Clint Dempsey has become one of THOSE strikers. You know, the kind that can be invisible for 89 minutes, then produce a moment of magic that can change a game. He doesn’t have many of those games for club and country because he is usually active and influential throughout, but on Sunday night he did.
And the Red Bulls paid the price.
Dempsey had been marked out of the match by the Red Bulls’ defense, a combination of Damien Perrinelle and Karl Ouimette in the center and Chris Duvall and Kemar Lawrence on the outside, plus the smothering marking by defensive midfielders Dax McCarty and Felipe. Seattle’s other dangerous attacking players – forward Obafemi Martins and midfielder Marco Pappa – proved much more effective. Still, the Red Bulls appeared on the way to a victory, then a well-earned tie, but Dempsey turned the match into a devastating 2-1 loss before a raucous crowd of 40,194 at CenturyLink Field.
Dempsey wasn’t credited with the winning goal a minute into second-half stoppage time, although he should have been, but he started the play and nearly finished it to give the Sounders (8-3-2) the victory that gave them sole possession of first place in the Western Conference.
“It's gut-wrenching right now because we put a lot of good things together on the day, and it's another game where we feel like there's a lot of good moments, but we don't make them add up enough to good chances and then to goals,” Red Bulls coach Jesse Marsch said. “Then we let little plays slip away so it's a really tough one to swallow right now, but we can't hang our heads. We just have to dig in and now our backs are against the wall, then figure out a way to get better.”
The decisive play started with Dempsey, who had room in the center of the field to play the ball on the right to defender Tyrone Mears. Once Dempsey made the pass he continued his run into the box and the Red Bulls failed to track him – one of the few mistakes they made in an otherwise strong game. Mears drove the ball toward the back post, over the heads of Perinelle and Ouimette, where Dempsey leaped and connected with a left-footed shot that was headed into the far side of the net before Chad Barrett got enough of a toe on it to receive credit for the goal.
“I got my toe on it. I got what I wanted to on it,” Barrett said. “The whole reason why I wanted to get my toe and didn't head it is I wasn't sure. And at the last second, as the ball is coming across, I can kind of see it's going in. As a forward I can tell when it's going in and when it's not, but there's that chance where it might hit the post or someone might be on the other side of me. I'm not too sure so I just did it to make sure we got the three points. I knew I was onside but it was going in anyways.”
The play capped a strong final 15 minutes by the Sounders, who were outplayed most of the match by the Red Bulls, who attacked from the opening whistle and made offensive substitutions in the final half-hour to try and win the game.
“Yeah, we were a little bit on our heels at the end of the second half, but at the same time we had chances to make plays going on the counter on the other end,” Marsch said. “You knew when it was 1-1 that the game was still up for grabs a little bit. We tried to push and in the end Clint Dempsey makes a really tough play. And that's what you need, you need your big players in big moments to make big plays. We're going to continue to push and we're going to get there, but now we're struggling to put full performances together.”
Until that moment, the Red Bulls (4-3-5) had played great defense. McCarty tracked back inside the box to intercept a through ball in the 13th minute and Perrinelle stopped one-on-one threats by Martins in the 29th minute and Martins and Lamar Neagle in the 68th minute. Goalkeeper Luis Robles only made one save but it was one for the highlight reel.
Marco Pappa took a free kick on the right side, 30 yards from goal. He curled a cross into the box where midfielder Cristian Roldan got position inside McCarty and sent a glancing header toward the lower right corner. Robles dove to his left and in full stretch got a hand on the ball and McCarty cleared it out of danger.
“I saw it late so I think even when I saved it the ball was behind me,” Robles said. “It was just one of those moments that kept us in it in the first half and we were able to get a goal coming into halftime 1-0 in a good position. I felt with this team and the quality we had, that was a favorable position to be in to finish the last 45.”
The Red Bulls finally broke through in the 36th minute. Bradley Wright-Phillips took a free kick at the top of the box with the ball deflecting into the air off the wall. The Seattle defense was slow to react and Red Bulls midfielder Lloyd Sam, with inside position on defender Chad Marshall, headed the ball down and it bounced past Sounders goalkeeper Stefan Frei for his fourth goal of the season.
It was the first goal Seattle had given up in 338 minutes.
“They had some set play figured out there with the way they played the ball over,” Frei said. “I didn't really see the ball that well, so I wanted to make sure I covered my side. If he was going to beat the wall and go far side, that was going to take some skill. We probably just need to follow up a little better, the way they did, to help out with second balls. We knew we were going to get scored on at some point, and I'm really happy we were able to get the win. That's the important part.”
The Red Bulls were denied a penalty kick in the 54th minute when Seattle defender Brad Evans slid and wiped out Wright-Phillips as he was about to shoot. The no-call proved costly 15 minutes later when Pappa tied the match.
A Felipe through ball was knocked away near the top of the Seattle box. The ball was played out to the right and sent along the wing to Martins. His cross-field pass found Pappa, who dribbled into the box. Pappa faked right, then left, spinning Duvall around in the process, and he drilled a left-footed shot high to the far side of the net for a 1-1 tie.
“He is a player who is very talented,” Sounders coach Sigi Schmid said. “Sometimes I want him to be higher up on the field to expose his talents. He is doing that better. He is getting more touches in the opponent's end of the field ... and that's what we look for. Now he's got a couple of goals, I think he already has a career-high in assists, and we need him to continue to play that way.”
The game seemed headed for a draw, an acceptable outcome for the Red Bulls in, perhaps, the toughest place to play in Major League Soccer. That is, until Dempsey came alive.
“We're obviously disappointed,” midfielder Sacha Kljestan said. “This game's a tough one to swallow. We put a lot effort into this game. Guys emptied their tanks, and it sucks, but we need to be better closing out games. We talked about early in the season being a team that doesn't give up a goal late in a game. So we've got ourselves to blame, we've got to look ourselves in the mirror and get ready again for next week.”
Frank Giase has covered Major League Soccer since the league's inception in 1996. Follow him on twitter at @Frank Giase. He can also be reached at fgiase@gmail.com.
