VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Chad Barrett scored his first two goals of the season and the Seattle Sounders beat the Vancouver Whitecaps 2-0 on Saturday.
Starting in place of the injured Obafemi Martins, Barrett scored in the fourth and 38th minutes to help the Sounders (6-3-1) beat their Cascadia Cup rivals for the first time in six tries.
“The catch-22 of being a professional soccer player is you learn to play the game as you get older,” the 30-year-old Barrett said. “Then as you get older, you can’t play anymore. You try to find that perfect combination of experience, age and skill.”
A former teammate of Whitecaps coach Carl Robinson when the two were with Toronto FC, Barrett opened the scoring after taking a pass from Clint Dempsey and moving in alone on goalkeeper David Ousted.
“I was cocky kid when I was younger,” Barrett said. “I thought I knew it all, but I still had a mental problem when it came to dealing with my emotions. Carl’s one of those guys who is very calm and collected. He taught me that everything you can do, you can do from a peaceful state and you can still play as hard as you want to. That’s always been his thing.”
The Whitecaps (6-4-2) had a couple chances to get back in it — including a great finger-tip save from Seattle’s Stefan Frei on Pedro Morales — immediately after the goal.
Barrett doubled the lead when Vancouver defender Kendall Waston failed to close him down on the left. The striker beat Ousted with a shot to the far post.
“Credit to Chad. That’s two super finishes,” Robinson said. “The second was a fantastic finish with his left foot.”
