New England Soccer Today

#SEAvNE Remix

Photo credit: Kari Heistad/capturedimages.biz

Photo credit: Kari Heistad/capturedimages.biz

Clint Dempsey tallied twice to send a short-handed Revolution to a 3-0 season-opening loss to the Seattle Sounders on Sunday at CenturyLink Field.

Dempsey opened the scoring from spot in the 25th minute after he was fouled inside the box by Juan Agudelo.

The Revolution were without the services of Jermaine Jones and Lee Nguyen, both of whom missed the match due to injuries. Andy Dorman and Diego Fagundez were plugged into the lineup, but neither could bring the same level of quality or ambition.

While the Revolution showed glimpses early, they were simply no match for a Seattle selection that featured beast-mode versions of Dempsey and Obafemi Martins, both of whom bulged the back of the net. Martins sent the guests into halftime with a two-goal deficit after he powered a Tyrone Mears cross through in the 41st minute.

Dempsey, who sizzled all night, capped the scoring on a sequence kick started by a Marco Pappa through ball to Martins, who dragged Bobby Shuttleworth away from frame before sliding it to Dempsey for an easy goal in the 71st minute.

Words don’t give it justice:

The center back duo of Andrew Farrell and Jose Goncalves is still a work in progress, diplomatically speaking. Fagundez looked confident early, but was eventually solved by Chad Marshall and Brad Evans. Kelyn Rowe was the Revolution’s most dangerous offensive threat, launching a blistering shot on frame that was acrobatically denied by Stefan Frei.

Things went from bad to worse around the 80th minute, when Teal Bunbury fell to the pitch hard while giving chase to a ball in the final third. He was unable to finish, and headed to the locker room holding his right shoulder. Revolution coach Jay Heaps did not provide an update to Bunbury’s condition immediately following the match.

Stat of the match: The Revolution’s passing accuracy stat in the final third was 62 percent, a notch below the Sounders’ rate of 74 percent.

The Revolution will head to the Bronx on Sunday, Mar. 15 to face expansion outfit New York City FC at Yankee Stadium. Kickoff is set for 5:00pm, and will be televised in ESPN2. Here’s how NYCFC fared in their debut match:

Sunday’s lineups:

Revolution – Bobby Shuttleworth – Chris Tierney, Jose Goncalves, Andrew Farrell, Kevin Alston – Andy Dorman (Daigo Kobayashi 57′), Scott Caldwell – Kelyn Rowe, Diego Fagundez (Steve Neumann 77′), Teal Bunbury – Juan Agudelo (Sean Okoli 67′).

Sounders – Stefan Frei – Leo Gonzalez (Christian Roldan 93+), Chad Marshall, Brad Evans, Tyrone Mears – Marco Pappa (Aaron Kovar 89′), Michael Azira, Alex Pineda, Lamar Neagle (Andy Rose 83′) – Obafemi Martins, Clint Dempsey.

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