By Abel Folgar
When are you the Seattle sirens and you’re used to winning no matter how high up you are in the Western Conference standings — second at the moment and one point behind punter St. Louis CITY SC — he’s dropping to five losses in his last eight games that sting.
Their last game, a 0-0 draw with bioregional rivals the Portland Timbers, came before a crowd of 42,000 at Lumen Field who got a better showing from the second game of the day’s doubleheader with teammate Seattle , the OL Reign, losing 2 -0 to the Portland Thorns.
Celebrated Cristian Roldan, who was substituted in the 57th minute and allegedly holds talismanic powers for the Rave Green, also did little on his return from a lengthy injury layoff.
“Of course, a tie is a tie, you know, it’s not great,” Sounders coach Brian Schmetzer said after the game. “But if you look at the season as a whole, 27 points; 54 will probably take you to the playoffs. We were somewhere between first and second [place] all Seasons. I know there are a lot of games to go today and a couple of teams have games in hand. But overall, I’d say the team did well.
“We are at a stage where the results could have been better. I think we will definitely reflect as a coaching staff next week when we have a full preparation before the Charlotte game. But overall, I can’t be terribly upset.”
A fair enough assessment, but for the Sounders faithful there is cause for alarm given the recent lack of decent results. At home they got 17 points out of a possible 30, conceded, above 50%, but that tell of a team that was once known for its home field advantage.
Schmetzer was without the heavy artillery in his arsenal, with the newly returned Roldan and Raúl Ruidíaz not quite ready yet, and with Jordan Morris injured. Others injured or returning from injury include defenders Nouhou Tolo and Ethan Dobbelaere, as well as Josh Atencio and Kelyn Rowe.
“Look, it’s hard to sled out there in the heat, when the turf gets a little sticky,” Schmetzer said. “But the question I asked them was, have we really created enough chances? And I think you could say the answer is probably no. We need to create a little more.”
They hadn’t taken a positive from the Timbers for two years and at least since 2017 they beat them at the Lumen.
Read the latest MLS news here
“That’s a sore point. It’s kind of a black hole in the resume, for sure,” Schmetzer said of his opposite, Timber gaffer Giovanni Savarese, lead in Cascadian bioregionalism. “He’s had my number since he started with Portland. There’s no denying it; that’s a fact.
“I thought the tactic was OK,” he added. “Did they achieve what we wanted? No, because we didn’t score. But we certainly kept clean sheets and if we defend well, we will win many more games than we will lose.”
Serious enough when you’ve got the lifestyle of the aforementioned winner – that points support their second place at the table will require a deep dive into Western Conference data analytics, but adding insult to injury it also has to be that they lost the Concacaf Champions League crown to whoever wins Sunday’s CCL second leg between LAFC and Club León.
This article was originally posted on 90min.com as The poor form of the Seattle Sounders continues.
Leave a Comment