Sounders reserves recap (vs Vancouver)

I headed down to Starfire tonight to catch Zakuani Strikes Back. Thought I'd post some comments because the game was very interesting-- lots of reserves and academy players doing good and bad things.

First-- MOTM-- Michael Gallagher (Sounders u-18) at CB. In the 2nd half he was matched up against Salgado and Mattocks and absolutely tore their attack apart. I'm not kidding, it was phenomenal. It was about as beastly as you could expect from a 6-2, 140 lb, 17-yr old kid owning 2 of the top young strikers in MLS. Pushing our midfield high along with both outside backs meant there were a lot of counterattacks by VAN to deal with. Both of Vancouver's goals came on set-pieces, so there's still some improvement needed. But yeah, top performance.

Other notables: Dom Dismuke (Sounders u-18) subbed in 2nd half and ignited the attack. Super-fast and agile, very dangerous, scored a goal but could have had 3 very easily. I should point out that vancouver's keeper played extremely well to cut out our 2nd half chances.

Cordell Cato only got 10 minutes after playing USOC wednesday, but he's another guy in the same mold-- blink and he's gone. I honestly think he has a shot at starting XI if we move Fernandez to CM.

Aaron Kovar (Sounders u-18) also made a bunch of fantastic plays, including the assist-- chasing down a long pass on the RW and gunning in a low cross. He seems to think at MLS-speed already. He needs to watch a lot of tape of Will Johnson, because that's the player he needs to emulate if he wants to find success in MLS.

Finally-- the Bad: Sivebaek. He was very not good. I've been curious why he hasn't seen any action lately, and now I understand. Not very good touch, takes too long on the ball, sketchy passes, crosses from the wing aren't great. If tonight was indicative of Sivebaek's day-to-day play, I imagine we won't see him again except due to an injury emergency.

Oh yeah-- Zakuani. It turns out he's still super-fast. He played a lot of positions, RW, LW, up Top, and sometimes like Fredy's role-- drifting back into midfield. But just to re-iterate: he's still super-fast. He had 2 great runs blowing past their LB that didn't make the highlights (?): one he shot just a couple feet wide, the other was a cross that should've scored. All in all, a great night. Probably my favorite 2-1 loss ever.

And favorite, partly due to being held up at the walkway gate at half-time about 10 feet away from Alex Morgan in a salmon-colored top, black jeans, and knee-high boots. I'm pretty sure she never stops smiling. Meow.