SEATTLE — Before the two teams faced off for the first time Sunday, there were plenty of ingredients that could potentially turn Seattle Sounders FC vs. the Los Angeles Galaxy into a strong rivalry.
The Western Conference foes are led by two of America’s most accomplished soccer coaches in the Galaxy’s Bruce Arena and Sounders FC’s Sigi Schmid, who coached the Galaxy for five-plus seasons before being fired, and each team is captained by one of this country’s best players, L.A. forward Landon Donovan and Seattle goalkeeper Kasey Keller.
And following the first meeting of the two teams, a physical 1-1 draw that featured eight yellow cards and one ejection, the brewing rivalry could be more heated than anyone imagined.
Seattle’s James Riley was sent off for his part in a second-half melee that featured some pushing and shoving and a lot of heated words, and both teams were at times infuriated with the officiating. Schmid, who led the Galaxy to a MLS title in 2002, even took a not-so-subtle shot at his former team’s conservative style of play.
“I’m very proud of our team from the standpoint of playing a man down and still trying to go for the win, whereas, the opponent was playing a man up and they were very content to tie the game and take it to 90 minutes,” Schmid said.
And whether it’s by design or not, the Galaxy are indeed settling for ties with regularity this season. L.A. is now 1-1-6 this season, and both the win and loss came on one-goal differentials.
The tie makes Seattle 4-2-2, good for second place in the Western Conference. And when the game ended, most of the sold-out crowd of 29,025 unleashed boos towards the Qwest Field turf, not to show their displeasure with either team’s effort, but with the game called by referee Tim Weyland and his crew.
Seattle was unhappy not just with the red card given to Riley, but also with a first-half non-call that Sounders FC players and coaches thought should have led to a penalty kick. With the score tied at 1-1 late in the half, Nate Jaqua broke through the L.A. defense and was one-on-one with Galaxy keeper Donovan Ricketts. But the Seattle forward went down in the box before he could get off a shot.
Jaqua and the rest of his team thought he was fouled — Brad Evans earned a yellow card for protesting too much — but no call was made.
“I haven’t seen the replay of it, but to me it felt like a PK,” Jaqua said. “I was expecting a whistle, yeah.”
Earlier in the half, Jaqua helped give Seattle an early lead after a stagnant first 20 minutes of soccer. Jaqua made a well-timed run to receive a pass from Steve Zakuani, then tapped a pass to Sebastien Le Toux as Ricketts came out to challenge the ball. Le Toux then directed a right-footed shot on the open net to give Seattle the early lead.
Le Toux was in the starting lineup in place of Fredy Montero, who was serving a one-game suspension for a red card in last weekend’s tie at Chicago.
“Last year I had lots of easy goals like that,” said Le Toux, who played for the USL Sounders the past two seasons. “I’m the guy that every time I’m lucky, I’m at the good place at the good moment. I’m happy to score, but we didn’t win the game, so it’s a bit frustrating in the end.”
That goal seemed to awake up the Sounders FC offense, as Seattle had several other scoring opportunities in the next few minutes. The next goal, however, was scored by the Galaxy. In the 35th minute, Mike Magee sent a cross into the box, and Alan Gordon elevated to hit a header past a diving Keller.
There were no goals after that, but the second half featured an altercation that led to Riley’s ejection. After Seattle was awarded a free kick, L.A.’s Gregg Berhalter picked up the ball and walked away from the spot of the foul. Riley went after Berhalter and tried to rip the ball away, leading to pushing and shoving from players on both sides. Magee and Riley got tangled up, and Riley put a hand on Magee’s head to push him away. Riley said he had no intent to strike Magee, but the move was classified as “violent conduct,” which led to his ejection.
Down a man for the final 33 minutes of the game, Seattle remained aggressive, but the end result was a tie.
“Even though we had 10 men or whatever it was, we were the aggressor,” said Zakuani. “We tried to win the game, we went for it. And I think they’re probably even more happy than we are with the draw, and we had the 10 men.”
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
