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Dancing Bear: Will Bruin brace earns Seattle Sounders road win at Colorado Rapids

COMMERCE CITY, Colo. (July 4, 2018) – Seattle Sounders got a big win on the road on the 4th of July. They defeated Colorado Rapids on Wednesday night thanks to a Will Bruin brace and several big saves from Stefan Frei.

Dancing Bear: Will Bruin brace earns Seattle Sounders road win at Colorado Rapids 2-1

Seattle was the better team to start the half. They possessed the ball well and moved it upfield down their left flank through Nicholas Lodeiro and Victor Rodriguez. They had several chances off crosses and set pieces.

The visitors would ultimately open the scoring in the 19th minute. Passing quickly into the box, Shkelzen Gashi looked to intercept but deflected the ball to Will Bruin, who collected and scored.

Colorado finished the half strong despite a poor first 30 minutes. Sam Nicholson scored in the 40th minute on a header after a good cross by Edgar Castillo. Seattle had a shout to overturn the goal, as Dominique Badji kicked Jordan McCrary in winning the ball in the build-up. VAR determined there was no foul.

The Sounders regained their lead in the 60th minute. After an attacking sequence by Rave Green, goalkeeper Tim Howard played the ball quickly to Gashi, who didn’t have a lot of space to work with. He lost a battle for the ball just outside the box. Two quick passes got Bruin the ball to go 1-v-1 with goalkeeper Tim Howard. Bruin scored, earning a brace.

The game got chaotic in the final 20 minutes with both teams making subs and going for a goal. Sounders goalkeeper Stefan Frei made the save of the game in the 83rd minute. Colorado got on the counter which led to Gashi getting a scoring chance with an open net. Gashi went for a light chip and Frei made a spectacular save reaching back to keep the ball out.

The match ended 1-2.

Three takeaways:

Dancing Bear: Will Bruin scored just his fourth and fifth goals in league play in this game. He didn’t get a lot of service, but he got two qualities looks right in front of goal. Without a lot of time or space on either play, he trapped the ball well and scored. Can’t ask much more of your striker.

Gashi gaffs and Howard howlers: Gashi made mistakes on both goals, giving away possession from just outside the box. Both sequences were bang-bang plays, but he could have done better to get the ball out of harms way rather than taking a risk. Howard is definitely more at fault on the second goal. The decision to play the ball quickly and to play it to Gashi was poor.

Rapids lose the plot: Colorado started both halves poorly. They didn’t have any clear ideas offensively and they let Victor Rodriquez and the Sounders run rough shot down their right flank. That helped create the first goal. In the second half, they recorded three yellow cards in 15 minutes. The team got frustrated and channeled that energy poorly, as they have in the past.

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