Atencio, Ruidíaz lead Sounders to 3-0 win over St Louis City

SEATTLE (AP) — Joshua Atencio and Raúl Ruidíaz scored second-half goals to spark the Seattle Sounders to a 3-0 victory over St. Louis City on Saturday night.

HAVE A HIT.

Josh Atencio scores the first @MLS goal of his career! 🙌 pic.twitter.com/ArmdNwVuIr

— Seattle Sounders FC (@SoundersFC) April 9, 2023

The Sounders (5-1-1) improved to 6-1-4 all-time against expansion teams at home. Seattle’s only loss against first-year teams came against LAFC in 2018.

Seattle handed St. Louis City (5-2-0) its second straight loss after the league’s newest team began the season with five straight victories. Seattle takes over the top spot in the Western Conference with the win — one point in front of St. Louis City and two ahead of LAFC.

Neither team scored until Atencio took a pass from Nicolás Lodeiro and found the net in the 65th minute. Ruidíaz made it 2-0 with an unassisted goal six minutes later. The Sounders’ final score came on an own-goal by Jake Nerwinski in the 89th minute.

Our Scoring Machine 🇵🇪@RaulRuidiazM makes it 2-0!!!! pic.twitter.com/tcPEkevnc7

— Seattle Sounders FC (@SoundersFC) April 9, 2023

Seattle had a 12-9 edge in shots and a 6-2 advantage in shots on goal.

Stefan Frei finished with two saves to earn the clean sheet for the Sounders. Roman Bürki had four saves for St. Louis City.

Seattle travels to play the Portland Timbers on Saturday. St. Louis City returns home to host FC Cincinnati on Saturday.

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