Orlando City vs. Seattle Sounders: Final Score 4-0 as 10-Man Lions Fall Hard On The Road

Seattle was anything but sleepless on Sunday afternoon.

Coming into the game on one of their worst runs in franchise history (1-8-0 in nine games with five straight losses in MLS) the Seattle Sounders (11-12-2, 35 points) returned home on Sunday and comfortably cruised to a 4-0 win over 10-man Orlando City on national television in front of a packed house of 40,453 at CenturyLink Field.

Tyler Turner became the seventh different Orlando City player to get sent off this season when he picked up a pair of yellow cards in the first half.

Tally Hall kept Orlando City (7-11-7, 28 points) in the game as long as he could, making a trio of big saves in the first half, including denying Obafemi Martins on a penalty kick, but it wasn’t enough to stop the Lions from dropping their fifth match in their last seven MLS competitions.

Both teams were pretty slow from the start, with Seattle controlling most of the game in the early going. The Lions had trouble creating anything offensively and were struggling to get any consistent passing going throughout the first half, contributing to their limited chances.

Seattle eventually broke through in the 17th minute on a wildly impressive goal from Martins, who was making his first appearance for the Sounders since getting hurt in a game back in June. A turnover by Darwin Ceren at the top of the penalty area set up a quick 1-2 passing sequence between Lamar Neagle and Martins, who moved through two defenders to slip the ball past Hall for the goal.

About six minutes after Turner picked up his first yellow of the game for a bonehead foul in the corner of the field, David Mateos, making his MLS debut for Orlando City, committed a clear foul inside the penalty box, pulling down Chad Marshall on a corner kick and forcing referee Kevin Stott to award the penalty kick.

Martins stepped up to take it, but his quick one-step shot to the right was parried away by Hall, who also made a diving one-handed save on a second Seattle chance off the rebound.

Turner was eventually sent off in the 40th minute when Stott showed him a second yellow card for blatantly tugging the jersey of a Sounders player while chasing down a ball, effectively ending a very poor start for the 19-year-old right back.

Orlando City went into halftime with its best chance of the first 45 minutes being Kaká putting a shot off target from outside of the penalty area.

Seattle doubled its lead in the 52nd minute when Nelson Valdez, one of the Sounders’ big summer signings making his debut on Sunday, headed home a great cross out left from Erik Friberg off a short corner. Valdez made a good run that was ignored by both Cyle Larin and Ceren, and headed it back to freeze Hall.

Things only continued to spiral downward for Orlando City.

Martins picked up his second goal of the match 10 minutes later, in the 62nd minute. A Mateos clearance attempt took an unfortunate deflection and found its way straight to Martins, who chipped it over Hall before running by and finishing it off, making it a 3-0.

Adrian Heath took off Larin and Kaká, then Ceren shortly after — Ceren also picked up a yellow card, which gives him five this season, meaning he’ll miss Orlando City’s game next weekend at Toronto FC.

Throwing more salt in the wound, Seattle capped off the game with a fourth goal in stoppage time, from Thomas, to finish off the huge victory against Orlando City, which has now given up 13 goals in the last three road matches (five at NYCFC, four at Toronto, and four at Seattle).

The Lions will head back home and regroup for a week before heading back out to Toronto for their second trip of the season to BMO Field, taking on TFC this Saturday.