Fourth try no charm: Sounders fall to LAFC, yet again

The Seattle Sounders had a chance to advance to the U.S. Open Cup final and exact some revenge against LAFC on Wednesday night. Instead they fell 1-0 at Starfire on a dubious-at-best penalty kick in the 83rd minute, slotted away by none other than Denis Bouanga and then had a 90+2’ equalizer disallowed on a tight offside call. In the end, it was the Sounders’ first-ever regulation loss at Starfire Stadium in the Open Cup, dropping their record to 25-2-3 all-time.

Seattle did a respectable job to keep LAFC relatively quiet for most of the match, and even held a slight advantage in shots through the first 45 minutes. The Brothers Roldan pretty effectively limited what danger Bouanga was able to create, and despite a heavy tilt in possession towards LAFC that possession seldom seemed to end in any real threat. The biggest chance for either side in the first half fell, once again, to Kei Kamara on a volley following a set piece. This time instead of a goal his smashed shot met the head of Jackson Ragen, who headed the ball clear from the goal line to preserve the 0-0 scoreline in the 40th minute.

The game was particularly chippy, as referee Ricardo Fierro seemed to simultaneously be letting a lot of extras go unpunished while also calling some pretty tight fouls. Paul Rothrock and LAFC’s right wingback Sergi Palencia, in particular, seemed to be having a little war of their own that drew Fierro’s attention but he did very little to actually quell the growing frustrations.

The peculiarity of the refereeing took center stage late in the game when, in the 80th minute, a handball in the Sounders penalty area was called. On review it seemed to possibly have struck the very clearly tucked in elbow of Pedro de la Vega before hitting the similarly tucked arm of Alex Roldan, and both players were shown yellow cards and LAFC were awarded a penalty. Bouanga stepped up to the spot and smashed his penalty to his right. Andrew Thomas dove the right way, but couldn’t get to the side fast enough to keep out the winning goal.

It looked like the Sounders may have found a lifeline at the start of stoppage time as Cristian Roldan hit a gorgeous ball in towards the 6-yard box for Jordan Morris to head home, finally beating Hugo Lloris. However the AR’s flag went up immediately for offside, as Morris seemed to be about a half-step off, and the goal was never to be.

The Sounders end their Open Cup run with a fourth loss across all competitions for the season against LAFC, going three straight games without a goal and being outscored 9-1. They now have to turn their attentions to the Portland Timbers as they travel to Providence Park to face their closest rivals on Saturday.

Key moments

8 - A first threatening foray into LAFC’s end for Seattle as Cristian Roldan fights through contact to keep the play alive and Jordan Morris gets on it and attempts to play the ball across for Paul Rothrock, but it’s behind him.

13 - LAFC work the way into the final third and play the ball wide to the right with a switch to Sergi Palencia who heads it back to Cristian Olivera at the top of the box but his volley goes comfortably wide.

20 - Some really nice play as Nouhou carries forward to set up some clever passing from Cristian Roldan and Rothrock, who finds Morris in the box but Morris can’t get his shot on frame.

29 - Extended possession for the Sounders leads to the Roldans combining down the right and Cristian attempting to send a low cross into the box but Hugo Lloris smothers it.

32 - A series of penalty shouts of varying intensity as Seattle work the ball to the edge of the LA box, but nothing comes of it all.

40 - Jackson Ragen makes a HUGE save as the ball bounces around following a free kick and Kei Kamara comes in with a huge volley, but Ragen gets his head on the ball on the goal line to prevent a goal.

55 - Alex Roldan swings the ball out to the left on a free kick and the Sounders work the ball back to Cristian Roldan centrally outside the area and he has a shot but it’s easily caught by Lloris.

63 - Big save from Andrew Thomas on a free kick, as he dives across to get his fingertips to the ball and put it out for a corner and away from Maxime Chanot at the back post.

80 - LAFC are awarded a penalty for a completely erroneous handball on Pedro de la Vega. It’s apparently reviewed, but the call stands.

83 - Goal, LAFC. Thomas dives the right way, but he can’t get to Denis Bouanga’s penalty. 1-0 LAFC

90+2 - Morris appears to have tied the game on a header from a great Cristian Roldan cross, but he’s judged to have been offside.

Quick thoughts

Fine margins: I grow tired of writing about losses to the likes of LAFC, just as I’m sure you have grown tired of reading about them. The team has consistently held to the idea that the Sounders can hang with the top teams in the league – the LAs FC and Galaxy in the West – and part of what’s so frustrating about a game like this one is that it’s true. They can hang with them, but the margins between a win and a loss are so fine that the Sounders absolutely have to play a perfect game to come out on top. They did something close to that, but they still didn’t put the ball in the back of the net, which allowed the game to be decided by a questionable refereeing decision. You can’t do anything about the referee, but you have to be able to do something about scoring goals against the top teams or the run against LAFC isn’t going to change.

The Roldan right side: It would have been something special if Morris’s goal had stood, as the play came from such a good cross from Cristian, and it would have felt right for there to be some reward on an otherwise strong but thankless night from the right side of Alex and Cristian Roldan. The two were primarily responsible with keeping Bouanga pretty quite as he went 1/4 on dribbles, had only two touches in the penalty area, and of his four shots only one other than his penalty was not blocked. The brothers combined well going forward, leading to a heavy rightward lean to Seattle’s attack, but it just wasn’t enough to drive the team on to the next round. It does bode well for the rest of the stretch run that they’re both playing much closer to their best than they have at times over the last couple seasons.

8 more games: The Sounders have eight games remaining before the playoffs begin. In that time they have two games against teams currently above them in the standings, with a road game against the Columbus Crew on Sept. 7, and a trip to take on the Colorado Rapids on Oct. 5. They need to use those games to further hone their approach as they’ve clearly landed on their starting XI. There’s not magic switch that’s going to be flipped once knockout games start, and while they can certainly find ways to better integrate de la Vega to get the most out of him, they need to figure out how to consistently be the team that beat Pumas 4-0 if they want to have a shot at the last trophy on offer this year.

Notable quote

Player spotlight

Andrew Thomas – Andrew Thomas, in the end, didn’t have all that much to do. He made one spectacular play to deny a dangerous shot, came close on the penalty, and was solid in distribution.