TUKWILA — It just wouldn’t be the U.S. Open Cup for the Seattle Sounders without a strong showing from Nate Jaqua.
So it came as no surprise that, despite the fact that Jaqua hasn’t started a league game in over a month and hasn’t scored a goal in league play since October 2009, he was the star of Seattle’s 3-1 quarterfinal victory over the Los Angeles Galaxy on Wednesday night.
Jaqua scored Seattle’s first goal, assisted on the second, and easily could have had one or two more goals as the Sounders dominated in the early going in front of 4,322 at Starfire Stadium.
“Were going to have to name him Mr. Open Cup pretty soon,” Sounders coach Sigi Schmid said. “He was unlucky. The header he had early went off the post. And then he finally got a goal. I think he’d like to have a couple of the other chances back. He could have finished with three or four tonight for sure. It was good to see him get a goal. I think that was very important for him as well as our team, obviously.”
Jaqua, who recently has fallen in the rotation at forward, limiting his playing time in league games, started at forward in a lineup that featured a roughly equal mix of starters and reserves. And just as he did last season when Seattle won its second straight Open Cup, Jaqua was at his best in this tournament, which crowns the club champion of U.S. soccer.
Last season, Jaqua scored five goals in the Open Cup, including two in a quarterfinal win over L.A., and was named the player of the tournament. On Wednesday, in a repeat quarterfinal, he was named man of the match for another strong outing.
“I was able to get that first one early and I had a couple of other ones I would have liked to put away, but that’s how it goes sometimes,” said Jaqua, who now has eight career Open Cup goals, including seven with the Sounders. “The bottom line is that we got the win and we’re moving on to the next round.”
With the victory, Seattle moves a step closer to winning a third straight title since joining Major League Soccer. The Sounders will play host to FC Dallas in an Aug. 30 semifinal at Starfire.
After having a header go off the post in the third minute, Jaqua opened the scoring a minute later when Pat Noonan played a pass through to the forward, who collected the ball and fired a low shot past L.A. goalkeeper Josh Saunders.
Seattle dominated most of the first half, and after several near misses, got a second goal in the 25th minute by capitalizing on a Galaxy defensive mistake. Defender A.J. DeLaGarza failed to clear a ball at the top of his own box, and Jaqua pounced on the loose ball and slid a pass to Fredy Montero, who scored with his left foot from 18 yards out.
“They were good tonight, they deserved to win,” Galaxy forward Landon Donovan said. “… We were a little naive. We tried to play a little bit too much early and we made a few mistakes, and they made us pay. They had a few other good chances too.”
The Sounders had more chances to blow the game open later in the half, but the next goal belonged to L.A., which cut the lead in half in the 40th minute when Adam Cristman finished off a Chris Birchall cross from close range. Birchall nearly tied the game seconds before halftime, but goalkeeper Terry Boss came up with a big save to preserve the Seattle lead.
The Galaxy, which like Seattle fielded a competitive lineup with several starters, including national team star Donovan, continued its turnaround in the second half, but could not get the equalizing goal. Instead, Seattle got some much-needed breathing room when Lamar Neagle got on the end of a perfectly-placed Alvaro Fernandez cross to make it 3-1 in the 71st minute.
Fernandez got the play started when he intercepted a pass near midfield, then after a few dribbles he slotted a pass to Neagle, who slid between defenders to put the ball into the net.
“I thought the Seattle start of the game was excellent, our reaction was poor, and we were dominated in the first 25 minutes,” Galaxy coach Bruce Arena said. “We got our feet under ourselves in the last 15 minutes of the first half. I thought we ended the half playing well, 2-1, given what we saw in the early going, was a pretty good position to be in.
“We came out in the second half and did all right, then obviously the third goal broke our backs. But I thought if you take away the first 25 minutes — which might be a pretty stupid statement — it got better. Obviously at 3-1 we dug ourselves a hole. That’s the way it is.”
Herald Writer John Boyle: jboyle@heraldnet.com.
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