USOC, houston at seattle, you should be watching now

ok, below is the longest post of the year. i did play by play from watching the game on the webcast. jeff needed me to help him out and i think i delivered. so read if you like, but i warn you, it is sloppy, long and i have done ZERO editing.

WE ARE IN THE FINAL… he he he he

if you aren’t watching now? why not? 3,000 other people are + 5,000 at starfire… good numbers

http://www.soundersfc.com/Matchday/HTML/Live-Webcast-Player.aspx

the game has started 20 minutes late, so we are just underway at 7:20 until about at least 9:20

couldn’t make the game due to a double booking between the wifey and i. given all the games and extra “post game beers” i have been afforded, i could only easily concede.

going to do some limited live blogging. just the main talking points.

video quality good, not great. better than nothing for sure, so kudos to the sounders FO for doing what they could with the circumstances. and by circumstances i mean USOC owning the rights, and the short time they had to try and broadcast.

update… up to 3300+ online 7:25pm

now 3,500+ online 7:30pm

now 3,740 online 7:35pm

now 3,810 online 7:36pm

now 4,000 online 7:40pm

7:41, freddy should have scored. i am not a freddy basher, i like him, but if there is proof that he is not quite ready for europe, that was it. the best in europe put that away for a goal every time.

now 4,280 online 7:46pm

now 4,440 online 7:49pm

getting sick of my ‘number of people online’ updates? yeah me too. for a while i was just impressed with that number going up and up and up. but we are close to maxing up… only game talking points from now on.

- jaqua is the man with the bandaged head. he is easier to spot on the pitch than pascal cygan.

- the crowd sounds great. but i am jealous of those in the beer garden, that is where i want to be.

- Montero pulled down by julias jones, the seahawks RB (who knew) and JJ is given a yellow card.

- le toux takes the free kick, and had it been a tad lower, it was probably in. the keeper didn’t move you may notice i am not giving you the time… that is b/c the quality of the video feed isn’t so great, i can’t always make out the time. so you are just going to have to bear with me.

- OH NO, first shot on goal and akinbyi (sp?), the man who has played for more teams than goose gossage, hits the counter and we are down 1-0. not 4 seconds after the announcer says keller hadn’t had a shot to save yet. i blame the announcer.

- maybe i should go back to the online numbers…. we are up to 4,600 he he. sigh

- is anyone reading this crap? give me a holla in the comments…. and i don’t use the word “holla” losely.

- uh on. 3 month old crying. got to go multi task. may go dark for a while

- ok, i am back, it looks like it is the 43rd minute.

- Jeff, my connection is OK. not great, but ok. the audio is great, but the video is just a little low quality. i can see everything going on, but everyone is a little fuzzy. i couldn’t tell you the difference between hurtado and marshall to be sure.

- looks like jaqua got a shove… could have been a penalty. houston would have deemed seattle rival #1 forever if that had got called.

- 1 minute extra time

- halftime – let’s hope that we can take advantage of our ball posession next half…. off to get almonds and to refill my wine glass. yes it is wine for me tonight. i am not just a beer drinker. i am more complicated than that.

- adrian is being interviewed and saying that he feels the teams decision making has been slow in the first half and needs to be quicker. Tony Ventrela is asking some JV questions, but that is ok. i like him, b/c i am taller than him.

- tony just said that this season has been neat. yes, i agree. super neat.

- tony and adrian talking about about dominic picking hurtado and fredy as all stars. a little shout out to dominic

- tony asking adrian about the chelsea game….. it was an 11 out of 10 according to tony

- adrian talking about the transfer window being open until aug 15… and foreign players are the priority for that window, but not necessarily going to happen.

- tony asks adrian if he could see this team as successful as it is, if he looked back a year ago. short answer… ‘no’

- depressing stat of the first half… houston 1 shot on goal

- second half resumes

- looks like nyassi has been moved up front and montero moved over to the right. interesting.

- nyassi does well to win a corner, which le toux takes in the 48th minute…. OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH shot on goal but cleared off the line. looks like it was a hurtado header cleared by boswell

- le toux gets free down the left, but doesn’t take advantage of it and crosses right into houston defender.

- nyassi wins another corner, which amounts to nothing.

uh oh… baby crying again… may be gone for a bit…

ok… looking like i need to give the little one a bottle. i can do many things at the same time, but feed the kid, drink wine AND type… not one of them. sorry for the 3, maybe 4 people trying to keep up on the match with me. i may go dark for a while.

ok, i am back… baby is self soothing as i type. if you don’t know what that means… don’t worry about it. for those of you that do, well you know that stuff is gold.

- looks like we are in the 60th minute… nyassi wins yet another corner…. hmmm, nyassi up front anyone? faster than most defenders where montero may be able to run better against wingbacks than center backs? something to think about.

- nyassi off for zakuani. i love zak, but not sure about that sub. nyassi was proving to be quite a nuisance.

- houston player down… sounders, and the ref not having any of it. thank god he actually gets up and is ok.

- zak just shoved a player and sholdered another…. ooooooh. HANDBAGS for a bit with marshall getting in the mix too. it is getting a little hot down there…. a little surprised that turn into more.

- hurtado almost gets another, but just over the bar.

- jaqua gets a yellow for the ol’ how can i be holding on to you when you are holding on to me… love that play.

- montero falls again…. adds one more “i was fouled, so i am going to go down so the ref will make the call” play. and it works. not saying he wasn’t fouled. just saying he was helping the ref know it.

- ALONSO ON. my fav player for vagenas. clearly we are going to win now. no doubt about it

ok, sorry, just took a few minutes off. I have one comp running the game, one comp to blog on, and the TV on the background…something on the TV caught my eye i had to watch. you guys seen those commercials with kenny mayne about the top 5 things you should do in sports before you die thing? well they just did one on the world cup. impressed that the actually selected that. espn has a long way to go… but baby steps. baby steps.

ok back to the game, 69th minute of play.

- oOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH zakuani almosts ties the game. great inside out move, great shot to the top corner, but the keeper JUST gets a save…. oh i thought that was in.

- 11 shots for seattle to their 3…..grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

- commentators just mentioned that zak is still up front (replacing nyassi) with jaqua with montero tucked in behind.

- all a little slow right now.

- zakuani is getting into it now. a few hand bags thrown. and now i have lost audio crap. that was helping me follow along quite well.

- another houston player down. we have snipers on the top of the stands who are picking them off left right and center.

- no sound sucks. hard to type and watch at the same time. sorry for the lack of updates.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo almost scored… damnit. looks like it was saved off the line again!!!!!

AGAIN>>>>> almost scored. zakuani just fizzes it over the bar.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME. KING just misses. man we are putting them under some pressure.

ZAK AGAIN. seriously this is unbelievable. do they have the ol’ plastic wrap over the goal thing going on?

- looks like we have about 5 minutes left, and we are up to about 5,500 viewers, more than are at the game… nice, but it falls into the who cares category if we don’t come back in this game.

- houston is resigned to parking the bus in front of goal.

GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

the pressure paid off, a little ping pong later, jaqua nets the equalizer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

- what a crusher for houston. they didn’t really deserve the lead, but that is how soccer goes… letting in the equalizer with only 2 minutes to go is gut wrenching. from their ex player no less.

- foul against houston at the top of the box. one of there players carded. no idea who.

- OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH jaqua got a relatively clean header of the cross, but it went straight up

- 3 mins extra time

- houston wins a free kick with a minute to go. but it goes to waste. off side on the free kick.

- we are going for the win.

- extra time. extra time.

wow. my fingers hurt….all for the 2 of you reading this online. are you really refreshing that often and reading this? i am beyond the point of stopping now, so who cares.

going to reboot the comp and try to get sound back. cross your fingers.
really slow reboot…. still working on the feed

- ok. back up. i got sound…. just as houston almost scored. in the 3rd minute of extra time.

- jaqua gets pulled down, but the foul goes against him…purses are coming out again

- i think i see levesque on the pitch… but i never saw the sub, and the quality ofthe video is inconclusive…

- zak on the left!!!!!!
GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

defender misses his clearance and KING puts it in with a HARD shot

- 2-1 SEATTLE. oh man what a game. i love my wife but she owes me man. i wish i was there.

- tackles are going in hard now.

- houston isn’t done, we still have 20 minutes to protect this lead. not done by a long shot.

- i swear i see levesque on the pitch, but didn’t see the substitution, and haven’t heard his name being called. montero, le toux, jaqua, king, zak… they are all still in the match… so who did he come in for.

- yup, it is levesque. looks like is is playing the right side… maybe even right back. is that correct? right back?

- oooh jaqua almost gets his head on it from a corner…

- we aren’t sitting on this lead, that is for sure, we are still dominating possesion. zak wins another corner.

- alonso puts his foot through one and sends it wide

- boy, houston must be dejected. they aren’t out, but they don’t believe they can win right now

- yup, it looks like levesque is playing right back. very interesting.

- over 6000 watching online. fantastic.

- long throw for houston, but nothing doing.

- le toux is working his socks off.

- marshall with a TERRIBLE give away. gets back and gives away the corner. let’s hope we don’t regret that.

- ooooh close. kamara got UP for that. a better header was a goal.
whistle for first half of over time….GOSH this post is getting long. sorry about that. i just don’t know where to stop… obviously game not over so i will just continue…the space bar is your friend right now i bet

- second half of over time under way. my wife just got home and saw me with two laptops in front of me. she told me i am crazy. i gave her stink eye, in a loving type of way of course.

- oooooooooooooooooooh levesque into jaqua… he should have shot, but he laid off to jake who was covered. roger needed to be WAY more selfish that time.

- 18th minute of over time…. a red card is going to happen, i just have that feeling. not sure for who, but it will.

- good possesion from seattle. no panicking. just good ball control…. oh, no sooner i say that and we give that away… good defence by riley to watch the ball out for a goal kick

- jaqua is away…. ah. and it get’s caught up in his legs….. doh.

- WELL crap. there it is. second yellow to hurtado. there is the red. i hate when i am right. we have to hold on for ten minutes now with our best center defender.

- i am not well versed in the LHUSOC but i am guessing that means he misses the final. that sucks for him and for us.

- we are now playing like we are ten men down. crap. 9 more minutes of watching this is going to be stressful

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO zak almost puts the game to bed. he and le toux still have legs and they burst down the left side. keeper makes a great save. corner to us.

corner OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO montero should have done it. that keeper has 5 amazing saves so far tonight.

- still peppering the goal in the 24th minute. le toux, and then levesque. it is no joke to say we could have had 7 goals tonight.

- houston back in possession. they look to be trying to pick their spot, but they don’t take advantage after a few nervous minutes.

- houston resets…. as le toux steals the ball, to king to zak…OOOOOOO NOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Zak has been in amazing places, made amazing shots, but you have to score those my friend……… oh. man.

- le toux almost hits one. man are you kidding. this has to be the highest number of good shots we have had this season. there is no doubt about that.

- into the 27th minute. houston has a good shot, but keller has it easy.

- OH NO. great tackle by marshall but the ref gives houston a life line. free kick 7 yards outside the box on the left side. terrible call

- cleared by seattle, to king, going to the corner. good boy. we need more of that. 30th minute

- montero is tired, sitting on the pitch. gets a lot of help from houston. how nice of them.

- levesqe down the line, but given back to houston. whistle has to go soon
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH good cross but keller makes a great grab

GAME OVER GAME OVER. WE ARE IN THE FINAL

HOUSTON CAN”T KEEP THE LEAD AGAIN.

I AM TIRED OF TYPING. YOU GUYS OWE ME.. he he. oh, and i called the win with alonso coming on, and i called the red card…. i am some kind of genius i tell you.