Cascadia Cup Lost, Sounders Shut Out By Rival Vancouver

This was an important game for the Seattle Sounders for a couple of reasons. They needed a result to stay ahead of the LA Galaxy in the western conference table and in the race for the Supporters Shield, and to gain Cascadia Cup bragging rights over their Vancouver and Portland rivals.

But the game meant more to the Vancouver Whitecaps, who needed a win to take back the fifth and final spot in the Western Conference playoffs.

The Whitecaps did just that in a fluky, 1-0 victory over the Sounders, who still control their own destiny in the Supporters Shield race with their last two games being against the Galaxy.

I say fluky because Vancouver’s lone goal was scored by a player the Sounder defenders didn’t even know was on the field.

Kekuta Manneh created problems for the Sounders’ backs down the left side the entire first half. However, his shots on goal were always contested. But just before halftime, he went down with quad tightness and came off the pitch breifly. He then proceeded to jump back into play in the middle of a Vancouver counter-attack in behind Brad Evans and Osvaldo Alonso.

“I am expecting the referee to not give them an advantage,” Evans said. “When we are pushing forward, there is always a risk of a counter-attack, so the referee has to wait until the play is done.”

“I am expecting the referee to not give them an advantage,” Evans said. “When we are pushing forward, there is always a risk of a counter-attack, so the referee has to wait until the play is done.”

Chad Marshall tried to help, but he was not able to cut off Manneh who used a quick stepover and sent a left-footed shot from the corner of the six-yard box just under the outstretched leg of Sounders’ keeper Stephan Frei.

However, the Sounders can’t blame the loss on the botched re-entrance alone, as they struggled to put any real stress on the Whitecap defense all night. Vancouver shut out the dangerous Seattle attack for the first time all season.

“It wasn’t what lost us the game,” Chad Marshall said. “Obviously it was a bad time to take the rule, but we came out and like I said, we had some chances. We have to find ways to beat them.”

Vancouver becomes the first team to successfully defend their Cascadia Cup title since all three teams joined the MLS.

With both teams sitting on 60 points, the Galaxy currently have three games remaining compared to the Sounders’ two. LA plays FC Dallas on Sunday and then the two teams finish the regular season with a home-and-away series with the Western Conference #1 seed and Supporters’ Shield on the line.