Former Duke Defender Kevin Sakuda Leads Seattle to USL Championship

Seattle, Wash. - Kevin Sakuda, a former four-year letterwinner at Duke, helped lead the Seattle Sounders to the United Soccer League Championship on Saturday with a victory over the Richmond Kickers on penalty kicks.

The Sounders came back from a 1-0 defecit to tie the game in the 77th minute on a goal by Maykel Galindo. After regulation the game was still tied 1-1 and went to penalty kicks. Seattle took a 2-0 lead after the first two rounds of kicks, but Richmond came back to even the score in the next two rounds with two goals and a big save in the third round. After neither team scored in the fifth round, Sakuda found the back of the net to give Seattle the edge. However, Matt Pauls scored for the Kickers to force a seventh round. Scott Jenkins capitalized on his kick and Ronnie Pascale missed his shot to give the Sounders the win.

Seattle joined the Rochester Raging Rhinos as one of only two teams to win three USL First Division Championships.
Sakuda, a defender in his third season with the Sounders, finished the season with one goal and one assist in 28 games. He was second on the team with 2,484 minutes played.

As a Blue Devil, Sakuda was an All-ACC second team selection his senior year in 2001 and was named the team's Defensive Player of the Year for the second straight season. As a sophomore he was named to the NSCAA/adidas All-South second team. His freshman year he was named to the Soccer News All-Freshman Team and to the ACC All-Tournament team. He finished his career with one goal and 12 assists.

Former Duke Defender Kevin Sakuda Leads Seattle to USL Championship

Related News

Related Videos

Duke information