It may have been the Fourth of July, but Wednesday night was the Ninth in Forever for Sounders FC.
Seattle ran its winless MLS streak to nine matches a row, a continuing club record, although the Sounders did get a point in a 0-0 draw in Sandy, Utah against Real Salt Lake, (10-6-3) which won in Seattle May 12.
The Sounders (7-5-6) had only eight shots on goal, but the leaky defense finally healed up for a clean sheet, which induced coach Sigi Schmid to put a happy face on the proceedings, which drew 20,363 to Rio Tinto Stadium.
“Were happy with the result,” he said. “Were happy that we played to a shutout. Wed like to win for sure. We want to be a tough team to beat, and I think weve gotten back to that. I thought we lost that for a couple of games, and weve gotten back to that, which is very important.
“Now its a matter of us playing better and walking away with a win.”
Perhaps the best chance came in the 88th minute, when a feed from Mauro Rosales across the box just eluded a streaking Cordell Cato, who had an open net in front of him.
Eddie Johnson, who scored four goals in the previous four matches, had a good chance in the 63rd minute when he made a hard run into the box from the left side, but his shot went wide of the far post.
Bryan Meredith, starting for first time since June 16 and in place of the injured Michael Gspurning and Andrew Weber, helped get the Sounders their seventh clean sheet of the season and first since May 9 against Dallas — the last time the Sounders won.
“This is a hard place to play,” Schmid said. “Theyre a good team. They were coming off of three losses they were highly motivated, they were sharp, they were enthusiastic in their play.”
The Sounders play their only home game in July Saturday against the Colorado Rapids. The 8 p.m. match will be telecast nationally on the NBC Sports Network.
