Antigua coach Mauricio Tapia at times played five men along the backline in hopes of containing the Sounders’ offense. It didn’t work.
Pedro de la Vega and Paul Arriola pocketed goals, again, to lead the Sounders to a 3-1 win in the second leg of their CONCACAF Champions Cup match at Lumen Field on Wednesday. Seattle advances to the Round of 16 on 6-2 aggregate scoring.
The Sounders (2-0) will play Mexico’s Cruz Azul (2-0) in a two-legged series beginning March 5 at Lumen. Tickets for the general public go on sale at 1 p.m. Thursday.
Cruz Azul defeated Dominican Republic side Real Hope FA 7-0 in aggregate scoring to advance. The Liga MX club is a six-time CCC winner.
“We’re looking forward to the challenge,” said Sounders coach Brian Schmetzer, whose club has never faced the international powerhouse. “The players are already talking about it in the locker room, about the next chapter. We’ll see how that plays out.”
De la Vega added an exclamation point with his brace in the 88th minute. João Paulo picked off a ball in the midfield and got it to de la Vega, who swiped a right-footed shot past an outstretched Antigua keeper Luis Morán.
Sounders forward Jordan Morris passed to de la Vega for his first shot at goal. Antigua defender Kevin Grijalva blocked the attempt with his backside, but de la Vega pounced on the rebound and quickly angled a left-footed shot past Morán.
The score gave the Sounders a 4-1 lead in aggregate scoring, with a weighty three away goals for the first tiebreaker. Los Panza Verde (Green Belly) increased their intensity to overcome the deficit and keeper Andrew Thomas collected two saves within a three-minute span but couldn’t hold the visitors through the half.
José Gálvez tapped in an equalizer in stoppage time for a 1-1 score headed into the break. The goal was disallowed at first because Gálvez was suspected to be offside. He threw the ball and argued with referee Selvin Brown as VAR conducted a long review.
It was ruled that Gálvez was onside when teammate Cristian Hernández sent a long ball into the box. But Antigua still needed more goals to make it matter.
Schmetzer was bothered by AGFC even thinking it had a chance.
“The goal we gave up at halftime was not just about that half of soccer,” Schmetzer said. “It’s about the longer term vision — do not take your foot off the gas. We went up 1-nothing and we went into cruise control. You don’t win a championship at the end of the year when you do that.”
Seattle’s new acquisitions in Arriola and Jesús Ferreira linked up for the go-ahead goal in the 53rd minute. Arriola sent a forward pass to Ferreira, who was patient before sending a pass back to Arriola, through a defender’s legs. The latter mashed a right-footed shot into the net.
The former FC Dallas duo did the same in the road match against Antigua. De la Vega also scored last week for a total of three goals in the series.
“They’ve played together a lot so they know tendencies and all of that stuff,” Schmetzer said. “I’ll credit [Sounders general manager] Craig [Waibel] bringing the two players here. They’re super talented.”
Morán found himself in another dangerous position shortly after the score. He was off his line, challenging de la Vega in the southwest corner of the field. Morán shoved de la Vega to ground in effort to stop the midfielder from crafting a scoring opportunity. The keeper was shown a yellow card in the 58th minute.
Schmetzer heavily rotated his starting lineup for the match after drawing 2-2 with Charlotte in their MLS opener Saturday.
Thomas was in goal with Jacob Castro on the bench and mainstay Stefan Frei left off the gameday roster. Frei played the full 90 in the first leg and against Charlotte.
There were six changes among the field players. Morris remained up top and center backs Yeimar and Jackson Ragen anchored the backline. Schmetzer subbed off Morris for Danny Musovski in the 46th minute and Nouhou for Yeimar in the 57th minute.
Tacoma Defiance midfielder Kalani Kossa-Rienzi was signed earlier this week and was available off the bench. He subbed on for Alex Roldan in the 82nd minute.
Tapia made two lineup changes from the 3-1 loss to Seattle last week. Forward Francisco Apaolaza replaced Dewinder Bradley and defender Ángel Díaz started over Óscar Castellanos.
The Sounders will return to MLS competitions with a road match against Real Salt Lake on Saturday.
“We checked a lot of boxes,” Schmetzer said, noting Antigua was on short rest due to flight delays. “It was going to be a heavy lift, so credit to them for the effort and application. But our team played well.”
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