Le Toux leads Sounders FC past Salt Lake 4-1 in Open Cup primer

April 28, 10:15 PMSeattle Soccer ExaminerDavid Falk

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Sebastien Le Toux was ready to play against RSL and Nat Borchers last night.

Sebastien Le Toux tallied two goals and two assists on Tuesday night as Seattle Sounders FC beat Real Salt Lake 4-1 at Starfire Sports Stadium in Tukwila, Washington.The victory before a packed house of 3,890 assures the Sounders stay alive with a chance to qualify directly for US Open Cup tournament play if they can next defeat the Colorado Rapids.

Le Toux is no stranger to the tournament, having won the Golden Boot as top scorer in the competition two years running (2007, 2008 with USL Seattle Sounders).

TUKWILA- Sebastien Le Toux scored two goals and assisted on two others to lead the Seattle Sounders FC to a 4-1 win over Real Salt Lake in a U.S. Open Play-In before a capacity crowd at Starfire Sports Complex in Tukwila, Washington on Tuesday night.

Seattle, now 5-2-0 overall, will meet the Colorado Rapids next month for a berth in the Open Cup’s Round of 16.

Le Toux put Sounders FC ahead early, scoring from the penalty spot in the 24th minute and then assisting on a goal by Sanna Nyassi to make it 2-0 in the 26th minute.

Sanna Nyassi makes it 2-0 Seattle as Chris Seitz looks back, not wanting to see.

Roger Levesque, who also assisted on Nyassi’s goal, was pulled down in the box, resulting in Le Loux’s penalty kick. Levesque assisted on Seattle’s final three goals.

Will Johnson pulled Real Salt Lake a goal back in the 32nd minute, but Sounders FC pulled away with two quick strikes early in the second half.

Stephen King made one-touch finish off a square ball from Le Toux in the 53rd minute. Two minutes later, Levesque out-ran an RSL defender before crossing to Le Toux at the left post.

Seattle resumes MLS play on Saturday night at the Chicago Fire (2-0-4). Kickoff is 5:30 p.m. PT at Toyota Park in Bridgeview, Ill.

QUOTES FROM HEAD COACH SIGI SCHMID

(On his thoughts on the game…) “Obviously, the result was great for us tonight, and it was good to get some guys on the field who haven’t been playing a lot, and for them to make our job as difficult as possible as coaches. So, obviously, [Sebastien Le Toux] had a very good game, with his two goals, [Sanna] Nyassi, causing a lot of problems, but I also thought Ianni and King played very well in the middle of midfield, kept things together for us pretty much. It was nice to have Taylor Graham back out there. So, overall, I was really pleased with how we played. We’re a bit unfortunate in terms of some other chances. We had some good other chances to finish.  They had some chances towards the end, but at that point, our foot was off the gas pedal a little bit.”

Sounders and fans celebrate Nyassi's goal.

(On whether Le Toux made his decision of who will start on Saturday more difficult tonight by playing so well…) “Always, that’s the way it should be. That’s what he wants to do. You want to have a team that has 17, 18, 19 guys that can start for you, because it’s a long season. You never know who’s going to get hurt, and who’s going to miss, so this is a good game for people to build their confidence. Seb certainly presents us alternatives, and it was nice to be able to play him up front, where he’s obviously more comfortable than he is in a wide position.”

(On the team’s depth…) “Well, it’s what you want to do—you want to have depth.  It’s something I learned a long time ago. The reason to have depth, more than any other reason, is you want to have good practices, and the deeper you are, the more competitive practices are, and the better the practices are, the better you’re going to be in games. So if you just had 11 really good players and the other guys weren’t very much, then we wouldn’t be a very good team. It shows that we have that depth, and that’s something that I’m very pleased with. As I said, it’s a long season, and we need everybody.”

(On Chris Eylander’s big save to keep the score from becoming 2-2…) “Big save. It’s a big save, and for Chris, it’s good because he’s been out so long with the injury that he had, with the PCL tear. So coming back in the reserve game, it wasn’t the best for him, and the down at Chivas, he had a loss. So this was a big moment for him. We talked earlier in the week and his attitude was good. That’s what you want to do as a goalkeeper. That’s what Keller does for us when he plays, and that’s what Chris did for us tonight. I was very happy with his game.”

(On whether that was a momentum-changing moment…) “Oh, definitely. Definitely a momentum-changing moment. I mean, they’re a good team. Everybody you play has got some good players and has some things. So you’ve got to be able to come up with some plays on the defensive end because they’re going to get chances. You can’t expect a game to go by where the other team doesn’t get any chances. So you got to make sure that you stop them, and you got to make sure that you bury yours when you get yours. I think that’s what we did tonight.”

Patrick Ianni, far right, greets the ball with his head.

Scoring Summary:

SEA -- Sebastien Le Toux (penalty kick) 24

SEA -- Sanna Nyassi (Sebastien Le Toux, Roger Levesque) 26

RSL -- Will Johnson (unassisted) 32

SEA -- Stephen King (Sebastien Le Toux, Roger Levesque) 53

SEA -- Sebastien Le Toux (Roger Levesque) 55

Real Salt Lake -- Chris Seitz, Tony Beltran, David Horst, Jamison Olave (Nat Borchers 46), Robbie Russell, Ned Grabavoy, Kyle Beckerman (Jean Alexandre 66), Andy Williams, Will Johnson (Raphael Cox 71), Robbie Findley, Luis Miguel Escalada (Yura Movsisyan 57).

Substitutes Not Used: Tino Nunez, Kyle Reynish, Chris Wingert.

TOTAL SHOTS: 11 (Andy Williams 3); SHOTS ON GOAL: 3 (Will Johnson 2); FOULS: 14 (Kyle Beckerman 3, Tony Beltran 3); OFFSIDES: 0; CORNER KICKS: 4 (Andy Williams 2); SAVES: 4 (Chris Seitz 4)

Seattle Sounders -- Chris Eylander, James Riley, Taylor Graham, Tyson Wahl, Zach Scott, Sanna Nyassi (Evan Brown 72), Stephen King, Patrick Ianni, Steve Zakuani (Jarrod Smith 65), Roger Levesque, Sebastien Le Toux.

Substitutes Not Used: Osvaldo Alonso, Brad Evans, Nate Jaqua, Kasey Keller, Fredy Montero.

TOTAL SHOTS: 16 (Sebastien Le Toux 5); SHOTS ON GOAL: 8 (3 tied with 2); FOULS: 12 (Patrick Ianni 3, James Riley 3); OFFSIDES: 2 (Sebastien Le Toux 1, Roger Levesque 1); CORNER KICKS: 4 (Sebastien Le Toux 4); SAVES: 2 (Chris Eylander 2)

Misconduct Summary:

SEA -- Patrick Ianni (caution; Reckless Tackle) 19

RSL -- Jamison Olave (caution; Handball) 41

SEA -- Sanna Nyassi (caution; Unsporting Behavior) 71

 
Referee: Landis Wiley

Referee's Assistants: -Mike Rottersman; Josh Wilkens

4th Official: Soo Hui Um

Attendance: 3,890

Time of Game: 1:51

Weather: Cloudy-and-53-degrees