SEATTLE — Real Salt Lake came to town to play the Seattle Sounders for the first time in 2021, and got sent home with a bunch of yellow cards, a PK and zero points.
On top of the joy of getting another three points, remaining undefeated and staying on top of the Supporters’ Shield race, Seattle also got Josh Atencio back on the field after he missed 7 games with an injury and we got an extended look at Jimmy Medranda who put in a potential Man of the Match performance.
Smith has received plaudits for his sudden turn as a goal scorer, but it’s fair to criticize or question his performance this season outside of his contributions on the score sheet.
The Sounders were the better team by almost any metric you could think of, but you also wouldn’t be totally incorrect to say that they were lucky to come away from this one with a win as it took a late penalty to secure the result.
His ability to gel quickly with the group, in addition to what he offers on the field, has to make Schmetzer and his staff pretty happy with their options in the back, and may have some difficult decisions to make when everyone’s available as Cissoko’s been the best or second best CB for much of his time on the field.
Raul’s penalty, you saw all the shenanigans to try to delay the penalty and put Raul on ice and he comes up with THAT.