The Seattle Sounders were the better team by far in the first half and looked poised to lay a thumping on Marathon, but a disappointing lapse at the back allowed the visitors to head to the break with some hope of clawing a result. Seattle entered the game needing to manage a seven-goal win to improve from the third to the second seed in the knockout stage of the CONCACAF Champions League, and though such a result was always incredibly unlikely, it would now take something approaching a miracle for the Sounders to accomplish such a task.
Sammy Ochoa opened the scoring in the 23rd minute, volleying a Mario Martinez cross low and into the lower left corner. Steve Zakuani added the second less than five minutes later, running on to a very nice ball from Jeff Parke and using a clever stutter-step at the edge of the box to find the space needed to curl his finish past a diving Jose Mendoza. But the visitors would claw their way back in the 37th minute; after Marcus Hahnemann came out to meet Marco Vega, the Marathon striker then pulling up and finding a wide open Mitchel Brown, who separated himself from right back Mike Seamon with somewhat disconcerting ease. The goal was the first that Seattle has allowed from anything other than a penalty kick so far in 2012-13 CCL play.
With the kind of lopsided finish the Sounders would need to clinch the second seed all but out of the question, Seattle's clear objective will now be to preserve the victory and make it through the second half without injury. And though Marathon hasn't created too much danger in the attack so far, they've shown themselves capable of blowing a hole in Seattle's somewhat makeshift defense with relative ease when given the opportunity. Another goal or two would go a long way towards putting the game to bed and securing a perfect record through the group stage.