Real Salt Lake: RSL goes scoreless in Seattle

SEATTLE — Perhaps the expansion Seattle Sounders are that good after all.

A lot of people attributed their season-opening win last week to good fortune and New York's misery, but it's tough to deny their quality after another shutout victory.

The Sounders resembled a seasoned, veteran bunch Saturday night in earning a solid 2-0 victory over Real Salt Lake in front of a sold out crowd of 28,548 at Qwest Field.

For all the talk about RSL's continuity with so many players returning from last year's Western Conference final team, it just didn't show. The team seemed unorganized for stretches, gave the ball away far too easily and just never seemed crisp on the artificial playing surface.

"We were really inches and feet away from a lot of good things. We rely on that to establish a bit of a rhythm, and when can't get into that we get some players that get a bit frustrated," said Kreis, who refused to blame the turf saying simply that both teams played on it.

"You have emotions because it's the first game and you have emotions because of the fantastic crowd, and because of those two things you end up pressing a little bit and when you press you miss things by inches and feet," he said.

It was definitely a disappointing season-opener for a team with high expectations, but coach Jason Kreis cautioned about those expectations prior to Saturday's match.

"I don't pay attention to what everyone else's opinions are, I think that's a very dangerous game. Because it's easy to read those things and feel good about yourselves when everybody is saying the good stuff, but what happens when they're saying the bad stuff," said Kreis.

How Real Salt Lake responds in the coming weeks will be a good test for RSL, which is now winless in its five season openers.

Real Salt Lake actually outshot Seattle 13-12, but most of those shots came in the second half with the Sounders already leading 1-0 after an early first half goal. RSL came narrowly close to equalizing on a few occasions in the second half, but the final touch or shot was never clean enough.

Things get much more difficult for the Sounders (2-0) next week as they head to Toronto, but it also doesn't get any easier for RSL, which hosts defending MLS Cup champion Columbus on Thursday. Real Salt Lake will definitely need to be better against the Crew than it was Saturday.