It's the play everyone will be talking about after Wednesday night's Western Conference Knockout Round game. And it'll cost the Seattle Sounders their starting goalkeeper in the first leg of the Western Semis vs. Portland.
In the 85th minute of the match, with the Sounders nursing a 1-0 lead, Michael Gspurning made a critical error, stepping outside of his box to catch a long clearance by Colorado's Drew Moor. (See video above.)
Even by FIFA 14's rule book, you can't do that. The big Austrian was shown a straight red by head official Silviu Petrescu for the infraction.
That play reduced Seattle to 10 men and added five minutes of extra time for the Rapids to play up a man. Luckily for Gspurning, Eddie Johnson bailed him out with an insurance goal in stoppage time to guarantee the 2-0 victory for the hosts.
But it also means that Gspurning will be suspended for the first leg of the Western Conference Semifinals on Saturday when the Sounders host the No. 1 seed Portland Timbers (10 pm ET, NBCSN). His replacement on Wednesday night, Marcus Hahnemann, will likely be the starter.
Considering this was the worst misstep in a night full of shaky errors from Gspurning, that might suit Sounders fans just fine.
