Bryan Meredith’s goalkeeping was instrumental in helping the Kitsap Pumas win the United Soccer Leagues Premier Development League championship this summer. Tuesday night, he made his debut with the Seattle Sounders. Meredith was in goal during the Sounders’ 2-1 Champions League loss to Monterrey. Defensive mistakes led to both goals. Here’s a story from Mike Allende of the Everett Herald.
By Mike Allende
Herald Writer
SEATTLE – Tuesday’s CONCACAF Champions League game wasn’t vitally
important to the Seattle Sounders. But that doesn’t mean the 2-1
loss to Mexico’s Monterrey was any less disappointing.
A 61st-minute goal by Cesar Delgado past backup Sounders keeper
Bryan Meredith put Monterrey up for good and the Rayados held on in
front of 15,866 fans at CenturyLink Field.
Monterrey, the defending tournament champion, wins Group D with a
4-2 record and Seattle finishes second at 3-2-1. Both teams advance
to the knockout stage to begin in March.
“It matters in terms of pairings because you look at most of the
group winners, they’re going to be Mexican teams,” Seattle coach
Sigi Schmid said. “So the chances are we’re going to match up with
a Mexican team, and that’s a little bit harder.”
Coming off of an emotional win Saturday in Kasey Keller’s final
regular-season home match, the Sounders used a combination of
reserves and starters against Monterrey, which needed at least a
tie to advance out of the group stage. Among the reserves was
Meredith, Seattle’s second-round pick of the 2011 SuperDraft before
being cut in the preseason. Meredith went on to lead the Kitsap
Pumas to the Premier Development League title (the same league the
North Sound SeaWolves play in) and trained with the Sounders
throughout the season. He was even in net when Seattle beat Kitsap
in the U.S. Open Cup this year.
But Tuesday was the first game that Meredith actually played in for
the Sounders, as Schmid gave Keller a rare night off. Meredith made
one save and gave up two goals that Schmid described as “soft.”
“Meredith played well for a guy in his first game, a fairly big
game,” Schmid said. “He was composed. He couldn’t have done much on
either goal.”
Meredith found out Monday after practice that he would be starting.
That didn’t leave much time to prepare, and when Monterrey went on
the attack, he didn’t have much time, either.
In the third minute, the Seattle defense went for an offside trap
but Dario Carreno beat it, collecting a well-placed pass from
Humberto Suazo and easily beating Meredith 1-on-1 for an early 1-0
lead.
“You’re going to give up goals as a goal keeper,” Meredith said.
“To get one out of the way that early, it’s tough obviously, but it
kind of shook the nerves right out of me. After that, I felt
fine.”
From that point, the teams played evenly, which could be expected
from foes who have played four times in the last two years.
Monterrey defeated Seattle twice in group stage play last season.
But on Aug. 23 of this year, the Sounders shocked Monterrey 1-0 on
the road, just the second time a MLS team won a match in
Mexico.
“We know they’re a great team that plays well together,” Monterrey
coach Victor Vucetich said. “The game was even and well disputed
from beginning to end, just like the previous games.”
Seattle had its chances to score. Sammy Ochoa sent a header over
the crossbar in the 10th minute and Fredy Montero shot high in the
33rd. Three minutes before halftime, Montero tied it. After being
taken down just outside the goal box, Montero sent a free kick just
inside the left post for a goal. It was the fourth-straight match
he scored a goal in, his 11th goal in 11 games and his 18th goal of
the season.
A tie would have been good enough for Seattle to claim the top spot
in the group, but it wasn’t to be. Seattle failed to clear a
Monterrey shot and instead sent the ball to a wide-open Delgado who
had little trouble beating Meredith for the eventual
game-winner.
“We put (Meredith) in bad spots,” defender Jeff Parke said. “None
of it was his fault. We made two bad mistakes and it cost us the
game.”
“You can’t give up soft goals because you’re not always going to be
able to resurrect yourself and score goals at the end of the game
and win.”
While the loss hurt, there were positives. No Seattle player was
injured. Some key players got to rest. And now, with the U.S. Open
Cup over and the Champions League on hold until March, the Sounders
can concentrate on finishing the season strong Saturday at Chivas
USA and then focus on winning their first MLS Cup.
“They know that now we can concentrate on one thing,” Schmid said.
“But I’m not happy with the goals we gave up, and they heard that
as well.”
