FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — The Seattle Sounders ended their historic winning streak with a historic defeat Sunday at New England.
The Sounders’ club-record five-game winning streak ended with a club-record 5-0 loss at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts.
The Revolution clustered all of their goals over a 32-minute span to create the largest margin of victory ever against the Sounders. Those five goals allowed and four goals allowed in the first half both tied Seattle records. The defeat also stopped the Sounders’ six-game unbeaten streak overall, along with their season-opening unbeaten (3-0-1) run on the road.
“It was just one of those days,” coach Sigi Schmid said. “… We threw too many people forward, left ourselves exposed for the counter. I thought they did a good job of countering today. They executed well when they got forward; and it’s just a game that we’ve got to forget about.”
The Sounders actually had the better chances through the opening minutes.
But in the 14th minute, Patrick Mullins put the Revolution on the board. Other goals quickly followed: Diego Fagundez in the 29th minute, Teal Bunbury in the 36th, Fagundez again in the 41st.
“I knew (Sounders right back DeAndre Yedlin) would go up a lot, and I knew there was going to be space,” Fagundez said. “I took advantage of that, and they got punished for it.”
Any halftime hopes the Sounders held for turning things around were quashed less than a minute into the second half when a ball sent into the box by Bunbury banged off the chest of Sounders defender Chad Marshall and went into the Seattle net.
“You can’t get too high, you can’t get too low,” Schmid said. “Obviously they had a great win today. … I don’t think they’re five goals better than us; but today they were five goals better than us, and we have to accept it. That pain will sit with us, and hopefully we’ll meet again in MLS Cup.”
Despite the defeat, Seattle (7-3-1) remains atop the MLS standings, while New England (5-3-2) drew even with Sporting Kansas City for the Eastern Conference lead.
The Sounders have scored the most goals in MLS (22), but also are tied for the most goals allowed (19).
An announced crowd of 11,293 turned out to watch what was a homecoming for Seattle goals-leader Clint Dempsey, who played the 2004-2006 seasons in New England.
“They have young talent coming up,” Dempsey said. “You need to find a good mix on your team. That’s something the Revs have always done a good job of, giving young players the opportunity to try to develop and improve; and I think that’s what allowed me to get to where I am today.”
The Sounders are scheduled to fly home today, but Dempsey and others might not fly with the team. Around noon, United States national team coach Jurgen Klinsmann is expected to announce the 30-man roster for his pre-World Cup camp. Dempsey seems certain to be named, while midfielder/defender Brad Evans seems likely, and Yedlin also could be included.
Sounders players who stay with the national team through the World Cup are expected to miss at least four league matches, starting Saturday when San Jose visits CenturyLink Field.
“I feel like we have one of these games every single year where we get blown out — like last year in Colorado where we got crushed (5-1),” Evans said. “There’s no excuse, we said we were ready to go and a couple of defensive lapses put us on the back foot and now all we can do is prepare for San Jose.”
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