Sounders - Houston match talking points: goals, saves, Waibel's head bump on Ljungberg

The Sounders 2-1 victory over the Houston Dynamo Saturday afternoon at Qwest Field sure leaves us with quite a few talking points, doesn't it?

(See match report, video and many quotes HERE.)

Hey, I thought we were pretty much running the 'controversial call' thing dry earlier this week with the Kansas City fuming about the Fredy Montero penalty kick call in the Open Cup.

Well, now we can spend another week talking about Fredy Montero and controversy again. This time over his first-half shot that was cleared out of the goal and then ruled by the linesman to have crossed all the way over. As I love to say, GOAL Seattle. I actually saw the play live fairly close to the goal and I sure couldn't tell you if it was a score or  not. However, I can say that the linesman who waived it in was a bit out of position, and also some 50 yards or so away from the play.

As if to say "I can do that too," Pat Onstad made a spectacular stabbing save off of a Steve Zakuani shot later in the first half. Absolutely thought that one was going in before Pat's lightning-fast reflexes kicked in.

Then there was Patrick Ianni's bicycle kick goal to give the Sounders the lead, and eventually the win. Yes, the words Ianni, bicycle kick and goal have now appeared in the same sentence. His royal compactness was able to use that strange, sturdy, compact body shape of his to flip in place and loop a shot over the surprised Onstad and Dynamo defense. (Note to Nate Jaqua, do not try this at home unless you want to be a human  pretzel). I'm thinking the Sounders are going to have yet another "MLS Goal of the Week" nominee, and likely winner.

Craig Waibel is a punk! ;) (I am sure Curt Onalfo would agree with me). Every good drama needs a villain, and the UW grad was more than happy to lose his mind long enough to bump Freddie Ljungberg on the head with a ball as he was preparing to take a throw in. Of course it should have been a yellow card, and I've seen lesser mistakes given a red. It was stupid, embarrassing for Waibel in his 'home town,' and provided the 32,000 fans on hand a reason to boo him the rest of the match. He was apologetic afterwards. You know what? MLS should still fine his little orange behind anyway.

The orange elephant in the room after the match was of course that Houston had so many key starters out playing for national sides or on suspension due to card accumulations. So what? Seattle is an expansion club and the mighty Dynamo are two-time MLS Cup winners. Seattle also was missing Alonso, Evans and Marshall right up the gut of the starting line-up. That's not even counting Leo GNbzalez, who is with Costa Rica in the Gold Cup and will likely be Seattle's starting left back.

The two best visiting clubs I've seen at Qwest Field this year: Houston and DC United. Columbus a close third. Everyone else, not even close.

Rick Morrison has sent us another great batch of photos. See his Sounders - Houston shots in the Youtube slide show above, and in a photo slide show HERE. A preview gallery is posted below on this page.