It was only a matter of time for Lamar Neagle.
Coming into 57892788" tabindex="0">Saturday night’s road matchup with the Colorado Rapids, the Sounders midfielder had yet to crack the scoresheet in 2015 after scoring a career-high nine goals for Seattle a season ago.
But the big breakthrough the Sounders and head coach Sigi Schmid had been waiting for finally materialized 57892789" tabindex="0">on Saturday, as Neagle netted twice in the first 25 minutes en-route to leading Seattle to a 3-1 triumph at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park.
“Just getting back into my momentum,” Neagle said after the game. “I feel like I was making shots like that last year. So just trying to find that same momentum and build off of it.”
Neagle’s first goal, a curling strike from just inside the penalty box that he rifled by Rapids ‘keeper Clint Irwin, marked the first goal of the season for Seattle not scored by star forwards Clint Dempsey and Obafemi Martins. The 28-year-old started the game back in the midfield after filling in at forward last week for an injured Dempsey.
“It was good for [Neagle],” Schmid said. “He can score goals from the wing, he doesn’t have to be up front. I thought he had an uptick game last week up front and he was able to transfer that onto the wing. You can be goal-dangerous from there as well.”
In addition to the big performance from Neagle, the Sounders also benefitted from one of the highlights of the MLS season thus far courtesy of Martins. The Nigerian tallied the dagger in the 73rd minute after setting himself up with a dazzling first touch off a long pass from Andy Rose that shed two Rapids defenders.
“I can’t even remember what I did,” Martins said. “Rose gave me a good ball and I was thinking to control the ball facing our goal but I just decided to do something different.”
Defensively, the Sounders had a relatively uneven first half, conceding a 22nd-minute equalizer to Rapids forward Gabriel Torres and sustaining a great deal of pressure from the home side. But the backline seemed to settle down in the second half, forcing Colorado into several shots from distance that were handled easily by goalkeeper Stefan Frei.
“I think they came out and started well,” Seattle center back Chad Marshall said. “From the very get-go they were throwing numbers forward and they interchange very well and I think it was confusing for us at times. We weathered it somehow and got to the second half, played much better and got out of here with the win.”
Seattle (3-2-1) returns home next Sunday for a Cascadia Cup clash with the Portland Timbers.
