SEATTLE – Over the years, Brian Schmetzer has gotten better about containing his emotions in postgame press conferences. While once a staple of any suboptimal result, the pen-clicking is no longer an obvious tell for how he’s feeling, for instance. Now in his ninth season as Seattle Sounders head coach, Schmetzer can usually display a certain calm almost no matter what just transpired.
That was not the case following Saturday’s 3-0 loss to LAFC, a near carbon copy of the loss they suffered against the same team almost exactly one month earlier.
From the moment he sat down, Schmetzer’s body language was clearly agitated. He was slumped in his chair with a frustrated look on his face. His answer started with a heavy sigh and included poking at the table for emphasis. By the time he was done, the pen-clicking was in full force.
“We couldn’t afford to give that team, of that caliber, two goals to dictate how we play,” Schmetzer said. “It was not a performance up to our standard.”
At the core of Schmetzer’s frustration wasn’t just that the Sounders lost, but that it was in such a predictable and familiar way.
After that July 20 loss, Schmetzer talked about needing to avoid silly mistakes and being cleaner. Knowing that LAFC are among the league’s best teams at managing leads – they’re 14-1-1 in the regular season when scoring first – Schmetzer emphasized the need to avoid falling behind. LAFC thrive when they can defend deep and look for counter-strike opportunities.
Instead, the Sounders played right into LAFC’s hands. Left back Ryan Hollingshead got in behind the defense when no one closed down Maxime Chanot. Perhaps preoccupied with Denís Bouanga, Alex and Cristian Roldan miscommunicated on how to handle the run, allowing Hollingshead to get in behind and collect a ball from Chanot. He beat Stefan Frei with a well-placed shot in the 15th minute. The problem was compounded when Kei Kamara hit a remarkable volley after the Sounders couldn’t quite clear a corner in the 26th minute.
A 2-0 lead is hardly insurmountable, but when it comes in a game like this so soon after a similar match, it gives the sense of inevitability. That Denís Bouanga added a third goal early in the second half was mostly academic, if also illustrative of LAFC’s control.
“The same things keep happening,” said Sounders midfielder Obed Vargas, a third-year player who has never been on the winning side of a match against LAFC. “They’re happy sitting back, they’re happy not having the ball and that’s their game.
“I don’t know what to tell you, they have our number, they beat us every single time. You just have to regroup and figure something out.”
What makes all this even more frustrating is that it’s not just the head-to-head meetings that are so one-sided. LAFC also just finished a transfer window where they managed to add Olivier Giroud as a Designated Player and talented midfielder Lewis O’Brien on a loan from Nottingham Forest. The Sounders, meanwhile, couldn’t find a way to make a single change.
Those players weren’t difference-makers in this game, but LAFC’s ability to add them simply underscores how much better they seem to be maximizing their roster. The Sounders’ starting lineup in this game featured only two changes from the one that lost to LAFC in the Western Conference semifinals last year. Their most notable change was inserting Paul Rothrock into the lineup in place of Léo Chú.
LAFC, who went all the way to MLS Cup, had seven different starters from that game. Even including LAFC’s bench, they had just seven players who were available in both meetings. They’ve moved on from legends like Carlos Vela, replaced their goalkeeper and revamped their defense and midfield.
If there’s a silver lining to be found, it’s that results against LAFC aside the Sounders have been playing well for several months. Take out the two 3-0 losses to LAFC and the Sounders are 10-1-1 with a 26-10 goal difference in their past 12 matches. That includes back-to-back wins against Western Conference-leaders LA Galaxy and Liga MX’s Pumas UNAM.
LAFC, as they seem to do regularly, provided a reality check. The Sounders have lost just five of their last 26 home games, yet three of those are against LAFC. Over their past 48 matches across all competitions, the Sounders have only lost by multiple goals just six times and by three goals or more twice, both times against LAFC. The Sounders have only allowed nine goals in the first 29 minutes of matches this season, four of them are against LAFC.
The Sounders are not a bad team, but to actually win anything of consequence they will likely need to figure out how to be more competitive with LAFC.
“The goal is to win the tournament,” Vargas said. “The goal is to go far, at least qualify for a Champions League spot. In a way, it feels like it was all for nothing.”
