"Se4ttle" close as Sounders advance to fourth straight Open Cup Final

July 11, 2012, Starfire Stadium, Tukwila, Wa. – Seattle Sounders FC wins the U.S. Open Cup semi-final match 4-1 against Chivas USA. Eddie Johnson scores the first Seattle goal. (Wilson Tsoi)

TUKWILA, Wash. – Seattle Sounders FC advanced to its fourth straight U.S. Open Cup final with a 4-1 win over Chivas USA on Wednesday night at Starfire Stadium. Osvaldo Alonso scored a goal and assist, and Eddie Johnson, Brad Evans and Sammy Ochoa added goals.

Seattle will travel to Sporting Kansas City for the Open Cup final on August 8 at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park in Kansas City, Kan. Kansas City defeated Philadelphia Union, 2-0, on Wednesday night in Chester, Penn.

Sounders FC is vying to become the first team in the 99-year history of the Open Cup to win four consecutive championships.

Johnson opened the scoring for Sounders FC in the 31st minute when Alonso played him behind the defense on a well-placed pass. Johnson beat Chivas keeper Dan Kennedy from outside the 18-yard box for his first Open Cup goal with Sounders FC.

Johnson has now scored five goals in the last five games and six goals in the last seven games across all competitions.

Seattle doubled its lead in the 48th minute when Alonso converted a penalty kick following a foul by Rauwshan McKenzie on Fredy Montero in the box. Alonso stepped up to the spot and beat Kennedy down the middle.

It was the second penalty goal of the tournament for Alonso, who leads Sounders FC with four goals and two assists in this year’s competition.

Chivas pulled a goal back in the 74th minute when Cesar Romero knocked in a rebound from his own shot, cutting Seattle’s lead to 2-1.

It was the first goal allowed by Seattle in Open Cup play in 291 minutes.

Sounders FC added two more tallies in the final 10 minutes of the match to secure the victory.

In the 83rd minute, Fredy Montero made a run up the middle of the field and fed a streaking Evans in the box, who beat Kennedy with a right-footed shot for his first Open Cup goal with Seattle

Ochoa added the fourth goal in the 88th minute – two minutes after entering the match – when he picked up a loose ball in the box and blasted into the net for his third goal of this year’s tournament.

Seattle outshot Chivas, 18-4 (9-4 on goal), and held a 6-1 advantage on corner kicks.

The semifinal win extended the club’s unbeaten streak to 18 games (17-0-1) in Open Cup play. Seattle is now unbeaten in the past five games (3-0-2) across all competitions.

Seattle has outscored opponents, 15-2, in the 2012 tournament.

Sounders FC returns to league play on Sunday with a nationally televised ESPN match at New York Red Bulls. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m. PT at Red Bull Arena in Harrison, NJ.

Scoring Summary:
SEA – Eddie Johnson (Osvaldo Alonso) 31′
SEA – Osvaldo Alonso (penalty kick) 48′
CHV – Cesar Romero 74′
SEA – Brad Evans (Fredy Montero) 83′
SEA – Sammy Ochoa 88′

Seattle Sounders FC: Byran Meredith, Zach Scott, Jhon Kennedy Hurtado, Pat Ianni, Leo Gonzalez, Cordell Cato (Brad Evans 61), Osvaldo Alonso, Andy Rose, Alex Caskey (Alvaro Fernandez 81), Eddie Johnson (Sammy Ochoa 86), Fredy Montero.

Substitutes Not Used: Josh Ford, Marc Burch, Jeff Parke, Mauro Rosales.

TOTAL SHOTS: 18 (Montero 5); SHOTS ON GOAL: 9 (Three tied with 2); FOULS: 17 (Alonso 6); OFFSIDE: 5 (Johnson 3); CORNER KICKS: 6 (Caskey 4); SAVES: 3 (Meredith 3).

Chivas USA: Dan Kennedy, James Riley, Danny Califf, Rauwshan McKenzie, Jorge Villafana, Oswaldo Minda, Ben Zemanski (Ryan Smith 85), Blair Gavin (Cesar Romero 64), Alejandro Moreno, Paolo Cardozo, Juan Pablo Angel (Jose Correa 69).

Substitutes Not Used: Tim Melia, Casey Townsend, Peter Vagenas, John Valencia.

TOTAL SHOTS: 4 (Romero 2); SHOTS ON GOAL: 4 (Romero 2); FOULS: 15 (Minda 5); OFFSIDE: 2 (Correa, Gavin 1); CORNER KICKS: 1 (Cardozo 1); SAVES: 5 (Kennedy 5).

Misconduct Summary:
SEA – Osvaldo Alonso (caution) 42′
CHV – Oswaldo Minda (caution) 44′
CHV – Danny Califf (caution) 78′

Referee: Chris Penso
Referee’s Assistants: Frank Anderson, Mike Kampmeinert
4th Official: Baldomero Toledo
Attendance: 4,500
Time of Game: 1:51
Weather: Sunny and 76 degrees

All Statistics contained in the boxscore are unoffical.

July 11, 2012, Starfire Stadium, Tukwila, Wa. – Seattle Sounders FC wins the U.S. Open Cup semi-final match 4-1 against Chivas USA. Eddie Johnson enjoys the moment. (Wilson Tsoi)

POSTGAME QUOTES: Sounders FC vs. Chivas USA – July 11, 2012

Sigi Schmid – Sounders FC Head Coach

(Opening…) “It’s real now, so we can talk about trying to win four [US Open Cup Championships] in a row. Obviously, it’ll be difficult being away from home – playing at Kansas City. It would have been great to play at home because I think we would have more than we had last year. Who knows, maybe we would have sold out the whole place – 60,000-plus. But we’re going to Kansas City. The first one we won on the road and we’re going to try to win the fourth one on the road.”

(On what worked tonight…) “It was a great first goal. Ozzie [Osvaldo Alonso] led the ball – Fredy Montero actually made a good run where he pulled off the front line and that opened up the lane for Eddie Johnson to run through and then a great ball from Ozzie, a great run from Eddie. That worked really well for us. I thought Eddie and Montero were dangerous together as a pair. Fredy was running balls tonight and set up Brad [Evans] on the goal as well, so I’m really pleased with his effort. I thought the two forwards were really dangerous. Ozzie and [Andy] Rose I thought did a really good job of holding down the middle in midfield. After the first 15-20 minutes I thought we settled into the game and we played well.”

(On if they were able to take advantage of the high-line throughout the game…) “Yeah, we wanted them to play through the middle of the back a little bit and we felt that we could get behind them. We had enough space, obviously we showed that at times. But we were able to get behind them – [Cordell] Cato was able to get behind them and stretch them on the right side as well and that opened the game up for us.”

(On Chivas USA’s goal…) “I wasn’t happy with their goal. It’s one of those things where we sort of dozed off a little bit and didn’t play the ball. We still have to manage the game a little bit better. It was good to get a goal right away from a good combination from Fredy Montero and [Brad] Evans. If you figure out minutes played, if I play [Sammy] Ochoa 90 minutes he’ll score like 100 goals.”

(On how they will approach Kansas City…) “We’ll take a step back and think about it and obviously look at it. Certainly it’s an electric atmosphere because the crowd is so close and to a certain extent it might be more intimidating than it is at CenturyLink [Field] just because the crowd is that much on top of you. But you look at what these guys have done in one-off games, you look at the history of any league around the world and you don’t see any teams winning four straight FA Cups. Teams might win four league championships in a row, but because there are so many things that could go wrong in a one off game it’s tough to win four in a row.”

(On how much time they spend talking about history…) “We’ll be very aware when we step on the field and [realize] we have a chance to do something nobody’s done and that should be a highly motivating factor for our club and for all the players on the team.”

July 11, 2012, Starfire Stadium, Tukwila, Wa. – Seattle Sounders FC wins the U.S. Open Cup semi-final match 4-1 against Chivas USA. Ozzie Alonso puts home a penalty kick. (Wilson Tsoi)

Osvaldo Alonso – Sounders FC Midfielder

(On the win…) “It’s a win. We win tonight and we advance to the finals. I’m very happy for myself and the team. We’re looking forward to the finals.”

(On Chivas USA…) “Chivas is a great team. They came here and played a hard game. They played with passion. We did a good job. We pushed the ball, we scored goals and we were fortunate to get the win.”

Brad Evans – Sounders FC Midfielder

(On his goal…) “Fredy drew some guys, like he always does, acted like he was going to shoot–it kind of draws the keeper out of position–plays me in, I took a touch and just slammed it home.”

(On playing for a record-fourth straight Open Cup…) “Just the chance isn’t good enough for us, so we have to go into and want this.”

Eddie Johnson – Sounders FC Forward

(On playing for a record-fourth straight Open Cup…) “We don’t want to be the reason why this team doesn’t win four in a row, so when we’re out there anytime you get an opportunity you have to make it count…The expectations and the chance we have in this Cup, we need to concentrate on this game. We’re on a good streak right now–we’re uneaten in five games, so we’re just trying to use that momentum we got right now. Just trying to go forward being consistent as we start the second part of the season.”

(On his play of recent…) “It’s a team sport. I get pushed by these guys week in and week out. The team has been patient with me, the organization has been patient with me, and the players. It’s frustrating when you don’t have a preseason with the team and it’s hard to get going from the beginning. My coaching staff believed in me, my teammates believed in me, and with that confidence everyone has in me it’s easy to when you’re out there on the field to just work hard…and put yourself in good positioning as a forward and just trying to get on the end of things. You know with forwards, the goals come in waves. Right now I’m trying to ride this wave, trying to keep my head down, and just trying to focus really. Just taking it one game at a time…The most important thing is being consistent and taking it one day at a time. You know it’s a long season, you know you’re going to have opportunities to score goals.”

Robin Fraser – Chivas USA Head Coach

(On the gameplan for tonight’s match…) “We wanted to win the game. Obviously with the smaller field, we knew we were going to have our battles, but I thought the first half went how we expected. It was a battle for territory the whole game. I thought that we played well in the first half, but it got away from us in the second. We made a mistake and gave up a goal late in the first half, which is hard to recover from, and then we gave up a killer goal in the first minute of the second half. I certainly thought the first half went as expected with the exception of the goal.”

(What were the holes in team’s play tonight…) “The biggest thing was giving up the second goal and putting ourselves in a hole. Then we were fighting an uphill battle the whole game. If you do that then you are going to open yourselves up and that’s it. Once you start chasing the game, you create space for them and give them opportunities.”

(On playing on a smaller field…) “You are preparing for what is going to be a physical game. It was a battle for territory and neither team wanted to make a mistake in their side of the field. Certainly as the game opens up you can start playing, but for us we knew it was going to be a physical game early.”

James Riley – Chivas USA Defender

(On the feeling if returning to Seattle for the first time…) “It’s obviously great. A little bitter sweet because it was not the result we were hoping for. We wanted to keep it a little more competitive than we did, but they are a fantastic team and we knew it was going to be a big challenge to beat them at Starfire. They proved their quality so kudos to them. All we can do is our lick are wounds and train for Portland next Wednesday.”

(On playing on the smaller field at Starfire…) “It is ok. I mean I have played there before and I’m sure most of us have played on small fields at some point. You just have to know how to play it. I honestly like playing on smaller fields more. It is a fast uptempo game from minute one to minute ninety. I think they might have been a little more used to it tonight, but I don’t think the small field had that much of an effect on our play tonight.”

(What were the holes in team’s play tonight…) “I think the first half was very even. We we very unfortunate to give up that goal to Eddie [Johnson]. Eddie on a breakaway is exactly what we were trying to prevent, but our lines were a little off and he finishes so well that he was able to put it in. To go down one nil at the half is very unfortunate, because we really wanted to go in tied. Then when they got a goal one minute into the second half, it was obviously a dagger. It was difficult to come back against a quality team like that, especially at Starfire. We had an uphill battle. We got it to two to one, and obviously at two to one we thought we had a chance to equalize because it is the hardest lead to defend in soccer. We thought we could have had it, but they won the critical moments on offense and defense tonight.”

(On receiving a standing ovation at the end…) “It is great. Like I said, landing here yesterday to blue skies and green vegetation is great. When we trained at Starfire yesterday I told the guys that it was going to be fun today with the fans and how passionate they would be. I told them it would be a challenge, but a great game. We wanted to play the champions at Starfire, you can’t write a better script than that, but we just couldn’t get the result we wanted. The fans here are top notch, and the three years I spent here were some of the best, both on and off the field.”

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