SEATTLE — How well are things going for the Seattle Sounders these days? Marco Pappa is scoring beautiful game-winners with his bad foot.
Seattle’s talented, left-footed midfielder, who is normally one of the more one-footed players on the field, scored the game’s only goal Wednesday night with his right foot in a 1-0 victory over the Colorado Rapids, a result that gives the Sounders the best record in Major League Soccer at 7-3-2.
During a first half in which the Sounders completely dominated in terms of possession and chances, Pappa made the play that counted most, collecting a botched Colorado clearance on top of the box before bending a right-footed shot — “a world-class goal,” Rapids coach Pablo Mastroeni called it — into the upper corner of the goal in the 15th minute.
Asked when he last hit a shot that well with his right foot, Pappa smiled and said, “I don’t remember, because this might be my first time.”
Or as teammate Cristian Roldan put it, “I thought he could only stand on that right foot.”
And with that rare, right-footed strike from Pappa, the Sounders not only have the best record in MLS and two point advantage over FC Dallas in the Western Conference standings, they also have now won five of their past seven with four of those games coming on the road. With 18 goals, the Sounders are tied for the most in MLS, and they’ve conceded nine goals, the fewest in the league. By just about any measure, last year’s Supporters’ Shield winners are the best team in the league just over a third of the way into this season.
“We talked before the game about the fact that, if we win this game today, we go to the top of the table, we have the most points per game, we’ll be one of the top scoring teams in the league, if we get a shutout, we’ll be the top defensive team in the league,” Sounders coach Sigi Schmid said. “Twelve games in, those are pretty good benchmarks.”
Then again, that doesn’t mean the Sounders are satisfied with what they’ve accomplished so far.
“I think we can still do better, but that’s me, I’m a coach and I’m never entirely happy,” Schmid said. “There are still times we can find those balls in behind — if we can finish some of those looks that we had, then it would have been a very complete game.”
The goal was Pappa’s first of the season, and just the fifth Sounders goal not scored by Clint Dempsey or Obafemi Martins. Pappa has been very involved in the team’s success, assisting on five goals, but he was relieved to add a goal to his stat sheet.
“I finally scored a goal, but I’m more happy the team got the points,” Pappa said. “We’re at the top of the table and are looking forward to our next game.”
The Sounders had several more chances in the first half and early in the second half, including a few great chances from top scorers Dempsey and Martins, who returned after a two-game absence because of a leg injury. And while the Sounders couldn’t add to the lead, they were for much of the game the best version of themselves, dominating possession (76 percent in the first half) to not just create dangerous chances, but keep the Rapids from having many of their own. Schmid noted that Seattle’s 69.5 percent possession for the game was all the more impressive because of the absence of midfielder Gonzalo Pineda, who is usually a key cog in the passing game.
The Rapids’ best chance was Kevin Doyle’s knuckling, long-range shot in the first half that forced Stefan Frei to make an awkward save, leaning left before falling right to smother the shot, but Colorado was a better team overall in the second half, largely thanks to the halftime substitution to bring Juan Ramirez into the game. Colorado could not, however, break through against a Sounders defense that has now earned three straight shutouts following a rough performance in a 3-2 loss at Columbus.
“I think we’re playing well,” center back Brad Evans said. “There’s been a few changes in the lineup. I think we’ve figured a few things out. You always look back at your losses, what we could have done better, and I think we shot ourselves in the foot in a couple of those cases, so maybe we should have even more victories or ties, so that’s the way we look at it. But it’s still early in the season and things can change. Teams start out hot and they fade; teams start out slow and get hot, so we’ve just got to focus on what we’re doing. Keep the locker room tight and keep the boys focused on the next game.”
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
