Keeping an opponent scoreless after it had combined for 10 goals its two prior games was a victory in itself for a Sounders team at somewhat less than full strength.
Throw in veteran defender Chad Marshall being scratched due to illness just minutes before kickoff and Friday night’s scoreless duel with expansion Atlanta United FC was about as good as it was going to get for the hometown 11. The Sounders didn’t control possession nearly as much as they’d have liked in this at-times chippy rematch of a heated exhibition game played five weeks earlier in South Carolina, but they also limited the truly dangerous threats posed by one of the league’s strongest offenses.