Reserves notch first victory

Sammy Ochoa scores brace as Sounders rally twice for 4-3 Reserve League victory of Chivas USA at the Home Depot Center, Monday.

CARSON, Calif. – Seattle Sounders FC (1-2-1) earned its first victory of the 2012 MLS Reserve League with a 4-3 win against Chivas USA (1-1-0) at the Track & Field Stadium of The Home Depot Center on Monday.

Seattle’s Sammy Ochoa scored twice with Cordell Cato and Andy Rose adding two more tallies.

Chivas USA scored the game’s first goal in the 9th minute. Blair Gavin and Laurent Courtois combined on the left flank and Courtois finished to take the early lead.

Seattle equalized in the 12th minute when Cato received a cross from Roger Levesque and beat keeper Tim Melia. Sounders FC took a 2-1 lead in the 31st minute when Michael Seamon found Ochoa in the six-yard box for his first goal of the game.

Chivas equalized on a penalty kick by Juan Pablo Angel in the 39th minute and jumped out to a 3-2 lead in the 59th minute on a goal by Casey Townsend with Angel providing the service.

Seattle would level the scoring again just minutes later as Servando Carrasco found Rose for a strike from outside the box.

Sounders FC regained the lead for the final time in the 70th minute when Ochoa completed his brace on an assist from Andrew Duran.

Seattle created several scoring chances in the first half, including a shot from Levesque in the 3rd minute that hit the post and a strike from Rose in the 5th minute that missed wide.

Seattle’s next reserve match will be on June 1 against the Vancouver Whitecaps FC at Starfire Sports while Chivas USA will take on San Jose on May 14.

Chivas USA (1-1-0) vs. Seattle Sounders (1-2-1)

April 23, 2012 – Home Depot Center – Track & Field

Scoring Summary:
CHV – Laurent Courtois 1 (Blair Gavin 3) 9
SEA – Cordell Cato 1 (Roger Levesque 1) 12
SEA – Sammy Ochoa 1 (Michael Seamon 1) 31
CHV – Juan Pablo Angel 1 (unassisted) 39
CHV – Casey Townsend 1 (Juan Pablo Angel 1) 59
SEA – Andy Rose 1 (Servando Carrasco 1) 62
SEA – Sammy Ochoa 2 (Andrew Duran 1) 70

Chivas USA – Tim Melia, Carlos Torres (Mario Ledesma 35), Scott Gordon, John Valencia, Jorge Villafaña (Gerardo Torres 67), Marky Delgado, Blair Gavin (Erick Gonzalez 65), Laurent Courtois, Casey Townsend, Cesar Romero, Juan Pablo Angel (Victor Chavez 63)

Subs not used: Patrick McLain, Jorge Marquez, Javier Mena

Seattle Sounders FC – Bryan Meredith, Roger Levesque, Andrew Duran, Jhon Kennedy Hurtado, Marc Burch, Michael Seamon, Servando Carrasco, Andy Rose, David Estrada (Alex Caskey 58), Cordell Cato, Sammy Ochoa (Sean Morris 90)

Subs not used: Steve Spangler, Jonathan Prieto, Armando Ochoa.

Misconduct Summary:
SEA – Servando Carrasco (caution, foul) 10
CHV – Cesar Romero (caution, foul) 45
SEA – Roger Levesque (caution, foul) 67
CHV – Gerardo Torres (caution, foul) 90+

Referee: Daniel Radford
Referee's Assistants: Steve Elliot, Bernhard Hosu
4th Official: Jose Pacheco
Time of Game: 1:50
Weather: Cloudy, 62 degrees

Postgame Quotes

Ezra Hendrickson – Sounders FC Assistant Coach
(On the game…) “I challenged them before the game that getting the victory on the road is possible.  We’ve had the opportunity to do that so far, but we came up short.  I told them that today was the day that we were going to turn the season around and they came out and responded.  I’m happy for everybody.  It was good to get this win today and I’m glad they responded the way they did.”

(On the scoring…) “We could have scored some more goals, but we lacked some composure in the box in the first half.  We hit the crossbar, we hit the post and then we missed some eight yards out from goal.  But the guys put in the effort and we came out with the 4-3 victory.”

(On standouts…) “Cato played really well today.  Cato and Rose were exceptional.  They both had very good games and it’s good to see that because they are both young players, they’re both rookies.  It’s good to see those guys performing like that.”

(On the defense…) “We got caught out of position on the first goal and the second was a PK.  They fought all over the field and we played well defensively.  Even though we gave up the three goals we were still able to put something together on the other end.”