360 Sports Blog

Another eventful week in Seattle sports, here is what transpired:

Double D and me, pictured above after the Sounders loss.

Let us first talk about that 1-0 Sounders loss to the New York Red Bulls, of which I am highly critical in several aspects. Our boys dominated most of the match, but made some key mistakes that resulted in the loss.

The first: poor passing. We built up the play well, maintaining possession for long periods but wound up making errant passes directly to the other team, which killed our momentum. Give credit to the Red Bulls to be able to force such situations and anticipate the pass.

The second: lack of finishing. Freddie Llungberg and Roger “Steve Prefontaine” Levesque are the biggest culprits. Roger looked outright clumsy, while Freddie missed a wide open header near than end of the game that would’ve tied the game up.  That sh@# would not have flown at Arsenal, Freddie. Wenger would not stand for it, nor should we.

Third: Subsitutions. For some reason unbeknownst to me, Steve Zakuani was subbed out in the second half. As he had been our greatest threat to score in the game, Double D and I were left dumbfounded. His replacement, Sanna Nyassi, lacked the pace to change the game as Zak did and did not contribute much. It seems strange to me that our most dynamic player on the pitch was subbed off for someone who didn’t give us much of a leg up.

Fourth: Impatience. In the last 20 minutes or so of the game, the Sounders regressed back to their teenage days and insisted on playing long ball (kicking the ball up to the front and hope someone gets to it). These were easy to clear out by the Red Bull defense, hence, the 1-0 loss. At least it didn’t rain much.

I thought this story was interesting by David Falk of the Examiner, detailing how few goals the Sounders have scored at home over the past ten games.

The Mariners kick off their season at Oakland today. The game can be seen on FSN at 7:05pm. Cliff Lee is on the 15 day DL, but Felix will get the start. My quick prediction for this year: The M’s win the AL West in a close race with Texas. I’ll elaborate more later.

The more I hear about the Seahawks, the more I don’t want to renew my season tickets. They’ve paid way too much for a third string QB and a couple of OK tight ends. Unless they focus heavily on the OL and DL in the upcoming draft, I’m thinking they’ll be the front runners to get Jake Locker next year. I’m starting to think they might just throw this season in order to get better draft picks next year. Seriously.

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It was a big week for Seattle Sports, particularly for the Sounders and Huskies. Here’s how everything wound up:

Sounders:

The Sounders kicked of the 2010 MLS season in fantastic fashion, beating down the Philadelphia Union 2-0 at Qwest Field. I was in attendance for this match, and I’ll tell you the score should have been 4-0 at least. The Union were not ready for this game and relied on physicality rather than skill.

Danny Califf picked up Philly’s first ever yellow card in the first minute of the game. In the 40th minute, teammate Toni Stahl picked up the first red card. Later Freddie Llungberg was kneed in the back, causing a bone contusion. He was subbed out in the 60th minute.

Both goals came in the first half. The first came off a Zakuani cross, which Brad Evans put under the keeper to the far post. The second was a header by Fredy Montero, who  deflected a Llungberg shot that was going wide. It was a great effort by the Sounders, who dominated the whole match.

As for Philly, they’ve got a long way to go. They were understandably jittery, but their passing was awful. They relied too much on taking out our players, as opposed to playing football. Unecessary.

Huskies Basketball

Moving on, my Huskies were in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament and came up against a formiddable opponent in West Virginia. Looking at them in the opening tip off, I knew it was going to be tough.

The sheer size of their team dwarfed ours, which made it tough to get rebounds. In the first half, however, the Dawgs played tough and forced several turnovers. Going into the half, we were up a point.

In the second half, WVU stepped up the pace, started making shots and forcing turnovers. Thus, they started to pull away and wound up winning the contest handily. I hate to say it, but the better team won. Even worse, I’m now forced to root for them again, as they go up against Duke in the Final Four (Everybody hates Duke).

It was a roller coaster of a season for the Dawgs, but they turned it on when it mattered. No one expected them to be in the tournament at season’s end, much less the Sweet 16. With Quincy Pondexter leaving, expect Justin Holiday (probably my favorite player) to step up. He was the only consistent part of our game against WVU.

Huskies Football

Not much going on. Spring practice starts March 30 and runs through mid April. For more info, visit Condotta’s blog.

Mariners

It’s Spring Training in Peoria, AZ. Bedard and and Lee are still injured. Also, Griffey hit his first walk off grand slam home run against the Reds, a contest which the Mariners won 6-5. More to come when things start to matter.

Seahawks

Other than speculation about Brandon Marshall, there hasn’t been much on incoming players. Much of the talk has been centered around the upcoming draft in April.

I’m on record as saying that the Hawks primary focus should be on the offensive and defensive lines. Broken record time: If you cannot protect your quarterback or put pressure on the opposing quarterback, you are going to have problems. There are other problems to address, but I think the Hawks need to start here.

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In an effort to demonstrate some sort of coherent consistency with this blog, I’m introducing the Monday Round Up – a brief update on the status of all things Seattle/Kitsap Sports. Nothing will be off limits. Enough with the introduction, let’s give it a shot.

Huskies Basketball – As just about everyone knows, UW made its way into the Sweet 16 this past Saturday. They pulled off a great game against 6th seed Marquette and obliterated the 3rd seeded New Mexico. They now move onto play number 2 seed West Virginia (the second worst state in the Union behind that state which shall not be named), which will be a very tough game. The Mountaineers are ranked number five in the nation and will be favored going in.

Huskies Football – Spring practice will take place from March 30th to April 30th. Additionally, the Dawgs received a commitment this week from Elijhaa Penny, a 6-2, 240 tight end/defensive end from Norwalk, Calif.

Kitsap Pumas – Signed the former number one overall pick in the 2005 MLS Superdraft – Nik Besagno. He’s a midfielder who hasn’t quite lived up to his potential, but will have his time to shine in Kitsap.

Mariners - Cliff Lee was hurt in a preseason game and also was suspended for the first five games of the season for throwing at Arizona’s Chris Snyder. It’s been a bumpy road so far for Lee.

Milton Bradley has also had issues (these seem to be inherent with him; can you say baggage?), getting ejected from two straight games for arguing balls and strikes. Wakamatsu’s take: “To me, it’s almost like a witch hunt,” Wakamatsu said. “It’s almost embarrassing to me that egos get in the way and [Bradley] doesn’t even get a chance.”

The Mariner’s season opener is April 5th at Oakland.

Seahawks – No one seems to be safe on the roster. Burleson is gone to Detriot, Seneca Wallace and Darryl Tapp have been traded and we have two key signings – TE Chris Baker and QB Charlie Whitehurst (who looks like the second coming of Jesus). For a full run down, check out Field Gulls.

It’s basically spring cleaning time for the new administration. While I commend their desire to make new moves, I have yet to see any progress on the two most important fronts: Offensive and Defensive line.

Sounders – The MLS Strike issue has been resolved and the season is set to kick off this Thursday at Qwest. We take on the Philadelphia Union, who stole Sebastion Le Toux from us in the expansion draft. I’ll be there.

Seattle Sonics – Nothing new. Check out the Sonicsgate Documentary to learn how everything really went down.

All for now.

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