The Seattle Sounders fell to Spanish giants Atlético Madrid 3-1 on Thursday afternoon at Lumen Field. Pablo Barrios and Axel Witzel scored for Atlético while Albert Rusnák tallied the lone goal for the Sounders.
Atlético came out firing early with an opportunity in the 5th minute when Julian Alvarez found himself 1v1 with Sounders goalkeeper Stefan Frei, but the Argentine pulled his shot wide.
Then in the 11th minute, the Spanish side got the go-ahead goal. Giuliano Simeone laid the ball off to Barrios toward the top of the eighteen where the midfielder rocketed a first-time shot that pinged off the crossbar and over the goal line to give Atlético the 1-0 lead.
The Sounders had a chance to tie up the score in the 17th minute when Rusnák found space down the right flank to cross the ball into the box for Danny Musovski, who managed to smash a shot from close range but his effort was denied by a fantastic save from goalkeeper Jan Oblak.
Four minutes later, Cristian Roldan was close to notching one for the Rave Green with a powerful volley from inside the box, but goal-bound shot was blocked by Koke.
Atlético nearly extended the lead to two when Alexander Sørloth weaved his way through the Sounders’ defense where he was faced 1v1 with Frei, but the veteran keeper held his own and made a big-time save to prevent the two-goal deficit.
Just two minutes into the second half, Atlético doubled their lead. Marcos Llorente unleashed a venemous shot from distance that Frei pushed onto the crossbar with an acrobatic save, but Madrid defender Robin Le Normand pounced on the loose ball and volleyed it back across the six to Witsel. The defender then redirected the ball with his head and past Frei to extend Atlético’s lead to two.
The Sounders responded in the 50th minute when an Obed Vargas cross near the top of the eighteen found Musovski, who’s nodded the ball down into the feet of Rusnák to finish one-time and secure the Sounders’ first goal of the match.
But in the 56th minute, Atlético scored their third goal of the day. The Sounders were unable to clear a long-throw into the box as the ball fell to the back post where Barrios side footed his shot into the back of the net.
It looked as if the Sounders had cut the deficit to one in the 79th minute when Georgi Minoungou found Jesús Ferreira wide open in the box, but his near-post pass into the goal was called offside.
Despite a hard fought battle for the remaining minutes of the match, the scoreline remained the same, leaving the Sounders with their second consecutive loss of the tournament.
THREE TAKEAWAYS
COMPETING AGAINST THE BEST
Even though the Sounders’ have two losses in the tournament thus far, their performances have shown that they are capable of competing against some of the best teams from around the world. Against Atlético, they managed to carve out four big chances and controlled stretches of the game.
RAVING RUSNÁK
Midfielder Albert Rusnák was extremely influential during his 79 minutes of playing time. Not only did he score the Sounders lone goal of the match — the team’s second of the tournament — he finished the fixture completing 92% of his passes and won 100% of his tackles.
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