Levesque to the rescue for Sounders

SEATTLE

Second-half substitute Roger Levesque scored twice in the second half to give the Seattle Sounders a 4-2 win over the New York Red Bulls on Thursday night.

MLS: June 23-25

 

Thursday, June 23
Home		Road
Seattle	4-2	New York	Recap
Saturday, June 25
Home		Road
DC United	2-2	Houston	Recap
San Jose	0-0	LA Galaxy	Recap
Philadelphia	3-2	Chivas USA	Recap
FC Dallas	4-0	Portland	Recap
Sporting KC	2-1	Vancouver	Recap
Real Salt Lake	3-1	Toronto	Recap
Sunday, June 26
Home		Road
Chicago	1-1	New York
Seattle	2-1	New England	Recap
Columbus	4-1	Colorado
MLS Scores | Table | Fixtures

 

In a game that set the Sounders' attendance record for an MLS game at 46,505, Levesque headed in a corner from Leo Gonzalez to snap a tie in the 67th minute on Thursday, then knocked the ball away from goalkeeper Greg Sutton and into the open net in the 78th.

The two goals for Levesque, who came on in the 60th minute, were his first of the season for the Sounders.

''Right place, right time - I think that's been my mentality from day 1,'' Levesque said. ''Maybe I'm not the most technical guy, but I'm always working at getting good positions. Fortunately, tonight was one of those nights when I got two good spots and the ball went in.

Seattle also got goals on corners from Erik Friberg in the 11th minute and Osvaldo Alonso in the 12th. Seattle has scored seven goals on corner kicks this season.

''One of the things we felt was that they were giving up a lot of goals on set pieces and corners,'' Seattle coach Sigi Schmid said. ''We wanted to take advantage of that a little bit, which we did.''

Said New York coach Hans Backe: ''It was pretty lucky - two corners out to the rebound area, and you can say the second one deflected. You feel that it was too much. We have conceded 20 goals, and 13 of them have been from set plays. That has to be stopped.''

Dane Richards' goal in the 31st minute and an own goal that deflected off Seattle defender Zach Scott past goalkeeper Kasey Keller in the 58th helped the Red Bulls tie the game.

''To score two goals in Seattle, that should have been a win, or at least get a point. It's disappointing,'' Richards said. ''Once we got to 2-2, we had momentum and we tired to go for the win or at least get a point, but we gave up a set play again.''

The crowd at CenturyLink Field, newly renamed from Qwest Field earlier on Thursday, was the largest for a stand-alone MLS game since 46,754 showed up in New York on July 19, 2008, for a Red Bulls game against the Los Angeles Galaxy.

Other big draws have been part of doubleheaders featuring an international matchup, too.

The larger crowd was there as part of a special ticket package that includes next month's exhibition against Manchester United.

Seattle has been the MLS attendance leader since joining the league in 2009, and came into Thursday averaging 36,297.

''Certainly, looking up and seeing the top deck uncovered was a good feeling,'' Schmid said, smiling. ''Ownership tries to put pressure on me and winning games, so I'm going to put pressure on them and maybe one day, we can fill up the whole stadium and sell out every game.''