Two goals within the first eight minutes of the match, courtesy of Kelvin Leerdam and Raul Ruidiaz, propelled the Seattle Sounders to a comfortable 2-0 home win over the Colorado Rapids at CenturyLink Field on Saturday night.
It didn't take long for the Sounders to get on the board — in the fifth minute, Leerdam was the beneficiary of a ball played back to him following a snuffed-out Ruidiaz attempt, scoring for the second time in two matches. Then, less than three minutes later, Ruidiaz and Victor Rodriguez played a neat give-and-go through the Rapids defense, with the Peruvian scoring his second goal of the season to put the Sounders up 2-0.
The Rapids had their chances after that — indeed, finishing the half with a 8-7 shot advantage — but couldn't get on the board throughout the match. Kei Kamara came closest with some attempts that kept Sounders keeper Stefan Frei occupied. Additionally, Kellyn Acosta sailed a shot just over the bar as one of his last actions of the match, giving way to Andre Shinyashiki in the final 15 minutes, as Rapids coach Anthony Hudson sought to bring in additional offense that didn't quite materialize.
Goals
Three Things
- THE BIG PICTURE: For the Sounders, it's a second straight home win, they have a +5 goal differential, and they're in fantastic shape heading to Chicago next week for the first of two straight road matches. The Rapids, who may have not completely thawed from last week's home draw in extremely cold conditions, continue a grueling March pitting them against five potential Western playoff entrants. After next week's nationally-televised match against Sporting Kansas City, they do a Texas two-step, on the road against FC Dallas and back at home against Houston.
- MOMENT OF THE MATCH: The Ruidiaz goal was the culmination of a great offensive moment, and coming so closely on the heels of the first goal, it seemed like an onslaught of goals were coming. While Colorado deserve credit for keeping it to just two, Seattle deserve a little more credit for getting out to the hot start.
- MAN OF THE MATCH: While Leerdam likely won't stay on his goal-a-game pace, Ruidiaz most certainly could, and he threatened to get ahead of that against the Rapids by staying focused and goal-minded all night.
Next Up
- SEA: Saturday, March 16 at Chicago Fire (1 pm ET | MLS LIVE on ESPN+ in US, TSN1 in Canada)
- COL: Sunday, March 17 vs. Sporting Kansas City (9 pm ET | MLS LIVE on ESPN+, DAZN in Canada)
