Ship’s Log, April 22: Critical Failures

Dave Clark -

Playing with disadvantage is hard enough. You’re in a weakened state brought upon by poor decisions of your own or forced by opposing forces, disadvantage minimizes your chances – this is true for D&D and for soccer.

But disadvantage wasn’t enough.

The Seattle Sounders critically failed, at least twice. Others can define what Alex Roldan did. But Yeimar and Arreaga aided the opposition. Rather than prevent goals they may as well assisted Vancouver.

These weren’t your ordinary natural 1s. No, simply falling over wouldn’t be enough. These were the types of critical fails that become legends.

They are the type of crit fails which end careers.

In 2016, a similar error to either one of the two CBs’ performances on Saturday night ended Sigi Schmid’s stay.

In 2013, the season ended on a massive downbeat. The Sounders were 1-6-3 in their final 10, including two playoff losses to the Portland Timbers. Joe Roth questioned the team’s fortitude, apologized to the fans and said he’d find players willing to run through walls.

Two DPs (one bought out), the starting keeper, multiple centerbacks, a star forward and a few backups were gone after the purge heading in to 2014 (Seattle’s only multi-trophy season).

The only way to go when a team critically fails like they did Saturday is to reboot – that could be an immediate state of performance that uses the fixture congestion of May to rescue the season (the 2018 method) or to make major changes to coaching changes and/or cut players (like right now).

There’s at least one buyout available. There’s a transfer window open.

These crit failures don’t have to end the season. But they will stop legacies from being built. Saturday night is part of the Sounders story now, written in our memories like two natural 1s rolled at once.

– Dave Clark

Purchasing the new jersey or planning to get MLS Season Pass? Use our affiliate links to support your bloggers.

Catching up on Sounder at Heart

Missed the weekend's Puget Sound soccer news? Here are our latest stories and our pro teams' standings.

Sounders

Reign

Defiance

Velocity

Spokane beat Richmond 2-nil to lift themselves to second by points, though they have played more games than most of their competition. Saturday they start the USL Jägermeister Cup competition. Velocity are in the same group with Fuego, Hailstorm and league giants Union Omaha.

Looking back at the news

Everything else you need to know

Apple TV may be home to the Club World Cup starting with the 2025 version that includes the Seattle Sounders and teams that are doing much better in their current seasons.

Reign fall to 10th in the CBS power rankings. Current are the big movers because they crushed Bay FC. Angel City earned their first home win.

Ray Serrano and Lou City are still second in the Backheeled USL Championship power rankings. Former Sounders Alex Villanueva is helping power Detroit to third. Alex is frequently playing as a winger now.

Speaking of former Sounders, Henry Wingo won his current league for a fourth time.

Sam Rogers was loaned to HamKam, where he’d previously played. He got his first start on April 17 as he works back into regular play after not playing with Lillestrøm in league play this season.

Providence to pay $200M for illegal timekeeping and break practices.

This newsletter was made possible through the support of Full Pull Wines, a boutique wines reseller that has been sponsoring us since 2011. You can join their mailing list here.