Photo by ISIPhotos.com
By CALEB SONNELAND
The Seattle Sounders have never lost to the Columbus Crew, but they also never beat the Crew the way they did on Saturday.
Dominating from the earliest moments of the match, Seattle put on a clinic in dismantling a short-handed and overwhelmed Columbus Crew side, scoring four first-half goals on their way to a 6-2 mauling of the Crew on Saturday in Seattle.
Lamar Neagle led a sterling performance by the Sounders attack, delivering three goals while playmaker Mauro Rosales added a goal and assist.
The Seattle romp overshadowed a bit of history made on Saturday as Crew forward Jeff Cunningham scored a penalty kick to become the MLS career goal-scoring leader with his 134th MLS goal.
Columbus, missing Julius James through suspension, elected to replace the defender with Rich Balchan. The rookie was quickly exposed in his unnatural center back position as Lamar Neagle raced into the Columbus area, held Balchan off long enough to fizz a low shot at Will Hesmer. Hesmer got a hand to it, but couldn't keep the ball out of the net as Seattle took an early 1-0 lead.
Neagle then bagged his second of the day in the 21st minute when James Riley whipped in a curling cross which Neagle volleyed home with a composed finish for his fourth goal of the season.
The early nightmare wasn't over for Balchan as the defender looked nearly helpless after a ball off Mike Fucito bounced up onto Balchan's hands for a penalty. Replays showed that the ball looked to have hit his hands, however, there appeared to be little he could have done to avoid contact. Mauro Rosales stepped up and made it 2-0 from the penalty spot.
Despite the game already looking dead and buried, Seattle continued to pile on the pressure going forward. Fucito caught Columbus captain Chad Marshall napping in the area, beat the defender to ta cross and snapped a shot past Hesmer to open up his 2011 MLS goal-scoring account.
There was some small consolation for the visitors as Jeff Cunningham was on hand to break the MLS all-time scoring record with his 134th goal from the penalty spot to make it 4-1. Emilio Renteria was caught by Jhon Kennedy Hurtado inside the Seattle area to set Cunningham up to break past Jaime Moreno in the all-time goal scoring table.
Goals continued to flow as Josh Gardner smashed a thunderbolt past Kasey Keller from a free kick to double his side's goal tally, but only seconds later Gardner redirected a Sounders cross into his own net for an own goal.
