That's hard to believe. During the regular season it was almost like the Sounders were a stacked MLS team playing in the A-League but I guess that's why we have the playoffs. Sounds sort of like the Sounders fell apart but definitely props to Vancouver.
Like I mentioned on other threads, this is the first time this year Vancouver is playing with a full lineup. There was a time near the end of the season where Vancouver played games missing 7 of their starters. Vancouver now is at full strength.
One of those games where Sounders made defensive mistakes, 1st 2 goals were poor def passes in own 3rd Sounders had several scoring opportunities early but didn't, Vancouver made the most of theirs. Whitecaps were the better team tonight.
Vancouver's first two goals were given to them on a silver platter. Grrrr. Van's third goal was sweet, though. After that it was just counter-attacking goals for Vancouver. Seattle looked like they had a lot of heart and hunger in the early minutes of the second half. After they scored two goals, i started to believe that maybe I would be witness to an incredible comeback as I imagined Seattle pouring them in to even the aggregate score! Alas, instead I watched many great opportunities sail just wide or hit the post, and Vancouver go the other way on quick 2-on-1 counterattacks. Props to the Vancouver supporters who showed up for this one. Good atmosphere. And props to the Sounders for playing as hard as they did, even when they were down 4-0 on aggregate. You gotta love our team! - Paul
I think capacity at Memorial is 12,000. And the larger grandstand was almost full. So I would say there were at least 6,000 people there. - Paul
I don't think it was that full. To me, it seemed similar to late season games where we were drawing about 3,000. The official attendance should be in RonS' match report. [edited]Hmm, it seems that Ron didn't report the attendance.
Attendance The papers (and now Ron's report) say 3917, the largest crowd at Memorial this year. Nice photos, Allison,
Memorial Conspiracy Had the goal posts been round rather than square those shots off the post might have gone in and who knows what might have happened.
Weird match. On the one hand, you have Seattle pushing everyone forward, taking all the risks. Vancouver sitting, waiting to counter. The first two for the Caps, the first one went in deflected off a defender, the second was a mirror image of the Minnesota match -- a back pass to no one and the attacker then just takes it in 1 v. 1 on the keeper. Seattle could easily have had 6 or 7 but for bad finishing, the woodwork, and balls being cleared off the line. I too thought that after we pulled two back quickly at the start of the second half that something magical might be in the cards. It certainly had that look/feel to it. Some golden opportunities for the 3:3 went begging, then the dagger went home on a counter, a very questionable PK, and another counter to rub salt in the wound. Full credit to the Caps who were the better team over this two game series. The series, IMHO, was lost for Seattle not Sunday but in the waning minutes of the first leg, when Schmetzer stupidly sent everyone forward to try to equalize with 10 men, and got burned on a 2 v. 1 counter off a cleared Seattle corner. As bad as we were playing, and being a man down, you CANNOT take those kind of chances and give up a stupid goal like that. 0-1 would have enabled us to play a much more normal game, have more patience, take less risks. The equalizer would have come in time. 0-2 meant going for broke and opening yourself to being punished for going forward in waves, and we were. Some unfortunate breaks/mistakes just removed all room for error and the match turned into a farce after that.