Full disclosure: I did not watch the Seattle Sounders’ match live. This is an extreme rarity for me, but something I might do once or twice a year.
For the most part, I only do this when I’m on vacation and I don’t intend to write about the game. In this case, I’m taking it as an opportunity to write a little differently about the team.
Since I already knew the result, I watched the game for the first time with a different eye. Here are some of the my observations:
A bunkered defense
Knowing that the Sounders were shut out and didn’t even pepper the opposing goalkeepers with shots, I was prepared for a pretty sluggish match. It was. There were not a lot of dynamic movements by either team, but I still don’t think I was entirely prepared for how little the Dynamo were interesting in attacking.
I’m honestly a little surprised that the Dynamo had six shots or managed as much as .3 xG. Those are low numbers, to be clear, but they somehow overstate the danger the Dynamo posed. There were probably two instances where they genuinely attempted a counter and forced the Sounders to defend some, but otherwise they clearly came in with the attitude of defending first.
That’s not a bad approach, mind you. Houston started the game a bit short-handed and then lost their goalkeeper and a centerback to injury. Given Ben Olsen credit for understanding the assignment.
Attacking ideas
I was also admittedly prepared to see a Sounders offense that was more out of ideas than I think it actually was. There was at least one promising stretch from about the 35th minute until the 60th minute where the Sounders were really pressing for a goal. At one point, it seemed like they even had one, but Paul Rothrock was correctly determined to be offside (which is at least the fourth goal they’ve scored this year that was waved off for one reason or another).
The Sounders were getting guys in the box and generating some decent looks, but just lacked that final touch. There were two particularly good looks that I’m sure the Sounders would like back.
The first came in the 38th minute, when Albert Rusnák sort of backheeled a ball to João Paulo at the top of the box for an open shot, only for it to be sent over the bar. A few minutes later, Rusnák sent an amazing cross through the box that hit the charging Alex Roldan in stride, only for Jimmy Mauer to make a quality save to keep it scoreless.
But after Rothrock’s goal got waved off, the Sounders couldn’t really muster much more and effectively defaulted to giving it to Georgi Minoungou on the right wing and hoping he’d do something special.
Figuring out Ferreira
One player who was particularly absent was Jesús Ferreira, who did not register a single shot in 90 minutes. Again, I’m not sure Ferreira was bad — he had several moments of creativity and quality — but for one reason or another the Sounders are simply not finding him in dangerous spots.
Ferreira is clearly a different type of No. 9 than Jordan Morris and the Sounders hopefully are not asking him to play that way. But they are not getting him the ball anywhere in the middle of the park. This is his heat map:
Ferreira is a talented player, but the Sounders must figure out how best to use him. That’s a short-term problem for sure, but even after Jordan Morris and Pedro de la Vega return, getting the most out of a player like Ferreira needs to be a priority.
Another frustrating result
Dating to the start of last year, the Sounders have now scored one of fewer goals in 11 of 21 league matches at home. That includes being shut out six times. As you might expect, that’s reflected in the fact that they’ve only won nine of those games.
The flip side is that they’ve only allowed 18 goals and lost two of those matches, so it’s not like they’ve been bad. No team in MLS has lost fewer home games in that span and only Charlotte FC have allowed fewer goals. But we need to recognize that this is not ideal.
I don’t know if you can draw a straight line from “lack of goals” to “declining attendance”, but I don’t think it’s a hard connection to make. I’ll always argue that fans primarily want a winner and the idea that “I’d rather watch my team lose a blowout than them play a scoreless tie” is mostly BS, but the Sounders are really testing that theory.
Huge road trip
As frustrating as the Sounders have been at home, they’ve been pretty effective on the road. They had the seventh most road points and allowed the second fewest road goals last year.
They’ll need to reclaim some of that form to keep this year from veering further toward deja vu vibes. The good news is that while their next three matches are on the road, they are all against teams who appear vulnerable.
They’ll start against the San Jose Earthquakes, a team that has now lost three straight since starting 2-0-0. Their most recent match was a 4-1 loss to Charlotte FC in which they got carved up pretty decisively.
After that, the Sounders have a match at expansion side San Diego FC, who are coming off their first loss of the season, followed by a trip to FC Dallas, whose performances have been all over the map.
The Sounders should feel like there are some results for the taking if they can just get a little more clinical with their chances.
