Weary Sounders fall to last-place Rhinos on road

ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- The Sounders' tough run in USL-1 league play continued Friday as Seattle fell 1-0 to the last-place Rochester Rhinos.

It was the second consecutive 1-0 loss in USL play for the Sounders, who have not won a league game since June 7 (0-2-3).

The team next travels north to face the Montreal Impact on Sunday. Kickoff is set for 12:30 p.m. and the match will be shown on USLlive.com.

Coming off a marathon U.S. Open Cup quarterfinal match against the Kansas City Wizards on Tuesday night that Seattle won on penalty kicks (0-0, 6-5 PK's), the Sounders flew to Rochester for their sixth match in 13 days.

Rochester took advantage of the Sounders' fatigue and got on the board early in the seventh minute when Luke Kreamalmeyer received a cross from Danny Earls and headed it perfectly over an outstretched Chris Eylander.

After the early goal, the Sounders had trouble combining to create open looks. Their best chance at an equalizer in the first half came when a ball played in the air from Hugo Alcaraz-Cuellar found Andre Schmid at the edge of the 18-yard box. Schmid headed the ball down to the feet of a wide open Sebastien Le Toux for a shot, but the play was ruled offside.

Sounders coach Brian Schmetzer brought in defender Michael Rodriguez for the second half to try to hold possession as the Sounders looked to find a quick equalizer. With Rodriguez in a defending midfield position, Kenji Treschuk was free to press forward in the second half, firing in three shots in the 45 minutes, the most shots by a Sounder in the game.

Seattle had energy early in the half, but found it difficult to break down a Rochester side content to drop back and defend its advantage.

After Sunday's match, the Sounders have a five-day break before facing Rochester again on Friday at Starfire Sports Complex.