Sporting Kansas City, Sounders play to a scoreless draw in Seattle

Tim Melia needed to make just one save, but it came late in the game as Sporting Kansas City played to a 0-0 tie with the Seattle Sounders on Saturday night.

SEATTLE (AP) — Tim Melia needed to make just one save, but it came late in the game as Sporting Kansas City played to a 0-0 tie with the Seattle Sounders on Saturday night.

Sporting Kansas City scratched second-leading scorer Dom Dwyer just moments before the game because of a neck injury. Dwyer had four goals while starting and playing in all but 19 minutes of Kansas City's first 11 games.

Melia picked up his second shutout in just his fourth game of the season for Kansas City (4-2-6). His only save came late in the 82nd minute on a 10-yard shot by Chad Barrett.

Stefan Frei made his biggest save for the Sounders (6-3-2) midway through the three minutes of stoppage time when he tipped a rising 25-yard shot by Benny Feilhaber.

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The Sounders played without their second-leading scorer. Forward Obafemi Martinsmissed his second straight game with a bruised tibia.

Seattle had the better chances of the first half, but Melia denied the Sounders on three point-blank tries. He took one ball off the head of an onrushing Barrett midway through the 21st minute, knocked away a header by Chad Marshall at the outset of the 32nd, then punched a target ball away from Barrett and Lamar Neagle halfway through the 39th.

Kansas City's best first-half opportunity came at the end of the ninth minute when a long throw-in from the attacking right side landed right on the feet of midfielder Krisztian Nemeth, the team's leading scorer with five goals. Nemeth half-volleyed it toward a wide-open right side, but Frei got there in time to pull it out of the air.

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