Sounders forward Clint Dempsey scored his 50th career goal in a Sounders uniform as Sounders FC (10-7-7, 37 points) moved into first place in the Western Conference with a 1-0 shutout win over Sporting Kansas City (9-5-10, 37 points) Saturday afternoon in front of 43,530 fans on the Xbox Pitch at CenturyLink Field.
Dempsey’s 36th-minute goal was all the Rave Green needed to extend their MLS unbeaten streak to six games. The Sounders most impressive record during the unbeaten streak has been the four consecutive clean sheets Stefan Frei and his backline has produced. The last time Seattle surrendered a goal was the July 19th 4-3 win over D.C United.The current streak of 400 minutes without allowing a goal establishes a new club record, surpassing the previous record of 379 minutes set from July 25 – August 28, 2010.
Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer was impressed by his team’s effort from the back line to the front line.
“I’ll address it in the sense that when we made that announcement in the locker room, the first thing that Stef did was start pointing at all of his teammates and saying, ‘No, it’s you guys, it’s you guys,’ because that’s the kind of character that Stef has. Certainly, when you talk about scoreless streaks, it goes to the goalkeeper. When you talk about scoring streaks — you know,Dempsey’s 50th goal for this club – that’s another individual stat on the other end, the attacking end. But the team, front to back, defended well – including Clint – in front of Stef. And from Stef going the opposite direction, the team was helping us get the ball front to back”
Dempsey now has 44 career regular-season goals for Seattle, three shy of Fredy Montero’s club record of 47. Only he and Montero have reached the 50-goal mark for the club, with Dempsey now 10 goals shy of the Colombian’s all competitions scoring mark for the Rave Green.
- Sounders FC currently has an eight-match unbeaten streak (5-0-3), with the club’s last regular-season loss coming on June 17. The current mark is one shy of the club record of nine set from May 28 – July 16, 2011.
- Seattle leads the all-time series with SKC 8-5-3, including a 4-2-2 mark at CenturyLink Field. Saturday’s result snapped a six-match winless run (0-4-2) in regular-season action against Sporting.
- Sounders FC returns to action next Sunday, August 20 against Minnesota United FC at 7:00 p.m. PT with a nationally televised broadcast on FS1.
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