SEATTLE -- Not long ago, the Seattle Sounders found themselves needing to pick
up as many points possible just to get back into playoff positioning.
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Sounders made up the ground and find themselves as the points leaders in Major
League Soccer. "Weve kept climbing, kept climbing and now were in first place.
Now weve got to make sure we stay there and enjoy the view a little bit,"
Seattle coach Sigi Schmid said. Obafemi Martins scored just three minutes into
the match to give Seattle an early lead, Lamar Neagle added a second goal in the
38th minute, and the Sounders took over the MLS points lead with a 2-0 win over
Real Salt Lake on Friday night. The Sounders (15-8-4) vaulted past Salt Lake in
the Western Conference standings and now sit atop the entire league with 49
points after their fifth straight victory. The Sounders are one-point ahead of
RSL (14-9-6) and four ahead of the Eastern Conference trio of Montreal, New York
and Sporting Kansas City with about six weeks remaining in the regular season.
Seattle has also played two fewer games than Salt Lake. Its a stark turn from
Seattles slumping start back in the spring when it took just two points from its
first five matches. But Seattle has won eight of nine and still have games in
hand on most of the league. "Its tremendous, especially with what weve had to go
through to get here," Seattle defender Zach Scott said. Neagle scored in his
third straight match and Seattle dominated the first half with U.S. national
team stars Eddie Johnson and Clint Dempsey sitting on the bench as reserves.
Seattle improved to 38-0-8 in its last 46 matches when getting the first goal
and are 8-0-2 all-time playing in front of crowds bigger than 40,000 at home.
Fridays game was played before 55,107, the second-largest home crowd this
season. And it very easily could have been a bigger victory with the Sounders
failing to finish a number of chances or Salt Lake goalkeeper Nick Rimando
making big saves. Both teams were at nearly full strength following World Cup
qualifying. Midfielder Kyle Beckerman and Rimando started for Salt Lake, even
with Beckerman playing 90 minutes against Mexico on Tuesday. Seattle chose to
bring Dempsey and Johnson off the bench after the pair played extensive minutes
against both Costa Rica and Mexico. Dempsey came on in the 61st minute replacing
Marc Burch. It was just the second appearance at home for Dempsey since his
signing in early August. Within 90 seconds of being on the field, Dempsey was
chopped down by Ned Grabavoy, drawing a yellow card for the reckless tackle.
Johnson came on in the 75th minute. "The team has really been playing well and
credit goes to them," Dempsey said. "Thats a game thats easy to go into when its
2-0." By the time they got on the field, the Sounders were well on their way to
victory. "Its obviously a very scary situation. Were down two goals, and he
brings on Eddie Johnson and Clint Dempsey," Salt Lake coach Jason Kreis said.
Martins goal was his eighth of the season and was a quick strike due to the
hustle of midfielder Andy Rose. Martins pass was close to going over the end
line, but Rose was able to chase it down and place a perfect centring pass to
Martins open in front of the net. Neagles eighth goal was created by the lengthy
run from defender DeAndre Yedlin, who found open space along the right side.
Yedlin carried into the penalty box and had the time to pick out Neagle making a
move away from the goal and into the middle of the box where he was unmarked for
the easy goal. Seattle appeared to get a lucky break in the 80th minute when
Javier Morales free kick from distance cleared traffic in the penalty box and
bounced into the stomach of Seattle goalkeeper Michael Gspurning, whose feet
were in the goal. Officials ruled Gspurning kept the ball from fully crossing
the goal line. "If youre not sharp against a team like Seattle, they can really
break, theyre dangerous on the counter," Beckerman said. "That was the key
tonight. We just werent at our best. We lost to a team thats really good in
their place, so credit to them."
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. Robredo, ranked No. 16, bounced back from an upset loss to Leonardo Mayer in
the second round of the Royal Guard Open in Chile last week to down Carreno
Busta in 1 hour, 25 minutes. On a day filled mostly with qualifying matches,
fifth-seeded Marcel Granollers of Spain also entered the second with a 7-5, 3-6,
6-2 win over Aljaz Bedene of Slovenia, while Guido Pella of Argentina defeated
Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain 7-6 (6), 6-4 to advance.MILWAUKEE --
Matt Carpenter knew he had done something special. The St. Louis Cardinals are
confident there is more to come, too. Carpenter broke Stan Musials team record
for doubles by a left-handed batter in a season as the Cardinals beat the
Milwaukee Brewers 7-2 Saturday night to maintain a two-game lead in the NL
Central. Carpenters fifth-inning double was his 54th one more than Musials total
in 1953. Carpenter went into the game aware he was tied with Stan the Man. "To
know that you have done something, took a record from (Musial) or broke a record
that he held, you cant put it into words," Carpenter said. "It is pretty
amazing. It is something I am extremely proud of and definitely a cool thing."
Carpenter grounded out to start of the game and flied out in the second. But
with two outs in the fifth, he hit a shot into the right-field corner to set the
mark. "Someone had mentioned to me that I tied him last night, so when I hit it
today, I knew," Carpenter said. "I got the ball and I got the base, so pretty
cool." Despite his personal success, Carpenter and the Cardinals know they have
more to do. "The only thing on my mind is the division championship," he said.
"If I can do my job to help us win, then all those individual things will take
care of themselves. The Cardinals lead Pittsburgh by two games and are ahead of
Cincinnati by three games. St. Louis won for the 12th time in 17 games and
improved to 14-4 against the Brewers this year, including 8-1 in Milwaukee. "We
dont shy away from the fact that anything you get to play after game 162 is
sspecial," Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said.
Cassius Marsh Seahawks Jersey. Lance Lynn
(14-10) allowed one run, four hits and four walks in 6 1-3 innings. He had been
0-5 with a 5.44 ERA in eight starts since winning at Cincinnati on Aug. 4. "It
is the same motto weve had all year, one game at a time," Lynn said. "That is
all you can worry about." Lynn has made a career-high 32 starts this year,
including four against the Brewers. He had a rough first inning, but after that
nothing bothered him. "He was struggling a little bit," Matheny said. "Once he
found that groove, and you could tell found that four-seamer, it was a
completely different game." Yovani Gallardo (11-10) gave up two runs and four
hits in seven innings and dropped to 1-11 with a 6.46 ERA in 17 career starts
against St. Louis. Matt Adams hit a two-run homer for the second straight night,
putting the Cardinals ahead in the first. Davis hit an RBI grounder in the
bottom half, but the Cardinals blew open the game in a five-run eighth. "He hits
mistakes," Gallardo said. "Hes one of those guys that got a lot of power. It
doesnt take much for him to hit the ball hard somewhere." NOTES: Brewers players
drove through the parking lots and tossed bobbleheads and T-shirts to surprised
tailgaters after batting practice, part of an effort to thank fans at the end of
a disappointing season. ... Cardinals GM John Mozeliak said that INF-OF
Allen Craigs left foot will be re-evaluated at the end of next week. Hes missed
16 games since spraining his left foot Sept. 4 at Cincinnati.
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