SEATTLE — One of the more frustrating storylines from last season was the Seattle Sounders’ inability to hold late one-goal leads at home. They led by exactly one goal in the 85th minute of home games five times last year and in four of them they failed to secure all three points.
Tempting as it was to chalk that up to a larger struggle to hold leads, the reality was a bit more complicated. The Sounders also had one-goal leads at the 85th minute in five road games. They won all of those.
A deeper investigation into those blown leads at home told a broader story about their offensive struggles. In all four of those games where they surrendered leads, the Sounders also struggled to create much offense. In those matches, they only scored one second-half goal, never produced more than 1.2 xG and only scored two goals in one, against the San Jose Earthquakes when they also had to overcome a 1-0 deficit.
If there was a slight sense of concern when the clock started to tick down in Saturday’s match against Charlotte FC, those struggles are probably why.
And sure enough, the Sounders did it again. In the 2nd minute of stoppage time, Jackson Ragen badly misplayed a couple seemingly straightforward chances to clear any danger and allowed Charlotte to get out on a counter-attack. Even though the Sounders were able to get numbers back, Yeimar Gomez Andrade got his feet a little wrong on Idan Toklomati’s cross and inadvertently poked it into the net.
On a night when the Sounders did a lot right, created plenty of chances, scored a couple of nice goals and generally dominated most of the match, there was an overwhelming — and understandable — sense of frustration.
“It’s a loss,” Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer said. “We had a chance to close out the game. It’s sloppy play. It’s sloppy play by two of the top centerbacks in the league.
“Individual mistakes happen. They’ve won us a lot of games, but they could have done better in that moment.”
Perhaps the most frustrating part of the sequence was that both Ragen and Yeimar had ample opportunity to snuff out the trouble. Ragen’s initial header, for instance, was hit back to the center of the field despite Jonathan Bell being available on the near sideline. But even after the header was deflected, Ragen was only under nominal pressure when he badly mishit his pass when he could have easily just opted to boot the ball out of bounds.
Even then, both Yeimar and Alex Roldan were able to get themselves in position to defend the cross. If Yeimar doesn’t get a touch, Roldan had put himself in position to clear the danger. Instead, Yeimar stretches just enough to put the ball through Stefan Frei’s legs.
But one play shouldn’t entirely undo what should mostly be considered a positive performance.
Ever since they were shut out in the Western Conference final last year, the Sounders stressed a need to improve their attack. For the most part, this game was a continuation of what they showed during preseason and in their 3-1 win in Concacaf Champions Cup a few days earlier. The movements were fluid, the passing was crisp and the Sounders finished their share of chances.
The Sounders did this against a defense that was second best in MLS last season and seems poised to be similarly stout this year.
“In the past, we were very stuck against teams that were defensively strong and were bunkering, and today I didn’t feel that,” Sounders goalkeeper Stefan Frei said. “I felt like we were comfortable. We were trying different things.”
Up until the equalizer, the Sounders had been pretty much cruising. They were out-shooting Charlotte 18-7, hadn’t even given up a shot since the 64th minute, were holding 58% of the possession and looked far more likely to add an insurance goal than to give one up.
Jordan Morris, in particular, was having himself quite a day. The newly minted Designated Player wasted little time showing that he deserved his new contract status, expertly putting away a wonderful cross from a tight angle that was delivered by Georgi Minoungou.
Although Charlotte were able to equalize, Morris put the Sounders back ahead early in the second half. On that one, he timed his run perfectly as Albert Rusnák delivered a perfect throughball. Morris was calm enough to pick his head up and then blasted his shot from the top of the penalty area with his first touch.
Reigning MLS Goalkeeper of the Year Kristijan Kahlina got his hand to it, but not enough to keep the ball out of the goal.
Morris struck a bit of a pose with his arms stretched wide. Obed Vargas jumped on his back and Minoungou soon followed. It seemed to both showcase a newfound level of confidence and Morris’ place in the team.
The late goal may have taken some of the shine off, but to write this off as just a continuation of last year’s frustrations would be a mistake.
“I thought we were in a rhythm,” Morris said. “You see the quality we have on the team this year and the different ways we could break teams down. It’s going to be a really fun year and I think you saw that on display in the first two games.”
