It looks like we will have 'dues to pay' after all as an expansion club's supporters, Sounders fans. No longer are the boys in green a winning, scoring machine. Now they are a sputtering mess that looks like they are circling the sink and about to head directly down the 2009 season drain.
The latest water down the spout was today's 0:0 draw at Qwest Field with Toronto FC. The Sounders were coached all week to understand the importance of the match, and yet they were dead on arrival, playing what is likely their worst first half all season. TFC should have been up at least 2:0, and certainly it could have been 3 or 4. The Sounders maintained almost no possession, had almost no attack, and were under constant Toronto pressure. They looked like an expansion club who had no business even muttering the word "playoffs" under their breath.
The second half was only slightly better, and included fireworks from Freddie Ljungberg in the form of a few close shots on goal, and an absolutely inexcusable jaunt cross pitch to argue with officials. In that mistaken attempt to support what he felt was a wronged mate, Ljungberg needlessly picked up his fifth yellow card and will thus miss the September 12 away league match at DC United.
The Sounders are a mess right now, and Sigi Schmid seems out of ideas of how to clean things up. Especially at Qwest Field the club scoring touch is completely gone. The last Sounders goal at Qwest came in the second half of a July 11th match. The next Seattle home match is September 19th against Chivas USA. This guarantees at least a whopping 69 DAYS between goals at Qwest, and that is IF Seattle can score that night. It goes like this: 2:0 loss to Chelsea, 0:0 draw with Chicago, 4:0 loss to Barelona, 1:0 loss to New England, 0:0 draw with Toronto.
Schmid took out Montero and added Vagenas and then Le Toux as he shifted Ljungberg up front in a three forward system. It only provided marginal help and Le Toux's weak finishing skills again killed a couple of tries.
I can't single even one player out on the SSFC roster for praise. Maybe Leo Gonzalez in a stretch. No shows included Fredy Montero and Steve Zakuani. Absolutely nothing from them.
A season of great promise is on the brink of being reduced to a one-off....next week's US Open Cup Final in DC. That might be all we have left to earn, unless Schmid can plug the drain, and quick.
Match Reports:
Prost Amerika, Seattle Times, The News Tribune
Post-match Quotes
Sigi Schmid – Head Coach
General Comments… “I thought they dominated the first half. We were lucky to be 0-0 at half. I felt the second half was better. We had two changes to steal the game at the end, which would have been nice. Obviously, I’m not pleased and we could have played better. Some guys had to roll up their sleeves more than we expected. We got banged up a little bit. This was not one of our Top 10 of performances.”
On substitutions… “I felt we needed to get a little more energy, more play in there. I didn’t think our balance was good at the time.”
On must-win game… “It’ll be a must-win when we need points to make the playoffs. We want to win games at home, so I’m disappointed that we didn’t win. I’m happy that we got a point because I think we could have walked away from this game with nothing.”
On developing team identity… “We’re an expansion team, so there are still growing pains. We’re still finding our identity when crisis hits. Today we didn’t get off to a good start so it becomes who steps up and grabs the reins of the team of horses and says ‘this is the way we are going to go.’ There wasn’t anything tin the first half that I was impressed with, with the exception of a few saves by Keller. It’s important that we sort it out. When you have one foot in a hole and one on a banana peel who’s the one who’s going to bring the rope?”
On fight… “There had already been a couple occurrences where it appeared they pushed our guys into the boards. That wasn’t dealt with, so it was probably a push from us and De Rosario reacted. The rest was what you saw on the field. Freddie Ljungberg getting his fifth yellow card is bad because he misses the next game.”
On lack of scoring… “You need chances and we didn’t really have any chances. You get those opportunities and get pushed to the head of the class when you make those opportunities… It’s about scoring goals. Doing things in training to try to stimulate it, but its part psychiological, party tactical, and part physical.”
On lineup… “You try to put the team that you think is the best on the field. We tried to let it be a little more free flowing and it didn’t work, so we’ll go back and try something different. It’s a matter if finding the right combination.”
On Open Cup Championship… “This is a must-win. If you win you’re the Open Cup Champions and if you don’t, you’re not. I have an idea of how I want to play and it’s a matter of putting what player in what spots.”
On lineup affected by Open Cup… “No lineup decisions today were made with eye on the Open Cup game. We went with what we thought was best today and will go with best in that game.”
On RFK Stadium… “RFK was a good surface last year. This year, with no more baseball, I image it’s good. It’s good size and good ambiance because with the roof on the noise stays in.”
On what winning Open Cup would mean… “It’s a special feeling. For this franchise, in its first year to get to a final is already a great accomplishment, but we don’t want to be satisfied with that. We want to come back with the Cup. To be the first expansion team since Chicago to win hardware in its first year is definitely a goal we have.”
Kasey Keller – Sounders FC Goalkeeper
On today’s match . . . “If we look at some of the positives, we could have very comfortably been down by two or three at halftime. In the second half, we definitely changed some things and looked more dangerous and somehow got a point out of it. There are some positives that come out of this game. But, we want to obviously be an attacking team that makes things exciting for our home fans. That just hasn’t happened the last few games. I heard part of the press conference when Sigi [Schmid] said it’s something we need to truly find what’s going to work and if it is going to hurt some people’s feelings, it’s tough. Everybody is thinking at this time of the year that you got to get your form right to go into playoffs. Right now, we are not even a playoff team. We don’t have that form to even make the playoffs. It’s something we need to change quickly. But, now it’s a great opportunity to win a [U.S Open] Cup game and get into a very cool competition for next season for our fans.”
On U.S. Open Cup game . . . “I know there has been a lot of interesting talk in the press from what’s gone on with Adrian [Hanauer]to what’s gone on with their ownership group. I just hope that it is a great atmosphere and there is a good crowd there and we perform the way we are capable of performing. We will see what happens from there. I’ve been fortunate to be in some tough finals and nothing beats it. So, hopefully we could perform on the day and get back to the form of what we expect from ourselves.”
Freddie Ljungberg – Sounders FC Midfielder
On today’s match . . . “They tried to do well defensively. We could be a bit more composed. I think we got a bit scared that they were hunting us down. If we keep the ball a bit better, I think we will be fine.”
On Sounders FC season . . . “I think up there in Toronto and in Houston are the two best games we have played. Today was not one of our best games. That’s for sure. When we were in Houston, which I think is probably the league’s best team, we played really well. If you look at that weekend, we played much better. Today was bad. Like I said before, a lot of the players are not used to, it’s a new franchise, maybe not used to the pressure that comes from the playoffs.”
On Ljungberg’s mentality . . . “We played so well in Houston. I was looking forward to today. I am a little bit frustrated. We created some chances in the end that we could’ve won the game. So, that is frustrating. The only thing I could put my finger on is that we looked nervous. We didn’t play, we didn’t pass the ball very well.”
TORONTO FC
Chris Cummins- Head Coach
On being happy leaving Seattle with one point… “I thought in the first half was the best 45 minutes we have played. We had a lot of chances in the first half, we’re just unlucky, we hit the bar and a couple of balls just go wide. I thought we had legs today, we had energy and the tactics we set out there was good. We knew that they would come after us in the second half and I thought we limited them as much as we could. The young keeper Stefan [Frei] made an excellent save in the 93rd minute. I’m a little disappointed because we could have come away with a loss in the 93rd minute, but you seen the lads hold on. We showed a lot of good qualities today, if we play a little bit better upfront then we come away with a win. Seattle is a decent team and this is a good point for us. We will take the point and then move on.”
On the defense communicating and coming up with key stops down the stretch… “My talk to the team was using our experience and knowledge to stop come up with stops. We have some young players on our team so it was key for the veterans to play well today. They don’t get fazed by playing in front of 30 thousand people; they kept their focus and played well. We worked all week on our defensive moment. Seattle has great offense players with Fredy Montero, Nate Jaqua, and of course Freddie [Ljungberg]. The first 45 minutes we caused them so many problems, we just have to tighten there at the end.”
On the scuffle between the teams in the 68th minute… “Emotions run high during these games. We only have seven games left and it will probably get worse as the season wears on. I thought the referee handled the game very and he gave the cards at the right time. You are going to have these situations because the lads want to do well and have the desire to win. We even get aggressive and hungry to do well sitting on the bench and sometimes get caught up in it. I don’t think it affected us and I was proud of our team.”
Comments
Ljungberg thinks Toronto and Houston were the best games? Two that FM was out? What's the matter, little man stealing your thunder? Why don't you try passing him the ball when he's open? And oh yeah, you're a team leader. Why don't you start acting like one and plug the drain on the hysterical meltdowns.
FL,how many of the matches have you played this season, about half of them?
FL has been this team's engine throughout the season. Fighting every ball, giving his all out there. Don't be obnoxious, everybody's to blame for the latest streak with no goals. FM was open? Seriously? You must have been watching some other game. Why do you think he was subbed out? And FL sent up to fill his place?
FL has been this team's engine throughout the season. Fighting every ball, giving his all out there. Don't be obnoxious, everybody's to blame for the latest streak with no goals. FM was open? Seriously? You must have been watching some other game. Why do you think he was subbed out? And FL sent up to fill his place?
uuhh, cause Sigi wants to win on Wednesday?
well, you can color this "latte" gone. FL is a candya** and a prima donna.
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