Fredy Montero scored in the 19th minute and the Seattle Sounders remained unbeaten in five games, beating the Colorado Rapids 1-0 Friday night.
Montero hadn't scored since Aug. 28, 2010, against Chicago. Kasey Keller posted his first shutout of the year and Seattle is 2-0-3 in its past five games.
Seattle (2-2-3) lost midfielder Steve Zakuani to a lower right leg injury when hit by Rapids midfielder Brian Mullan in the third minute. Zakuani remained on the field for five minutes before being taken off the field on a stretcher and flown to a hospital for further examination.
Mullan received a red card ejection for Colorado (3-3-0)
The Sounders won for the first time in Colorado. They had a tie and a loss in their only other trips to Colorado.
The Rapids lost their third straight, all shutouts. Colorado was beaten for the first time at home.
Forward Conor Casey missed his third straight game with a strained left hamstring for Colorado. Midfielder Pablo Mastroeni returned after a two-game absence with a strained right Achilles'.
The matchup turned awry three minutes into the game when Zakuani was upended by a hit by Mullan. Zakuani left the game and the Rapids were forced to play 10-on-11 for the remainder of the game.
Seattle's defenders knocked down two shots before they reached Keller. The Sounders took to the offense after the second block.
O'Brien White found Mauro Rosales in the center of the field on a three-on-two break for Seattle. Rosales slid a pass to Montero on the left wing and Montero got the ball past the slide of Colorado goalkeeper Matt Pickens in the 19th minute.
Keller came out of his crease to beat Caleb Folan to the ball to deny Colorado a scoring chance in the 30th minute. Omar Cummings broke free long enough to send a left-footed shot from 40 yards, but the shot sailed well over the crossbar in the 43rd minute.
The Sounders had a 3-0 edge on shots on goal in the first half.
Colorado got a shot through to Keller in the 63rd minute, but Keller smothered the shot by Kosuke Kimura.
Folan had a shot blocked by two defenders and Keller punched a pass away from the crease in the four minutes of extra time.
