A corner kick launched by Mauro Rosales and finished by Eddie Johnson sparked the Seattle Sounders to their 1-1 draw at Los Angeles on Saturday.
It also marked Rosales’ 34th assist as a Sounder, pulling him even with Fredy Montero for the club career lead.
“I’m proud of that,” Rosales said this week. “I’m really happy. It’s more about the players that make that for me, scoring goals and making a good goal for the team. This is the success of the team: scoring goals, winning games. I’m very proud to be part of the history, very proud to be part of this team that is helping me to get better and better every time.”
Rosales has assisted 12 different players since joining the club in 2011. And he’s never had more options than this season, with the addition of designated players Obafemi Martins and Clint Dempsey along with the emergence of Lamar Neagle. Johnson, Martins and Neagle are tied for the club lead with eight goals apiece.
“I know sometimes if you give the ball to one, the other one can get upset,” Rosales said. “… I get used to that. Your mentality has to be always positive to other guys. I don’t have preference to anybody. I just want the preference to Seattle Sounders and the success of the team.”
Still, Rosales has been most productive in combination with Johnson, assisting him 10 times.
“The services are good, but at the end of the day, I gotta get credit too for putting the ball into the net,” Johnson said Wednesday. “He’s a great crosser of the ball, and those crosses aren’t easy to put in the net. It was good to keep that relationship going, and I’m going to keep working hard and trying my best to get on the end of his crosses.”
Rosales is happy to give Johnson his due.
“He is in the top players for me,” he said. “As well he is showing national team and Seattle Sounders, he is showing in the past that he is a great player. Playing with this kind of player makes you work easily.”
Rosales, 32, signed with Seattle after having played more than 400 professional matches in his native Argentina at River Plate and Newell’s Old Boys and at Ajax of Holland. He also has 10 appearances with the Argentina national team.
He was named MLS newcomer of the year in 2011, when he set the Sounders record with 13 assists. He duplicated that in 2012 and has added eight so far this season, including a league-high five game-winning assists.
Since coming into the league, he is second in assists, two behind Brad Davis of Houston.
While the individual numbers add up nicely, a more important issue for the Sounders going forward could be how many goals are coming on set pieces. Of Seattle’s 38 goals this season, six have come on free kicks, two on corners and two on penalty kicks.
“It definitely helps,” coach Sigi Schmid said. “In tight games sometimes a set piece goal makes the difference: a corner kick goal, a set piece goal. Obviously you look at the L.A. game, and both goals came off of set pieces. One was a corner, and then their free kick. In tight games, those are the type of goals that sometimes swing it one way or the other.”
Added time
X-rays of Johnson’s sore shoulder came back negative. He returned to full training Wednesday and is expected to be available Sunday when the New York Red Bulls visit CenturyLink Field. … The Sounders are off today. They will return to training Friday — perhaps including designated player Clint Dempsey, who was held out of work so far this week due to a hamstring injury that also kept him out of the Los Angeles match last weekend.
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