Sounders fall to FC Dallas

Published 11:11 pm Wednesday, May 25, 2011

SEATTLE — With three consecutive games at home, the Seattle Sounders saw these past couple of weeks as a chance to move up in the standings.

Instead, after a 1-0 loss to FC Dallas in front of 36,026 at Qwest Field Wednesday night, Seattle heads back on the road as a team searching for answer

s.

Rather than get two or three wins at home, Seattle settled for a disappointing tie against rival Portland, then barely escaped with a 1-0 win over Kansas City, a last-place team, thanks to a stoppage time goal. On Wednesday, despite playing better than it had in that victory over Kansas C

ity, Seattle fell to Dallas to finish with a 1-1-1 record on the homestand.

“Of course were disappointed,” Sounders coach Sigi Schmid said. “Were not happy about the fact that we only got four points at home in three games.”

Not only did Seattle not get the result it wanted Wednesday night, Schmid also made it abundantly clear that he’s not happy with forward Fredy Montero, the team’s highest-paid player. With Seattle still searching for the tying goal, Schmid pulled the franchise’s career scoring leader in the 75th minute, then after the game Schmid voiced his displeasure with Montero.

“He needs to score,” Schmid said. “End of story. He needs to score. That’s what he’s paid to do.”

Before directly addressing the play of Montero, Schmid praised the play of several players before implying that others, a group that no doubt includes Montero, need to do more.

“Guys who need to step up, need to step up and score goals when we get a chance,” Schmid said. “We can’t take extra touches in the box. We’ve got to hit things the first time.”

Montero said via a translator that he didn’t think the scoring chances were there for him on this night.

“What concerns me is that I need the opportunities,” he said. “I cannot say that I didn’t score and then get substituted. There were no opportunities, and that gets me a little bit sad, a little bit annoyed. There will be more opportunities, and that is one of the things that needs to be improved.”

Dallas got the go-ahead goal in the 18th minute when Brek Shea made a run down the middle of the field, splitting Seattle’s defense and was hit in stride by a pass from Andrew Jacobson. With Kasey Keller charging off of his line, Shea wasted no time, firing a low shot with his first touch that found the back of the net.

Seattle nearly equalized seconds later when Alvaro Fernandez found Erik Friberg in the box, but Friberg’s shot, which got past Dallas goalkeeper Kevin Hartman, was cleared off the line by defender Zach Loyd.

Seattle had plenty of chances in the second half, and forward Mike Fucito, making his first career start, was particularly dangerous. Among Fucito’s team-high five shots was a rocket from the top of the box in the 64th minute that Hartman was able to tip over the crossbar and header three minutes later that hit the post.

“I was very pleased with the effort of Fucito,” Schmid said. “I thought he played very well.”

But despite dominating possession and scoring chances in the second half, the Sounders could not find the tying goal and was shutout for the first time since opening the season with a pair of 1-0 losses.

“It’s very frustrating, because we expect to get three points every time we play here,” Fucito said.

With another shutout victory, Dallas ran its league-best scoreless streak 489 minutes, a stretch of five-plus games. Center back George John, a Shorewood High School grad and former University of Washington standout, has helped anchor the defense for every minute of that streak.

The Sounders won’t have long to dwell on the loss with a game at Real Salt Lake on Saturday. Getting a road win won’t be easy against Salt Lake, which is tied with Seattle in the Western Conference standings with 17 points despite playing five fewer games this season. But a road win is what Seattle believes it needs after failing to take advantage of three in a row at Qwest Field.

“You want to get points at home, you want to get wins, and to lose to a team — Dallas is a good team — but to lose at home, it’s frustrating,” said forward Nate Jaqua, who came on as a second-half sub. “It’s not good. Now we’ve got to go on the road and get a result, get a win at Salt Lake.”

Herald Writer John Boyle: jboyle@heraldnet.com.