LDN - Sports

Valdez's header sends Sounders into conference semis

[October 29, 2016] By Evan Webeck, The Sports Xchange

SEATTLE -- After 87 minutes of scoreless soccer, the Seattle Sounders got the breakthrough they needed to win their playoff opener.

Nelson Valdez scored on a diving header in the 88th minute to lead the Sounders to a 1-0 victory over Sporting Kansas City in a Western Conference knockout-round match Thursday night at CenturyLink Field.

Valdez put the ball in the back of the net, and seconds later, his teammates huddled, jumped and celebrated in the left corner. Roman Torres then booted the ball into the section of Emerald City Supporters behind the net in celebration.

Valdez's dramatic goal earned the Sounders a meeting with top-seeded FC Dallas in the Western Conference semifinals. The first leg of the home-and-home series will be Sunday at Seattle, with the return leg to be played in Texas on Nov. 6.

For Valdez, a 32-year-old forward, the deciding goal was a long time coming. Despite prime opportunities as the season dragged on, Valdez had yet to score. It had been 364 days since Valdez last managed a goal. He only had two since coming to Seattle in 2015 as a designated player -- one who had played in Europe and in multiple World Cups for his come country of Paraguay.

"This has been a very difficult season for me," Valdez said, gleaming at his locker as teammates continued to interrupt him with celebratory cheers. "At some point, I thought there was something going on against me ... but as I always say, there's no Paraguayan who ever gives up, so thanks to my teammates and everyone on the team, I was able to overcome that."

Despite that, Valdez wasn't a starter. He didn't even enter the game that he won until the 79th minute, shortly before he beat Sporting KC keeper Tim Melia, who held the Sounders scoreless for 268 minutes between two regular-season matches and the start of the Thursday match.

Sporting KC coach Peter Vermes believes the 268-minute streak should have extended even longer. He was not alone in thinking that referees missed Valdez being offside before his header. A similar call denied a Sporting KC goal in the 53rd minute.

"Unfortunately, the game was one in which where we scored, our guy was onsides, they scored, their guy was offsides," Vermes said. "The referee misses it and changes the outcome of the game. I will tell you in my opinion and for our organization, Major League Soccer owes us an apology."

It was evident what both the Sounders and Sporting KC went through to make it there and what the stakes were. Emotions ran high and physical play escalated. Vermes' comments postgame were just one example.

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Seattle was ninth in the 10-team Western Conference after a loss to Kansas City on July 24. Two days later, the Sounders fired longtime coach Sigi Schmid.

Under interim coach Brian Schmetzer, Seattle went 8-2-4 to finish in fourth place in the West -- despite the absence of Clint Dempsey due to an irregular heartbeat.

The physical play began in the 32nd minute as Seattle midfielder Osvaldo Alonso made an aggressive tackle that sent Sporting forward Roger Espinoza flailing to the turf and drew a yellow card. It also prompted a scrap between the teams.

Alonso's yellow set the table for a gutsy tackle by Sporting midfielder Benny Feilhaber, one that likely would have earned him a red card had he not just made contact with the ball. But Feilhaber lay on the ground. A stretcher was called. He refused it and got back up. Minutes later, Feilhaber was going berserk and earned a yellow of his own.

Sporting Kansas City attacked early and often.

"I'm a guy who tries to do my best when evaluating a match," Vermes said. "The statistics don't lie in this game. We dominated the game from beginning to end."

Kansas City's high press gave Seattle's backline issues, resulting in a pair of clean shots on goal from midfielder Paulo Nagamura but Sounders keeper Stefan Frei (seven saves) continued to bail out his defenders. Nagamura sent the rebound off one diving save, however, across to Sporting forward Graham Zusi for KC's best shot of a first 45 minutes it dominated. But Zusi's attack hit off the post, and the Sounders were able to clear.

Sporting held possession 50.8 percent of the time. It put seven shots on target to Seattle's one. But that one went through, and it sent the Sounders onto the semifinals and Sporting KC back home, its season finished.

NOTES: Seattle and Kansas City never met previously in the MLS Cup playoffs. Sporting KC won both regular-season matches, 1-0 and 3-0. ... Sounders FC have never missed the playoffs since the franchise's incorporation eight years ago. That ties the Los Angeles Galaxy for the second-longest such streak in MLS history. Sporting KC currently owns a club-record, six-year playoff streak.

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