Osvaldo Alonso celebrates a great comeback
Photo: Matt Warso
Seachange! It’s Sounders not Galaxy who have the ‘Mentality of Champions’
By Matt Pentz
For a coach whose team had dramatically rallied out of a three-goal deficit, Seattle’s Brian Schmetzer was in a grouchy mood following Saturday’s match against the New England Revolution.
Yes, late goals from Nicolas Lodeiro, Will Bruin and Osvaldo Alonso combined to rescue a home point. But that bad habit of falling into early holes has become something of a theme of this young season.
“At home, we (must) do a better job than going down by three goals,” Schmetzer said. “That’s the sting, that’s the hurt. That’s the only comment I would make – the fight and the determination that group of players is the mentality of champions. That’s what I would say. That’s the only positive.”
Those slow starts help explain why the Sounders are south of the playoff cutoff line eight matches into the season. Well, those plus the series of injuries along the defensive line that again necessitated a makeshift back four against the Revs.
That fighting spirit that Schmetzer eluded to, however — what he defined as the “mentality of champions” (a phrase sure to be used on a tifo in the future)– is a major reason why nobody should be reaching for the panic button around the Puget Sound. That is what will keep this team afloat while injuries heal up and attacking chemistry figures itself out.
Contrast Seattle’s performance on Saturday night with, say, the team it faced the previous weekend in Southern California. Los Angeles never looked likely to pull one goal back against the Sounders, let alone the three it would have required to completely save face. Galaxy chins dropped after Clint Dempsey put Seattle in front, and they never picked back up.
Coach Schmetzer talked of ‘the Mentality of Champions’ after Sounders fightback
Photo: Matt Warso
That’s a disheartening sign for a club that is still looked to as Major League Soccer’s gold standard. Questionable balance and a lengthy injury list are issues that tend to work out with time and patience. A negative mindset, though … well, this Galaxy team could be facing an early offseason for the first time since 2007.
Having sat through both matches in their entirety, it was jarring how differently the Sounders reacted to going behind from how L.A. did the previous weekend.
Even after the Revs hit them with a sucker punch on the counter early in the second half, Seattle still relentlessly poured numbers forward. Don’t get me wrong, to have given up three goals at home to an Eastern Conference also-ran hints at some underlying issues. The collective response, though, really was something.
From the moment Lodeiro’s shot took a fortuitous bounce off a New England defender on its way into the net, a significant chunk of the 40,000-plus inside CenturyLink could feel the additional two goals coming.
Brian is Big on Bruin
Bruin is the personification of the mentality Schmetzer praised up in the intro, even if he’s one of the handful of players on the roster who isn’t technically yet a champion. Having been traded from Houston just before Christmas, the 27-year-old has already shown a penchant for popping up in big moments.
Bruin scored in the 94th minute in Montreal to tie the Impact 2-2. His 89th-minute goal in Vancouver almost inspired a similar rally, only for the Whitecaps to clear what would have been the game-tying goal off the line in the final seconds. And he bagged his third goal of the year in just his second Sounders start with five minutes remaining on Saturday night, cutting New England’s advantage to 3-2.
“His instincts inside the 18-yard box are tremendous,” Schmetzer said of Bruin. “They’re tremendous. He’ll watch the flight of the ball, and if he can’t get on it, if it’s going over his head or somebody else is challenging him, he’ll put himself in a position where he thinks the ball might drop. His instincts are what make him such a good goalscorer.”
A high-energy motor that never stops running doesn’t hurt, either. Though physical presence at 6-foot-2, Bruin is not the most imposing forward in the league, nor is he the fastest. But he keeps at it, knocking on the door until it finally opens.
His goal on Saturday night was simple, a clean header of a well-placed Joevin Jones cross, but it was the product of a smart run and good timing.
“That goal is probably the epitome of a lot of the goals in my career,” Bruin said. “I think I made that run probably 30 times tonight, but all it takes is one. We knew once we got one, we were going to get a minimum two, three.”
The third came three minutes later, when Alonso turned in a flicked-on Lodeiro cross. For a time there, it even felt like Seattle might go on and grab a fourth.
That mindset, that self-belief that Bruin was talking about, is why Seattle’s current position in the standings shouldn’t be of much concern. In a vacuum, sure, a tie with New England inside CenturyLink is a poor result. In the long run, though, the spirit of the comeback hints at better times ahead.
