Instant (Over)Reaction: Salt Lake

On the way back to the car last night The Wife, J-Will and I hardly discussed the game we had just watched. It wasn't that we were angry with what we had just seen. It was that the game was so uninspiring that we had nothing to say. It wasnt hard to see that the entire stadium felt that way during the match, too. Besides the Findley PK, QWest was quiet. I mean quiet, which is very unnatural considering the defending champs were in town and we were on national tv.

I tried to think of something to say about the game and really only have a few comments this week:

• In the sea of uninspiring play came the one shining moment - a PK save by Kasey Keller. For how quiet Qwest was during the other 85 minutes, it was rocking after he made the save. It's easy to forget the past, but I'm not sure I have ever heard the place any louder than after Keller made the save. Seattle loves Kasey. What a game changer.
• I thought the defense looked great all night. Sure, Zach Scott isn't the best distributor of the ball once he wins it, but there was no way Salt Lake were winning any balls in the air with Ianni, Parke and Scott out there.
• I think Scott looks like a male cheerleader with his wrist taped
• The book is out on Zakuani and Montero as both got doubleteamed and pushed around last night. They still had their chances, but they were few and far between.
• At the end of the game we had out Oompa-Loompa lineup on the field. Seamon and Zakuani were the only nondefenders over 6' in a lineup that included Nyassi (5'8), Fucito (listed 5'9 but probably 5'7), Montero (5'8), Alonso (5'11). Fucito was so outmatched at forward that he didn't even attempt to get off the ground for any headers that came his way
  

Sounders now sit at 33 points with 6 games left. We need to get 12 to feel comfortable but 9 might be enough. Getting a point against RSL wasn't the worst result, but bow does the NE loss look even worse right now. We have our two toughest matches next - at Columbus and at Chicago meaning that we might need to win our last 4 to make the playoffs. Add in the two away matches against Saprissa and Monterrey and we will be putting in some serious traveling over the next two weeks. It's crunch time, Sounders fans.