It seemed as though everything about Sunday night's Major League Soccer match between the Seattle Sounders FC and Houston Dynamo from CenturyLink Field was just plain ugly. The play between the two clubs was ugly at times on top of a pitch that was not in its best shape. CenturyLink Field played host to a corporate gathering at the stadium on Saturday which put some extra strain on the groundskeepers to make the pitch playable for Sunday. They did the best they could but it was what it was.
Seattle would see the first chance very early in the match. In the 3rd minute, Marco Pappa played the ball off to Obafemi Martins on the right wing. Martins has felt more comfortable this season dropping into the midfield at times to open up space for Kenny Cooper or Lamar Neagle to jump into the attack as the second option behind Clint Dempsey. This time it was Neagle who made a darting run into the box, Martins saw this and whipped a bouncing ball towards the penalty spot. Neagle put just a little redirect on the ball which slid towards the far post but just missed wide.
Possession was dominated by Houston in the first 25 minutes of the match. They had a prime opportunity to take the lead in the 26th minute after a penalty kick was called by referee Chris Penso. The Dynamo were attacking the Seattle end when a ball came across the face of goal to Oscar Boniek Garcia, Garcia slammed a shot right into the arm of center-back Djimi Traore who was shielding his face. The whistle blew and Penso pointed to the spot.
Brad Davis would step up to the penalty spot angle right. He pulled a stutter-step as he got within a pace of the ball. Stefan Frei hopped off his line but kept his eyes on Davis who leaned to the left, a pretty good indication that his shot was going to the left of the keeper. Sure enough, Davis put the shot low and to the left of Frei but the keeper was equal to the task making a huge save to keep the score level at zero.
After nearly 70 minutes of action, it would be the Sounders who opened up the scoring on a lucky bounce. Their scoreless streak had reached 253 minutes when Marco Pappa found some space from 20 yards out angle left. He juked his defender with a nice back heel spin move to create a shooting lane, his quick low shot took an ugly deflection off of center-back David Horst and found the back of the net past a helpless Tally Hall. Pappa then took a page from Sounders teammate Obafemi Martins with a celebratory backflip that Sounders fans have come to know and love.
It would take a total of five minutes for the Sounders to double their lead. Martins was hauled down in the penalty box off of a costless kick causing Penso to once again point to the spot in front of the Emerald City Supporters. Gonzalo Pineda fired a low shot right down the center that Hall got a hand to but could not keep out. The goal was Pineda's third penalty kick goal of the season.
The night was not all smiles for Seattle though as they lost Obafemi Martins to a second yellow card in the 86th minute. Both cards came for really stupid fouls on Martins part but it means that he will miss the big clash with Real Salt Lake this weekend. The card could mean that Martins plays a significant role in the Sounders U.S. Open Cup Semi-Final match with the Chicago Fire on Wednesday. We will have live coverage of that match here on VAVEL USA starting at 8:30 pm Eastern. The winner of that match will travel to face the FC Dallas/Philadelphia Union winner from Tuesday.