Day: March 1, 2025

2025 – RD 3: Houston SaberCats v Seattle Seawolves

The Seattle Seawolves travel to Houston to face the SaberCats in a Western Conference clash between two MLR founding members in Round 3 of the 2025 season. Houston come into this game having had a quick turnaround from their first victory of the season against RFCLA in Round 2, while the Seawolves are fresh off a bye week and looking for their first win.

These teams have met 13 times previously, 11 times in the regular season and twice in the playoffs. The Seattle Seawolves hold a 9-4 series lead including a 2-0 record in the post-season, however the last meeting between these two sides saw the Houston SaberCats take a narrow 28-25 bonus point victory at home, and by coincidence, the SaberCats scrape another 3pt victory at home over the Seattle Seawolves for a big win in the Western Conference.

The hosts got off to a flying start, with Dom Akina continuing his impressive run of form to give the SaberCats an early lead before controversial new signee Rufus McLean scored his first MLR try after 10 minutes. Houston held a 14-0 lead until Huw Taylor struck back for the Seawolves shortly after the first hydration break, and 14-7 was how the score would stand at the half, following over 15 minutes of back and forth. The guests came out of the halftime break sharper. Kerron van Vuuren added his first MLR try after 47 minutes to even the score, and although ex-Seawolf AJ Alatimu would add 3pts for Houston shortly after, Seattle kept coming and managed a 3rd try from Devin Short to give the visitors their first lead of the game.

The Seawolves seemed to sit back and defend their 17-21 lead behind the famous ‘Sea Wall’ and it took until the 70th minute for that wall to break. Pago Haini was handed the first red card in Seattle Seawolves history, before Pita Anae-Ah Sue bundled over for Houston’s 3rd try to retain the lead, before Alatimu added the extras for a narrow 24-21 lead. Things went from bad to worse for Seattle, however. Just 5 minutes later, Juice Gumede was shown Seattle’s second red card of the game to reduce them to 13 men, and that was that. The SaberCats saw out the final few minutes to take a closely contested victory, and improve their season to 2-1. The Seawolves limp back to Seattle, still looking for their first victory of the season.

 

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2025 – RD 3: Utah Warriors v NOLA Gold

The NOLA Gold visit Zion’s Bank for the Utah Warriors’ 2025 Home Opener. The Gold are looking to bounce back after a tough loss in Miami, while Utah are coming off a great win up in Chicago!

These teams have met 6 times, and the Utah Warriors have never defeated the Gold, currently at 0-6. Their most recent meeting came in Round 12 of 2024, a 21-14 NOLA victory in the Gold Mine.

It looked as thought it would be a hard fought contest judging from the first 20 minutes, with the Gold taking an early lead from the boot of Luke Carty, before the Warriors were awardede a penalty try, and the sides exchanged both tries and yellow cards. The Warriors led 14-11 after 26 minutes, before Liam Coltman dotted down for Utah’s 3rd, and the Warriors took a 21-11 lead to the sheds.

There was a stalemate to begin the 2nd half before Luke Carty added another 3pts to bring the score to 21-14 and shortly after this, the Warriors decided to step on the gas. Scoring twice through Jordan Trainor and Joe Mano’s 2nd of the game, with Joel Hodgson adding the extras both times as well as a penalty to extend the Warriors’ lead to 38-14. The Gold would hit back and grab their 3rd right on the hour mark, but this game was wrapped up as the Utah Warriors comtinued to capitalise on NOLA mistakes, adding 3 more tries including a 3rd for Joe Mano to complete the hat trick in front of a home crowd. It seems that the 7th time is hte charm for the Utah Warriors, who earn their first ever victory over the NOLA Gold, by a convincing score of 55-21.

With 55pts scored to add to their 45pts from their first game, the Utah Warriors have equalled an MLR record for the fastest team to score 100pts, equalling the Austin Gilgronis 100pt effort in their first two games of the 2022 season. Additionally, Joe Mano’s hat trick is the 2nd of his MLR career, becoming just the 4th player in league history to score multiple hat tricks in the competition.

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2025 – RD 3: Old Glory DC v San Diego Legion

The San Diego Legion continue their East Coast road trip, moving up to Maryland to face Old Glory DC at the Soccerplex. The Legion are coming off an emphatic 5-52 victory in Charlotte, while the Old Glory DC are rested after an early bye week.

These teams have met 4 times previously, with the Legion holding a 3-1 series lead. In their last meeting, San Diego came away with a convincing 11-27 victory in Round 4 of 2024. The scoreling would be remarkably similar this time around, as the Legion walked away as 10-26 winners after securing the try bonus point in the final minutes. The Legion move to 3-0 on the season, while DC fall to 1-1 in their two games.

Remarkably, the San Diego Legion take a Bonus Point win from DC, despite only making 243m. This is the lowest winning meters made total in MLR history.

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