The defending US Open Cup champion Seattle Sounders fell 1-0 in Panama Tuesday evening despite controlling the run of play against San Francisco, coming out on the wrong side of the contest decided by a Roberto Brown penalty kick in the first half.
Seattle’s domination of possession, however, presented very few quality chances with Osvaldo Alonso shooting high from 24 yards six minutes in as they looked to convert from long range. One good opportunity from closer distance did arise, though, in the 13th minute when Erik Friberg sent a ball into the area only to see Fredy Montero head the ball just wide.
A ball played into the box to Brown was challenged by Jeff Parke, who fell on the play and inadvertently handled the ball, giving the home side a penalty in the 28th minute. The former Montreal Impact striker, who tallied four goals in his stint with the club in the 2008-09 event, stepped to the spot and buried it inside the right post past Kasey Keller, who had started the play that led to the penalty with distribution directly to a San Francisco player.
In the second half the Sounders had two fantastic chances to equalize courtesy of substitutes Pat Noonan and Michael Fucito, who was recently honored as TheCup.us Player of the Round for the club’s Third Round win against Kitsap. The pair proved to be the most dangerous in the attack on the night.
In the 84th minute Noonan sent a header off the far post that Alvaro Fernandez was unable to gather the rebound of to finish past a scrambling defense.
In the second minute of stoppage time Fucito, who led the team in CCL scoring a year ago with two strikes despite being a second string player, got behind the defense only to see his shot deflected with no one coming in at the far post to bury what would have been an easy finish.
MLS clubs continue to struggle in Panama with a record now of 1-3-2 in CCL play. The lone victory came in last year's event when Real Salt Lake were 3-2 victors in the fourth game of the group phase.
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