Hat Tricks, Club Records

It was a day of records and astounding futbol.

Recap: Neagle, Rosales, Neagle, Fucito, Neagle… and some poor bastard from the Crew with an Own Goal.

Lamar Neagle gets his first Hat Trick in MLS, and only the second ever Hat Trick for the Sounders FC. Mauro Rosales gets his fifth goal of the season, and his ninth and tenth assists, and Mike Fucito gets his second season goal, and first ever goal at home in MLS season play.

Let’s rewind a bit, because I’m obviously starting at the end, and today didn’t start at the end…

The morning started with a nice breakfast at Avalon (You’ve been to Avalon, right? No? Well, get down there… it’s on, appropriately, Avalon, in West Seattle.), where Servando Carasco decided to come and have breakfast. We’ll call that “an omen.”

Then we geared up and headed to the game.

Well, ok, first we headed to Tat’s Deli – we knew we were going to be hungry around Half Time, and having a sammich in the bag never hurts. After picking up the yummies, we headed to Pioneer Square park, and joined up with the ECS for the March to the Match. A thousand screaming, singing, chanting, clapping, swearing fans, tromping happily towards their field. A Good Time Was Had By All.

We entered the field and found our seats, and soon after that the Match began.

The Sounders were looking good. They were snapping off precise passes, trapping the ball, and making their way forcefully down the field. They were playing solid futbol, and it looked like it was going to be a great game.

Three and a half minutes into the game, Lamar Neagle dropped a dribbler into the goal – it pounded into the goal keeper, and squirted through his arms to then slowly roll across the line. The Crowd Went Wild.

Sixteen minutes into the game, Mike Fucito got in front of a pass, but at the last moment strategically dodged out of the way, letting the ball fly straight towards the defender who had been glued to Fucito’s back. The defender unwisely slapped the ball down… with his hand – while standing in the box. That’s right, folks – it was time for a Penalty Kick. Mauro Rosales stepped up, and with a little dancing quick-step, drilled the ball into the corner of the net, scoring solidly for his fifth goal of the season.

Fast Forward to the twenty-first minute of the game: Lamar Neagle drops his second shot of the game straight into the goal.

Three to Nill, twenty-two minutes into the game. New Record: Fastest set of three goals in an MLS game for the Sounders.

Another Fast Forward, and we find ourselves forty minutes into the game. The ball jiggles its merry way through many legs, and Mike Fucito manages to put some Harvard Muscle behind his drive, bashing the other players out of his way and scoring his first-of-the-season MLS Home Goal.

The half ended, after an extra minute of ‘overage’, at Four to Nil, Seattle Sounders FC in the lead.

It was a beautiful first half, and we decided that it was a good time to enjoy our sammiches. Tat’s Deli had sold us an amazing twelve-inch sub, their very own take on the Club sandwich, and it was nothing short of tasty, delicious, and mood enhancing. And it was nice to be off my feet.

“What?”, you say. “Off your feet for the first time?”

That’s right – you haven’t been to a Sounders game yet, have you? Well, you stand up as long as players are on the field. Whether that’s just ninety minutes, or overage for more time, you stand until the game is over.

Back to the game.

The second half started with a sad penalty kick (that should NOT have been awarded) that brought the score up to Four to One. It was dirty, but we were still three ahead, and playing strong.

But I mentioned a Hat Trick. For those of you who don’t know Hat Tricks, either from Soccer (Futbol), or from Hockey, a Hat Trick is when a player scores three times in a single game.

Lamar Neagle wasn’t done wow-ing the crowd. After a long drive down the field, Lamar smashes his foot through the ball, and almost slams the ball through the top post, where it deflects, bouncing down into the goal box, and bouncing back out of the goal. Sounders Fans, thank whomever you pray to that the line official was watching, because to the average watcher, the play might have seemed to NOT be a score. But it was, and Lamar Neagle entered into the books with his first-ever Hat Trick, as well as only the second ever for the club.

That wasn’t the only thing Neagle did with that goal, though. In addition to the Hat Trick, Lamar managed to score what was the first-ever Fifth goal in a game for the Sounders – a new club record!

Not too long after, the Columbus Crew scored what was an admittedly beautiful free kick over The Wall (The Wall, by the way, is what you call it when a bunch of players line up [like a wall] between a kicker and the goal.) to bring the score up Five to Two.

The game wasn’t over, sports fans! Both for the Sounders, and for Lamar Neagle. In the seventy-third minute, Lamar launched the ball in a sweet cross, and the Crew tried to block… I say ‘tried’, because one of the Crew managed to kick the ball straight into his own goal. And yes, sports-fans – that counts!

The rest of the game was uneventful, but I believe we’d had all the events we could reasonably stand for one day.

Final Score of the Match: Seattle Sounders FC, Six. Columbus Crew: Two.

My throat is sore from all the screaming, shouting, and general good time chanting.

Take Them All, Watch Them Fall.