The Seattle Sounders recorded their first win—and points—of the 2016 regular season with a 1-0 win over the Montreal Impact on Saturday night at CenturyLink field.
The Sounders started the year with three straight losses before Clint Demspey's header off a corner kick gave the Rave Green three points at home.
Owen Coyle had this to say about Seattle ahead of next Sunday's showdown at BBVA Compass Stadium (2:45 p.m.; TICKETS):
“Seattle are a very good side and have been for many, many years. They’ve invested heavily financially on some big stars and have an abundance of Designated Players and TAM (Targeted Allocation Money) players. They have an outstanding coach, Sigi (Schmid) is somebody who I have a lot of time for. He has a great track record and is a very nice man, and he’ll be looking to get them up and running as quickly as possible. We will be very respectful of the good players and quality they have, but equally we know we are back at home and we are building a real head of steam at home and it’s great for us to get back at the BBVA and look to replicate the level of performance that we had against New England and Dallas in terms of the goals we scored and chances created.
"Seattle will come and will look to pass and move the ball because they have good players and have added to their squad, albeit Obafemi Martins has left, who is a wonderful player. But young (Jordan) Morris has come in, and (Clint) Dempsey is still there, and (Osvaldo) Alonso, they’ve got very good players. Without Martins, they are still a good team. Morris brings pace and excitement and enthusiasm as a young player and they’ve used the money [from the sale of Martins] to strengthen their team in other areas, to make them stronger in different departments. It’s a tough game, as every game in MLS is, but it’s a game we are really looking forward to back at home and get up and running with three points.”
