MLS Regular Season
Sunday, March 8; 6:30 p.m. PT; CenturyLink Field
TV/Radio: FOX Sports 1; KIRO Radio 97.3 FM; ESPN Deportes Radio, 1490 AM (Spanish)
The opening weekend’s fixtures for the new season conclude with a mouthwatering matchup as Seattle Sounders FC play host to the New England Revolution on Sunday evening at CenturyLink Field. Sounders FC won the Supporters’ Shield for the first time last season, but the team fell short in a bid for its first MLS Cup appearance.
The Revolution stormed through the Eastern Conference to reach the title game for a fourth time, but were once again on the short end as the LA Galaxy knocked them off for a record fifth MLS championship.
REFEREE: Armando Villarreal. AR1 (bench): Peter Manikowski; AR2 (opposite): Corey Parker; 4th: Baboucarr Jallow
MLS Career: 47 games; FC/gm: 22.7; Y/gm: 2.7; R: 16; pens: 11
SUSPENDED: none
DISABLED LIST: none
INTERNATIONAL ABSENCES: none
HEAD-TO-HEAD
ALL-TIME (9 meetings): Sounders FC 3 wins, 11 goals … Revolution 4 wins, 15 goals … Ties 2
AT SEATTLE (4 meetings): Sounders FC 2 wins, 5 goals … Revolution 1 win, 2 goals … Ties 1
LAST YEAR (MLS):
5/11: NE 5, SEA 0 (Mullins 14; Fagundez 29, 41; Bunbury 36; own goal 46)
- This is the only league meeting between the teams this season.
- The Revolution took a 5-0 victory in the only meeting between the teams a year ago, the heaviest defeat in the six-year history of the all-time series.
- Last year’s win was the Revolution’s first victory against Sounders FC since 2010, when they won 3-1 on Sept. 4 at Gillette Stadium. The Revs have not allowed a goal in their last 235 minutes against Seattle.
SEATTLE SOUNDERS FC
Seattle Sounders FC once again renew their quest for a first-ever appearance in MLS Cup, having seen their campaign a year ago ended on their own ground by eventual champions LA Galaxy. Sounders FC won the Supporters’ Shield for the first time in club history a year ago, finishing atop the Western Conference with 64 points and 20 victories.
TEAM NEWS
- Sounders FC ended their participation in the Desert Diamond Cup in Tucson, Ariz. with a 1-1 draw with Sporting Kansas City in the finale.
- Obafemi Martins scored from a Clint Dempsey for the lone goal for Sounders FC, who ended their preseason slate with a 2-3-2 record.
- Schmid’s team figured to be very similar to the one that he will run out for the season opener. Brad Evans filled a center back role, one of nine starters to play all 90 minutes.
- “I was very comfortable. I didn’t feel out of place,” Evans said after the match. “And I think it’s a great time to be feeling that way, a week out from the home opener.”
- Three days before the Desert Diamond Cup finale, Sounders FC suffered a 2-1 loss to the New England Revolution in a preview of the season opener, with Kenny Cooper scoring the goal. But Schmid ran out a team full of reserves, indicating he was also gearing his charges toward the rhythm of playing one match per week.
- “I think we’re where we need to be, fitness-wise,” Schmid said. “What we want to do is be a team that competes for the Supporters’ Shield and MLS Cup. We have never missed the playoffs in our existence, and we don’t intend to this year.”
NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION
The New England Revolution once again came up just short at the final hurdle, falling again in MLS Cup in a 2-1 extra time loss to the LA Galaxy. The Revolution finished in second place in the Eastern Conference with 55 points, reaching the league championship match for a fourth time.
TEAM NEWS
- The Revolution concluded their preseason with a 3-0 win against FC Tucson in their final match in the Desert Diamond Cup. Teal Bunbury, Kelyn Rowe and Sean Okoli netted for the Revs.
- “We wanted to sharpen up,” said Revolution head coach Jay Heaps. “We’ve felt like we’ve competed well and we’ve done some things in the games leading up to now, but we just wanted to sharpen things up in the final third and break teams down. We were able to do that.”
- Said goalkeeper Bobby Shuttleworth: “We needed to use this game to kind of get all the kinks out. It’s nice to put up a shutout and get the movements down, get our intensity going and hopefully we can bring that into next week.”
- The Revolution ended the tournament with two consecutive victories for a 2-1-1 record, including a last-gasp 2-1 win against season-opener opponents Sounders FC, as Charlie Davies scored a late penalty kick for the match-winner, his second goal of the preseason to lead the club.
- “It’s been building ever since the beginning of preseason and to end with scoring three goals is great,” said Bunbury. “Just getting the chemistry with all the guys, it builds and it takes time and I think it’ll continue to take some time with Juan back in now.”
- Diego Fagundez again reprised his attacking midfield role behind the front two, appearing in all four of the matches in Arizona after returning from the South American Youth Championship, where he played four matches for Uruguay as they finished third and won a berth in the FIFA U-20 World Cup.
- “We wanted to get everything right for him so that he could come into preseason with the right attitude and the right state of mind, but also physically in the right place,” Heaps said. “He’s there. He’s doing excellent and we’re excited about having a really deep team this year."
