Despite a largely reserve lineup and a very shaky first half, the Seattle Sounders escaped from Gilette Stadium with a 2-1 win and a mathematical chance at the Supporters Shield. New England was the better team for much of the first half but were only able to capitalize once on some very poor defending by the Sounders. Seattle did the opposite; twice the Revolution's back line made a mess of things withing shouting distance of Fredy Montero and twice the Colombian striker made them pay.
This was far from the most impressive win the Sounders have secured on the season, but that was never the goal; Seattle came out of the game having given all of their regular starters a fair amount of rest, apparently without any further injuries and with three points. That's by far a best-case scenario, and if Real Salt Lake can pull off an upset over the LA Galaxy at the Home Depot Center the stretch run could start to get very interesting indeed for Seattle. In any event, Seattle keeps their very impressive run of form going into yet another month. With the win the Sounders secure their 16th win and 57th points of the season. With the brace Montero now has 11 goals in MLS this year and 15 across all competitions. It took the young Designated Player a bit to get going, but he's been on fire for the past several months and has worked his way at the very least into the discussion for league MVP.
Now all attention will turn to Tuesday night's US Open Cup final against the resurgent Chicago Fire. Defending the cup is going to be a much more difficult task than it might have seemed when the matchup was first set but all of the Sounders key players will be well rested. If Mauro Rosales is healthy and able to play then Seattle will be at full strength. Given the number of games they've played in the past few weeks (and the number of points they've racked up in that same stretch) that's a pretty tremendous accomplishment.