It was an absolutely beautiful evening for soccer as the Seattle Sounders Women took on the Colorado Rush in their second game of W-League play. The Sounders were coming off of a hard fought 4-2 win against the LA Strikers. This too, would be a hard fought game.
The match was a bit slow and methodical while the teams felt each other out in the first 20 minutes. Starting in the 25th minute the game became action packed. Colorado midfielder, Jacy Drobney, scored a nice left-footed volley from about 10 yards out. Then in the 27th minute Morgan Stanton for Colorado received a perfect through ball and took it all the way into the box. At the last second she played an unselfish cut-back ball to the wide-open forward, Danica Evans, who put it away easily. You could hear the energy level drop in the crowd. But that would change soon.
The Sounders Women did not hang their heads after the two quick goals by the rush. Instead they pressured harder, and it paid off. In the 32nd minute Sounders found their first goal. Mellisa Busque whipped in a driven corner kick finding the head of Brigit Reder who powered it home at the near post.
There were a couple of opportunities for the Sounders Women to tie the match before halftime. In the 43rd minute, midfielder, Jenna Richardson, showed off some brilliant footwork to get passed two defenders and rip a nice shot, requiring an equally nice save.
The game went into halftime 2-1.
In the second half, it was all Sounders. They were dominating possession and patiently building their attacks. In the second half the sun was in the eyes of Colorado keeper, Bethany Kanten. The Sounders used this to their advantage in hit in shots from distance. In the 76th minute the Sounders got the tying goal that they had been working for.
Defender, Janine Hinkle, hit a bomb from the far left side of the field that chipped the Kanten for the equalizer.
The last 15 minutes were very even, and in the end the score would stay even at 2-2. After going down 2-0 early in the first half, they battled hard to get back in the game. The Sounders Women have to look at this positively.
To find schedule and ticket information for the Sounders Women visit their website.
