC tonight (8:00 ET, Fox Soccer Channel) with a chance to reclaim the top spot. The Hoops have just one goal in their last six games and have struggled to three straight MLS losses. But they did hit the woodwork three times in their most recent game, a 1-0 defeat to Houston on Saturday, and they’ve welcomed back winger Marvin Chavez from injury. Tonight would be a great time to bust out of their slump.

• Much like FC Dallas, Los Angeles jumped out to a fast start in CCL play but has faltered of late, dropping consecutive road games to Morelia (Mex) and Alajuelense (CR) to slip to third place in Group A. The Galaxy faces Morelia at the Home Depot Center tonight (10:00, FSC), and pretty much have to win to keep their quarterfinal hopes alive.

They’ll also be looking to avenge a controversial 2-1 loss to the Mexican side two weeks ago, when LA had a Robbie Keane goal incorrectly disallowed in the waning moments.

• The Colorado Rapids are 1-2-1 in Group B and sending a mostly second-choice team to El Salvador for tonight’s matchup against Isidro Metapan (12:30 a.m., FSC, delay).

Metapan was blitzed 6-0 by Mexican side Santos Laguna in its last CCL game, but can clinch a spot in the quarters if it beats Colorado and Santos ties or beats Real Espana in Honduras.

So which of the remaining four MLS clubs will advance? (See current standings here.)

FC Dallas may have the clearest route. If the Hoops can defeat winless Tauro tonight, then they’d head into their final game, on Oct 18 against Toronto, needing only a draw to advance.

Los Angeles needs to beat Morelia at home tonight, a result that, assuming Alajuelense knocks off 0-0-4 Motagua tomorrow, would leave LA and Morelia tied for second with nine points and Alajuelense in first with 12.

The Galaxy faces last-place Motagua in Honduras in its group-stage finale, while Morelia hosts Alajuelense.

If LA wins out, and Morelia beats Alajuelense, the group would wind up with all three teams on 12 points, in which case the first tiebreaker is head-to-head competition between the three. The second tiebreaker is head-to-head goal difference, and the third is head-to-head away goals.

As for Toronto and Colorado, we’d say Dallas is too big an obstacle for the Reds in Group C, and the Rapids, who seem to have placed less of a priority on the CCL than the others, are the biggest longshot of the five MLS teams in the competition.

CCL: Seattle Stumbles, Toronto Scrapes By

Seattle beat Herediano on the road a week ago, but last night, fielding a second-choice team at CenturyLink Field, Sounders FC came up short against the Costa Rican side, falling 1-0 on Yosimar Arias’s 25th minute free kick.

Despite the loss, the Sounders (3-0-1) remain in first place in Group D with two games to play.

In Toronto, the home team got another goal from ace designated-player signing Danny Koevermans and held on for a 1-0 win over Tauro FC of Panama. Koevermans has seven goals in eight games for the Reds.

The win was a nice bounce-back from the 4-0 pasting the Reds received at Pumas last Wednesday, and puts them at 2-2-0 with hopes of advancing still very much alive.