A Sound Start: Studs/Duds of Seattle-New York
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MLS News
Thursday, 19 March 2009 23:40
Everything went off as planned in the stadium and off the field with the crowd and atmosphere easily part of the best MLS franchise debut I've ever seen. For Sigi Schmid, things on the pitch went pretty well too, but for Juan Carlos Osorio, it was a day to forget. It's going to be tough for RBNY supporters to chalk this loss up to new season jitters as some players looked downright bad out there. Will Kevin Goldthwaite bounce back if he has any desire to keep his spot after the signings arrive? With the Sounders, there is a lot to say about how well the quartet of Nyassi, Le Toux, Jaqua, and Montero played, but is their productivity sustainable? To be honest, the subpar play of the Red Bulls probably made the Sounders look a great deal better on-field than they played. Either way, it was a great match to start off the season and I can only hope Philly 2010 will look like Seattle in 12 months' time!

THREE STUDS

1. Freddy Montero

Well two goals and an assist is certainly not a bad way to start off your MLS career. If I could have put both Jaqua and Le Toux up here with Montero, I would have, but Montero was undoubtedly the catalyst of Sounders attack. The 21-year old made all of the international veterans on the field look downright inferior. Now give MLS defenders a couple weeks to study this kid and you can bet things will get a little harder for him on the field, but until then, his performance today looked scarily effortless. These weren't Tomasz Frankowski goals from the beginning of last season...

2. Sebastian Le Toux

Le Toux and Nyassi owned the wings and Goldthwaite/Mendes. They were Jaqua and Montero's supporting cast and played the role admirably. Le Toux, especially, was all over the place, industrious and smart on the ball. Nyassi left in the 68th minute, but Zakuani continued right where he left off. It's going to be a nice battle between Nyassi and Zakuani for that right mid slot all season.

3. Jhon Kennedy Hurtado

The Red Bulls didn't really provide Angel service but when he did get his chances, Hurtado was all over him. Zach Scott deserves to be here too, shutting down Angel at a key moment early in second half and also minimizing Dane Richards' impact on the whole match.

THREE DUDS

1. Kevin Goldthwaite

It was Andrew Boyens who was the early casualty, but Goldy looked flat out bad back there. He barely was able to work into the attack and the few times he did he delivered dud crosses. He looked like a mess vs. Sanna Nyassi.

2. Jorge Rojas

There really is no doubt that he's good with the ball, but why would Rojas ever think he's good enough to break four Sounders before laying the ball off to Angel. Countless times, he laid errant passes outside and into the middle and then looked around as if it was someone else's fault. The first thing Rojas even did was in the 55th minute when he delivered a nice through ball to Borman, who proceeded to waste a cross. He also added a shot or two but nothing to alter the course of the game or get anyone else (including Angel) involved.

3. Dane Richards

Outshone by Sanna Nyassi in the speed and shiftiness department. Richards never really got going. Even when Juan Pablo Angel started getting service in or around the 70th minute, Richards was no part of it. Kandji looked pretty good when available, but all in all, the flanks belonged to the Sounders the whole 90 minutes.

Sidenotes:

If there was a Red Bull out there that played well, I'd say it was rookie right-back Jeremy Hall. He's a little part of the reason the Sounders quieted down after halftime. Maybe even Mac Kanji too.

I was hoping for more out of Sinisa Ubiparipovic, especially after there were rumors a productive pre-season. He looked pretty lost all match but had a couple nice touches here and there.

Freddie Ljungberg's eventual addition. On paper, it'll certainly help the line-up but in what way will he fit into this bunch? It's just a hunch, and I'll be the first to admit it if I'm wrong, but for some reason I see Ljungberg being what Claudio Reyna was for the Bulls.

As a UPenn grad, I'm a bit biased but I sense there are two Danny Cepero camps and it could have gone either way tonight. There were probably saves he should have made, but there were more that he did save that kept this game from going 5 or 6-0.

With reinforcements on the way, many significantly better than those that took the pitch tonight vs. Seattle, how long does it take New York to mesh?

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