San Jose has been playing with fire lately despite solid results – a win and a tie against Philadelphia and Los Angeles respectively, despite getting dominated in the midfield in both games. Solid results from that level of play couldn’t be expected to continue and it didn’t tonight as Seattle walked away with a deserved 1-0 victory.
Seattle’s only goal came from Fredy Montero in the first half, and if not for another excellent game from Jon Busch, the score line could have been 2-0 or 3-0 just as easily. San Jose’s defense was generally acceptable, but the play from midfielders and strikers was not nearly good enough to reasonably threaten Kasey Keller and the Sounders back line.
San Jose falls, at least momentarily, into sixth in the Western Conference, though they hold games in hand over the two teams directly above them in the standings. They will need improved performances from their attacking options if they expect to take advantage of those fixtures.