Obafemi Martins and Andy Rose scored twice each and Brad Evans had three assists, all off set pieces, as the Sounders, MLS’s top team, plundered the league’s worst, Chivas USA, 4-2 Wednesday before a crowd numbering in the hundreds at Stubhub Center in Carson, CA.
The Sounders’ third win in a row stretched their lead in the Supporters Shield race to 51-46 over the Los Angeles Galaxy.
The Sounders (16-7-3) did all their scoring in the first half, which easily could have been 7-0 given the scoring chances narrowly missed in the first 20 minutes.
Martins opened in the 11th minute when an Evans corner kick found the head of Chad Marshall, who passed straight ahead to Martins, standing in front of GK Dan Kennedy. Martins swept his left foot and bounced the score past Kennedy from five yards.
Six minutes later, Lamar Neagle, after a midfield give-and-go, broke away down the left flank, then laid off a soft cross to a streaking Martins, who had an open goal after Kennedy broke way off his line in a futile attempt to stop the jailbreak.
In the 38th minute, Evans sent a soaring free kick that Rose volleyed left-footed to make it 3-0. Four minutes later, the tandem repeated the maneuver on another free kick, this time Rose delivering with a header. In his third start, the goals were Rose’s first of season, and Evans’ three assists for a half tied the MLS record.
One sign of the first-half domination was duels, won by the Sounders 31-10.
In the 58th minute, Chivas broke its scoreless streak at 597 minutes — they hadn’t scored since July 20 — with a score by Marco Delgado. Four minutes later, a penalty kick by Ryan Finley halved the lead, but Seattle ceased its drift and shut down Chivas the rest of the way.
Rose started in place of Gonzalo Pineda, who was rested. They played without midfielder Marco Pappa, who will miss two weeks at the Copa Centroamericana with Guatemala.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="2189392 https://sportspressnw.wpengine.com/?p=2189392">3 Comments
Chivas has had a lot of problems since 2010. I can’t recall seeing a match there with a large number attending. They could become the Montreal Expos of MLS if things don’t change.
Chivas USA has been the inverse of Seattle in MLS: While the Sounders’ attendance is double the league average, Chivas is drawing about a third of the typical MLS crowd. The league has taken over the franchise from the folks in Guadalajara and are looking for new owners and a rebranding for next year, so this is a lame-duck season.
Chivas USA was a bold experiment eleven years ago that has failed partly because Latinos in LA view them as a farm team that’s broken the big club’s tradition of all-Mexican rosters which has made Chivas Mexico’s “second national team.”
Like any other sport franchise with attendance issues, give them something worth supporting and that isn’t happening. However Chivas has had some pretty lame crowds.