Nelson Valdez scores late as the Seattle Sounders beat Sporting KC
Nelson Valdez scored a late goal as the Seattle Sounders beat
Sporting Kansas City 1-0 to advance to the Western Conference
semifinals.
Substitute Valdez had endured a challenging season on
the goals front, but he redirected a Joevin Jones shot in the 88th
minute to put a thrilling finish on an equally thrilling match.
Sporting
started very firmly on the front foot with three clear-cut chances in
the opening minutes of the match. Paulo Nagamura forced Stefan Frei into
two saves and Graham Zusi hit the post.
The back-and-forth affair
continued throughout the first half, with rookie Jordan Morris blazing a
shot wide of the SKC net and Chad Marshall's headed effort sailing over
the crossbar from a set piece cross by Nicolas Lodeiro.
The
opening 45 was also physical, and Osvaldo Alonso saw yellow for a hard,
sliding tackle on Roger Espinoza that drew shouts for red from the SKC
bench.
Matt Besler appeared to have SKC's opener in the 53rd
minute after heading home a cross into the Seattle area from a set
piece, but the linesman's flag had gone up for offside and the goal was
ruled out.
A Zusi corner kick took a fortuitous bounce and landed
right at the feet of Seth Sinovic on the edge of the penalty area in the
60th minute, but Frei was once again in the right place to parry away
the well-struck effort.
A moment of brilliance from Benny
Feilhaber, who had just seen yellow for referee dissent, almost led to
SKC's opener. The 31-year-old weaved his way through the Seattle
defense, but once again Frei was there to save his team on the goal
line.
Seattle will host Dallas at CenturyLink field on Sunday in the first leg of the teams' two-legged semifinal.
SEA
SKC
SEA
SKC
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