Sounder Strategy: Galaxy fall back to earth

The Seattle Sounders played two tough road matches last week, finding their feet on the attacking end while showing periods of defensive fragility. But no Sounder was going to be the least bit picky about how they earned three points to stop the skid that was warming the seats of players and coaches alike.

Now, they return home to face a Galaxy team that looks vulnerable after a shutout loss in Austin. Let’s look at what the Sounders learned on their road trip and how they can take advantage against a Galaxy side missing two star attackers.

Sussing out Seattle

An unfortunate refereeing decision led to the Sounders playing down a man for much of the match in D.C. But even before the red, D.C. United was continuously overloading the Sounders’ left, targeting the space between inexperienced defenders Cody Baker and Jon Bell:

Seattle was perhaps fortunate to score first with the number of chances they allowed to D.C. Still, they were able to utilize the speed of Jordan Morris, Danny Musovski, and Léo Chú in transition. For a team that has struggled to generate high-quality chances with slow, methodical possession, it was refreshing to see the Sounders be more pragmatic by utilizing the speed in their attacking group: