The Seattle Sounders did not sit back and accept Houston Dynamo pressure. Instead they possessed and pressured, setting a strong tone - playing more like Brian Schmetzer does at home. On their second corner of the match Gustav Svensson opened the scoring (11’, assisted by Nicolas Lodeiro).
Just 15 minutes later Lodeiro fed Joevin Jones a perfect throughball. Jalil Anibaba pulled Jones down to prevent a 1-v-1, but it was in the box. That stopped the attack, sent Seattle to the penalty spot, and Anibaba to the showers with a red (28’).