When things have been going as well as they have for the Seattle Sounders, results like Saturday's 2-1 loss to Real Salt Lake seem to come out of nowhere. The Sounders dominated the run of play, outshooting RSL 19-10 and claiming 66 percent of the possession, but it was RSL who made more of their chances. They rode an own goal in the 13th minute, a missed penalty from Mauro Rosales and a goal from Alvaro Saborio in the 56th minute to walk out of CenturyLink Field with a hard-fought victory. It was the first time RSL had beaten the Sounders in Seattle.
Seattle Sounders Vs. Real Salt Lake: Odd Game Halts Sounders’ Unbeaten Run
This game featured a good dose of strangeness, much of it courtesy of referee Mark Kadlecik, who has now issued five red cards and five penalties in 14 career matches. Two of those reds and one of those penalties came in this game.
Kadlecik's first interesting decision was to award the Sounders a penalty in the 17th minute on what replays seemed to clearly show as fairly incidental contact in the box between Robbie Russell and Mike Fucito. The Sounders failed to capitalize, though, as Rosales sent the penalty wide of an open goal.
From there, the game just got weirder. Kadlecik gave a second yellow to RSL defender Tony Beltran in the 35th minute. At first, Kadlecik didn't seem to realize he had previously carded Beltran, waiting several moments before pulling out the red card. In what seemed to be a bit of a makeup call, he then showed a straight red card four minutes later to Sounders defender Jhon Kennedy Hurtado, after he tussled for a ball with RSL forward Alvaro Saborio.
Although the Sounders eventually equalized, with Fredy Montero scoring his seventh goal of the MLS season just as stoppage time of the first half ran out, it proved too little for the Sounders. Despite rolling out a decidedly more defensive set of players for the second half, RSL grabbed the lead back on Saborio's eighth goal of the season.
From there, RSL managed to withstand a barrage of opportunities. The Sounders' best chance came in the 69th minute when Tyson Wahl collected a ball inside the goal box and fired a shot that Nick Rimando was able to save with the side of his face.
With the win, RSL kept their slim hopes of claiming the Supporters' Shield alive. Although they trail the Los Angeles Galaxy by 10 points, they do have two games in hand. The Sounders now trail the Galaxy by seven points with each team having six games left to play.
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